Sitting on the bench, Mark Daigneault made a gusty decision. The Oklahoma City Thunder went away from Lu Dort in a do-or-die fourth quarter to avoid a deadly 3-1 series hole. The bet paid off as they collected a 92-87 Game 4 win over the Denver Nuggets.

Dort only played 19 minutes. He finished with six points on 2-of-10 shooting from deep. Despite being a 40% outside shooter this season, the Nuggets have dared him to beat them from the outside. The gamble nearly worked as OKC’s halfcourt offense bogged down.

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In a 69-63 deficit after the third quarter, the Thunder had their season saved by their rich depth. Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins mounted a comeback and gave Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a lead they wouldn’t surrender in the final eight minutes.

Caruso usurped Dort as he played the entire fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Wallace hit the go-ahead 3-pointer and Wiggins provided much-needed buckets in the second half.

After the important 92-87 Game 4 win to tie the Round 2 series at 2-2, Daigneault said he rode with the hot hand. He kept his finger on the game’s pulse. He went away from seniority in the season’s biggest moments. Despite Dort being on the bench, he said he still has full confidence in the Thunder’s top DPOY candidate.

“I definitely trust the body of work over time more than small sample sizes. If the question is whether or not I’m confident in Lu’s 3-point shooting, I am. He’s shown the ability to not only make a lot of shots over a long period of time but he’s made big shots in big moments in playoff games,” Daigneault said. “He’s the last guy I’m worried about but we also have a deep team. I thought Cason gave us good juice tonight, Caruso was really engaged in the fourth quarter. Decided to go with those guys down the stretch. It wasn’t necessarily related to the shooting. It was more related to how the guys in the game were playing.”

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This is what the NBA playoffs are about. They put you in uncomfortable situations where you might be forced to sit out one of your longtime starters because of offensive disadvantages. Considering he’s shut down Jamal Murray for most of the series, the Thunder should return to Dort for Game 5 and hope for better results from the outside at home.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Why the OKC Thunder benched Lu Dort in 92-87 Game 4 win over Nuggets