In a sloppy affair that left rims at Ball Arena bruised and battered, the Thunder outlasted Denver 92-87 in Game 4 on Sunday afternoon to even the Western Conference semifinals at 2-2. Here are three key takeaways:
A first half to forget: The men from Dove Valley came up north Sunday for Game 4 with Broncos rookie minicamp wrapping up Saturday. Sean Payton sat courtside, in a checkered flannel. George Paton sat next to him in a Broncos polo. Two of the city’s most prominent sports decision-makers, trying to tug their Broncos to the same heights these Nuggets have reached in recent years, were treated to some of the most putrid basketball anyone inside Ball Arena could’ve possibly imagined.
Payton played basketball, growing up in Illinois. He might’ve had a better shot at hitting a corner 3 than anyone in Thunder white or Nugget blue in the first half. Russell Westbrook hit only air. Peyton Watson hit only air. Nikola Jokic hit only air. And by the end of the first quarter, Denver had more airballs than field goals (two).
Both teams shot 3 of 22 from deep in the first half. After the Nuggets finally found some third-quarter juice in half-court sets, though, they fell cold again in an 18-point fourth quarter, as the Thunder finally broke down Denver’s zone on a couple of key late drives from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams.
Late-start culprit: At the start of his pregame presser Sunday, Nuggets interim head coach David Adelman pivoted mid-response while discussing attempts to slow OKC’s Gilgeous-Alexander.
“We’ll throw different looks at him today,” Adelman said. And then he added, “This game time is crazy.”
It was the most obvious omen of this slopfest, Denver and Oklahoma City blessed with a 1:30 matinee slot. That might’ve been an enjoyable post-brunch jaunt, if not for the fact they played the late slot Friday night — an 8 p.m. tip that was really more like 8:30. By the time the locker room trickled out and postgame pressers finished up early Saturday morning, Thunder and Nuggets players had roughly 36 hours of rest, a harsh development for a series where physicality has been a key theme.
The Nuggets missed 33 3s. The Thunder missed 31. The second half developed into a flailing, foul-grifting mess. Not a great look for the NBA.
Nuggets shrug off Lu Dort, but Thunder counter: The Lu Dort-Jamal Murray matchup was one of the more fascinating points entering the series. Dort is a Defensive Player of the Year candidate and a brutally physical matchup.
But for two series, Adelman and Denver have been masterful at neutralizing their opponent’s Murray stopper — by giving them total freedom on the other end.
They played Kris Dunn off the floor for long stretches in a seven-game sweep of the Clippers. And they played Dort off the floor in Game 4, the Thunder wing a 41% regular-season shooter from 3, but unable and unwilling to stop calling his own number in space. After bricking another triple to put his ledger at 2 of 10 entering the fourth quarter, though, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault yanked Dort in favor of reserves Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins.
The gambit worked. Wallace and Wiggins each gave the Thunder a second-half lift with timely triples, finishing with three apiece as OKC evened the series.
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Originally Published: May 11, 2025 at 4:28 PM MDT
