The young Thunder came up clutch again.
OKC overcame a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Denver 112-105 in Game 5 on Tuesday night at Paycom Center. OKC leads the West semifinal series 3-2 as it heads back to Denver.
Let’s get to the grades.
National anthem: A
We didn’t know we needed the national anthem played on the saxophone, but Lonnie Easter proved otherwise.
The OU lecturer in music education and jazz studies played, as you might expect, a jazzy version on Tuesday night. It wasn’t exactly how you expect “The Star Spangled Banner” to sound, but it was super cool.
To this point, the Thunder has had singers do the national anthem in the playoffs, but Easter was a great change of pace.
—Jenni Carlson
Defending Jokic: B
I know, I know, the Denver superstar scored 44 points on 17-of-25 shots. But he hit a ton of shots that were well defended.
That spinning, turnaround 3 off his back foot with less than two minutes remaining springs to mind. OKC big man Chet Holmgren made just about everything about that shot difficult — and Jokic still splashed it.
Now, all of his shots weren’t well-defended, but the Thunder bigs (Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams) did much better defending Jokic on Tuesday than they did Sunday. He had way more good looks in Game 4; he just didn’t hit them.
—Jenni Carlson
Alex Caruso: A
The Thunder newbie will see a big jump in his salary next season, from $9.8 million to $18.1, but if he walked into Sam Presti’s office and demanded an advance on that raise, the Thunder brass would be hard-pressed to say no.
Caruso has been huge in these playoffs and was again in Game 5.
Of course, he stepped up the defense every time he entered the game. But Tuesday, his offense was every bit as important. In the second quarter, when the Thunder offense was listless, he assisted on an Aaron Wiggins 3, then made a 3 of his own to cut a seven-point lead to one.
He opened the fourth quarter on the court, and while his offense wasn’t as noticeable with the exception of a couple of free throws, the defense while Caruso was on the court allowed only one basket and forced two turnovers.
—Jenni Carlson
Game flow: A+
A splendid game was made even better by the fact there were no coach’s challenges and only one very short referee-initiated review. That came on Nikola Jokic’s circus 3 in the final two minutes of the game, but the officials looked at it for about 10 seconds before determining the Nugget big man’s feet were behind the arc.
Listen, if there had been several stoppages, we’d probably still be talking about what a great game it was. But a tip of the cap to Zach Zarba, David Guthrie and Curtis Blair for keeping this one moving along.
—Jenni Carlson
Close to first half: A
The Nuggets controlled much of the second quarter. All but the last two and a half minutes. The Thunder went on a 9-0 run in that closing stretch to cut Denver’s lead to two points at halftime.
The Thunder had a similar kick at the end of the third quarter.
Amazingly, there were only two lead changes in this one. The Nuggets held a moderate lead for much of the game, but it never felt like a comfortable one. That’s how the Thunder was able to strike late.
—Joe Mussatto
Nikola Jokic: A
Nikola Jokic hadn’t been himself in the first four games of the series.
In Game 5, the Thunder survived Jokic’s best punch.
He scored a game-high 44 points on 17-of-25 shooting. He was 5 of 7 from behind the arc, including a ridiculous 3-pointer over Chet Holmgren to tie the game late in the first quarter.
The Nuggets only made five baskets in the fourth quarter. Jokic had four of them.
—Joe Mussatto
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander second half: A+
SGA had a rotten first half offensively: 4 of 11 with more turnovers (four) than assists (three).
He was aggressive and efficient to open the second half. He scored eight points in the first three minutes of the third quarter.
SGA scored 20 points in the second half on 8-of-12 shooting. And one of those makes was the dagger.
Searching for the kill shot all series, SGA finally connected. His 3-pointer with 48 seconds left gave the Thunder a six-point lead.
—Joe Mussatto
Paycom Center crowd: A
It was loud. No kidding, right?
But Tuesday night felt loud even by Paycom Center playoff standards.
The roar dissipated into a nervous murmur early in the fourth quarter, but then Lu Dort went on his 3-point binge.
My ears are still ringing.
—Joe Mussatto
Thunder vs. Nuggets playoff schedule
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