His expression was flat, the visage of expectation.
After the shot, after the win. That Shai Gilgeous-Alexander rose up so freely in the biggest game of his life — among the most weighted games in Paycom Center’s history — was not lost on him. He’d said all series that he was befitting of the moment.
It called for him to not just push the Thunder past Denver in a 112-105 win for a 3-2 series lead, but to do it with the shots that’d betrayed him for several games. With a look that gnawed at him. Challenged him. Threatened his postseason legacy.
A pull-up 3 with 47.7 precious seconds left, uncontested so as to acknowledge his relationship with the shot. SGA trotted down the court without eruption, without twisting his face. The temperament of someone who thought they’d been deserving.
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t just meet the moment. His name tag was fastened. He enunciated. He shook its hand with a vice grip that would make Adrian Peterson wince.
“It felt like,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of his late jumper, pausing to find the words, “like it’s about time.”
Fate asked Gilgeous-Alexander and his Thunder to come back from a nine-point lead — which felt more like 18 — with nine minutes left. To throw hands with an all-timer, a near-300 pound star who swung his heaviest hand of the series; Nikola Jokic made 17 of his 25 shots, missed just two of his seven 3-point attempts, and logged 44 points and 15 rebounds.
OKC endured. It left the ring with bloody knuckles.
What did their birth certificates say again?
Their finishes in Games 1 and 3 evoked conversation of whether their adolescence held them back in the spotlight. Whether, despite their youthful excellence and deep pool of talent, they could measure up to the playoff scars Denver wore.
An X-ray of Game 4 showed signs of the team that emerged in Tuesday’s fourth quarter. A squad that could close a game at all costs.
Lu Dort appeared broken then, replaced for sophomore Cason Wallace. Wallace had been more energetic, more productive, and Dort had made just 25.4% of his 3s this postseason by the end of Sunday.
But coach Mark Daigneault held faith. Despite starting Tuesday 1 for 4 from deep, Daigneault turned to Dort with over 10:10 remaining. Dort never checked out again.
Because midway through the fourth, Dort was the only Thunder player to score. He drilled 3 after 3 after 3, inciting a deafening crowd. After his third, Dort whipped around, unleashing a primal roar. His triceps flexed into a position worthy of a drug test, and his veins leaped from his neck.
Dort’s vengeance shook the building, and the bench, to its core.
“These guys are so connected,” Daigneault said. “It’s kind of like if a family member of yours is hurting or happy, there’s a contagiousness to that because of the connection you have to a family member. That’s how they are with each other. When they see a guy rise like that, they feel that.”
SGA originally sought his moment soon after. With 4:47 to play and his Thunder down two, he stepped back into the shot. A look he’d hoped to master in his 82-game free time.
When it careened off the right side of the rim, Dort revived what should’ve been a dead ball. He lunged toward it like a Vin Diesel stunt double.
“I don’t bet against Lu,” Daigneault said. “It’s that simple. There’s just a special thing about him. He’s always going to stand back up. He’s not perfect, but he’s always going to respond and he’s always going to compete.”
After torching Dort and others with 13 third-quarter points, Murray shrank in the fourth, making one of his six shots. The non-Jokic Nuggets core shot just 1 for 15 in the final quarter. Denver went scoreless for roughly six minutes.
So, with Denver’s season further threatened, Jokic asked SGA to dance. They tango’d in one of the most memorable superstar duels in recent NBA memory.
Twenty of SGA’s 31 points came in the second half on 8-of-12 shooting. Jokic scored 25 in the same half.
Gilgeous-Alexander created 15 straight points. Jokic scored 11 straight. The big man ambled into floaters. The slim one zipped down the lane, floating backward into jumpers.
With less than two minutes, Jokic widened the human imagination. From 27 feet out, he used one foot to launch a Sombor Shuffle heave over Chet Holmgren’s reach to tie the game.
“I think it was really easy for us to probably cave in a couple times,” Jalen Williams noted.
Instead, that was when Williams (18 points, nine rebounds) drilled the most monumental 3 of his career.
The Thunder put a defibrillator to a sensation. To the previously fleeting feeling that its signature late-game death run was on its way, and that nobody could escape its big toe when it truly put its foot down. The Nuggets had already slipped from its grip several times.
Gilgeous-Alexander felt responsible. His shoulders were meant to lift the Thunder above its youthful image. His thoughtfulness was meant to carry his decision making.
“He’s made this thing for us,” veteran Alex Caruso said. “We have the utmost confidence in him. He was hard on himself after a couple games in Denver, just because he felt like he should have made a couple more shots down the stretch.”
Gilgeous-Alexander: “For me, first and foremost, winning is the end all be all. That’s why I play basketball, and I know that across the locker room, so whatever it takes to get that done is what our minds are on.”
What was on SGA’s mind late Tuesday was close to what he felt in his exit from a deflating Game 3, when he met the Denver crowd with a now viral, devious grin.
When the sentiment fell from his lips, it sounded more like fate than arrogance. The series wasn’t over, he shared. His time had yet to come.
Joel Lorenzi covers the Thunder and NBA for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joel? He can be reached at jlorenzi@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @joelxlorenzi. Support Joel’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
Thunder vs. Nuggets playoff schedule
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