following the 113-104 overtime loss<\/a>, his smile \u2014 like his resolve \u2014 only grew.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s easy to taunt when you\u2019re up,\u201d said Gilgeous-Alexander, who was 7 of 22 from the floor Friday night, including 1 of 6 from 3-point range, and finished with 18 points. \u201cI don\u2019t ever want to show them that I\u2019m defeated or mad or anything like that. Nothing\u2019s written. The series is not over, and we have a lot to be optimistic about. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t perform the way I did down the stretch, but I have an opportunity the next game and the next game after that, to make up for it. I\u2019m optimistic about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Thunder were coming off a 43-point wipeout of Denver in Game 2 where everything seemed so easy. This game was a grind, especially in overtime where they were outscored 11-2, going 1 of 7 from the floor and turning it over twice.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all part of the process for the young Thunder, who trail 2-1 in the series heading into Game 4 on Sunday at Ball Arena. <\/p>\n
\u201cLosses always sting, especially in the playoffs,\u201d said coach Mark Daigneault, whose team swept Memphis in the first round. \u201cBut what I would say is we are in the process of becoming a great team, and we\u2019ve checked a lot of boxes in that process. One thing that it takes to be a great team is you get taken to the limit in the playoffs, and you\u2019ve got a rise to the challenges that you\u2019re confronted with.\u201d<\/p>\n
The good in Game 3 for the Thunder: Holding Nikola Jokic, the reigning NBA MVP, to 8 of 25 shooting, including 0 of 10 from 3-point range. They also saw Jalen Williams erupt for 32 points and dominated the offensive boards by an 18-5 margin. They outscored Denver 56-32 in the paint.<\/p>\n
The not-so-good in Game 3: Shooting 25.7% from behind the 3-point line and an off night from Gilgeous-Alexander, the favorite to win the MVP over Jokic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks to lose, but you can\u2019t throw everything out the window when you do,\u201d Daigneault explained. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to learn from the good and the bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Thunder plan to study the film and learn from Game 3 \u2014 just like they did after losing the first game of the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everything is all sunshine and rainbows,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThere are going to be a lot of ups and downs to it. It\u2019s about how you win these days in between and I think that\u2019s what makes a really good team.\u201d <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn\u2019t sulk over his off night. He didn\u2019t hang his head, either, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,585,187,364,1622,6,446,253,586,310,475,179,3966,3965,209,66,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-25040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-co-state-wire","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-jalen-williams","12":"tag-mark-daigneault","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-basketball","15":"tag-nikola-jokic","16":"tag-ok-state-wire","17":"tag-oklahoma","18":"tag-oklahoma-city","19":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","20":"tag-oklahomacity","21":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","22":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114488731571135956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}