The Thunder has been here before. A season ago.
After winning Game 4 in Dallas to even its 2024 West semifinal series, the top-seeded Thunder returned home for Game 5. It was essentially a best-of-three series with the Thunder having home court in two of the final three games. But the series never made it back to Oklahoma City. The Thunder stunk it up in Game 5, and the Mavericks closed out Game 6 in Dallas to advance to the Western Conference Finals.
Fast forward one year, almost exactly to the day. Having won Game 4 in Denver on Sunday to tie the series, the Thunder is back home Tuesday, May 13, for Game 5.
Same situation as last season, down to the very game in the very round. Can the Thunder learn from last year’s failure to get a different result this time?
It’s not something Thunder coach Mark Daigneault plans to bring up with his guys.
“It’s a new team, it’s a new opponent,” Daigneault said after practice Monday, May 12. “Our team’s a lot different than we were a year ago, mainly because of the growth of the guys that are back.
“Some of that growth comes from those experiences, those experiences were informative last year in the playoffs … we had experiences that built our confidence and made us stronger in that way, we had experiences that made us wiser … but the lessons and the things that we have to use going into Game 5 are more relevant from this year’s team and the experiences these guys have had together.”
Teams that win Game 5 of a 2-2 best-of-seven series have gone on to win the series 81.3% of the time (191-44).
The difference between this Thunder-Nuggets series and last year’s Thunder-Mavericks series is that Games 1 and 2 were flipped. The Thunder beat the Mavs in Game 1 and lost in Game 2 — the reverse happened against the Nuggets.
Games 3 and 4 of the Dallas and Denver series weren’t similar in game flow, but the results were the same. Oklahoma City won a critical Game 4 at Denver just as it did a year ago at Dallas.
Which brings us to Game 5. You might not want to be reminded of the Thunder’s 104-92 loss to Dallas in Game 5 last season, but here goes.
Luka Doncic had a triple-double: 31 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds. Dereck Lively II was a plus-22 in his 23 minutes off the bench. Dallas shot 40% from 3-point range.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander came close to matching Doncic’s line with 30 points, eight assists and six rebounds, but the Thunder — like in this Nuggets series — did some serious bricklaying, shooting 25% from 3-point range.
Thunder wing Aaron Wiggins, who was key in the Game 4 win at Denver, was dismissive, like Daigneault, of the idea that the Thunder could glean something from one Game 5 to another.
“Completely different series,” Wiggins said. “Different team. Everything about it is unique in its own way.”
That’s good for the Thunder, which would prefer history not to repeat.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
NBA Playoffs: Thunder vs. Nuggets | Western Conference semifinals
Best-of-seven; Games 5-7 if necessary.