OKLAHOMA CITY — Deep into an increasingly meaningless third quarter Wednesday, Nikola Jokic and company remained on the floor and failed to put any sort of dent into a deficit that was already 31 at halftime.
The Nuggets fell behind by an additional 10 points by the time Jokic fouled out and interim coach David Adelman pulled the plug on his last remaining starter, Jamal Murray, at the 1:03 mark of the quarter.
A Game 2 fate that was already sealed hadn’t come any closer to being magically reversed. The feeling that Denver was “punked,” as Adelman described it, had only multiplied.
Still, Adelman said after a 149-106 loss to the Thunder that he had no intentions of pulling his starters as early as halftime. Even if the margin appeared insurmountable.
“When I walked in the locker room, I knew they wanted to go out and play,” Adelman explained. “It was very obvious. So, yeah. I was going to play those guys regardless. That’s a lot of proud people in that room that want to go back out there and compete.”
Even after playing most of the third quarter, Denver’s starters exited Game 2 of the second-round playoff series with fewer minutes logged than usual. Jokic finished at 32, Murray at 31. Adelman’s other three starters were below 30.
“DA’s been excellent,” Aaron Gordon attested after the loss.
The Nuggets have played every other day since Game 5 of their first-round series and will continue to do so through Game 6 against the Thunder.
“They were aggressive. They were hitting us. We wanted to have a reaction,” Jokic said of the decision to play the third quarter. “We just, we were not disciplined. Everyone was kind of doing their own thing, and we cannot win like that. Literally every single person needs to step up and be better.”
Adelman also noted that by sticking with his starters, Michael Porter Jr. was able to see the ball go through the net a couple of times after an 0-for-4 first half and 1-for-12 start to the series. Porter is trying to play through an AC joint sprain in his left shoulder and says he’ll continue to do so. He has 10 points through two games.
But Wednesday night’s loss wasn’t on any one person. It was a bloodbath in every statistical category. The Thunder outscored Denver 26-5 on fast breaks, 52-28 in the paint, and 20-12 on second chances. The rebounding margin, which the Nuggets dominated in the series opener, favored Oklahoma City by six. Denver turned it over 20 times to OKC’s nine.
Jokic was responsible for six. He had only four games this regular season in which his turnovers equaled or exceeded his assist total. It has happened in both playoff games against Oklahoma City.
The Thunder threw bodies at him. In addition to its status quo double-big lineup featuring Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, Jaylin Williams checked in earlier than usual and forced Jokic into tough shots. Lu Dort and his reinforcements clamped Jamal Murray. Meanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander flourished as a scorer and playmaker in the latest chapter of an ongoing MVP slugfest. His team won his minutes by 51 points. The Nuggets lost Jokic’s by 36.
“Basically,” he said, “it was one team playing tonight.”
“I’m not sitting here tonight talking about the 1-1 thing. Not tonight,” Adelman said. “We’re not gonna flush that. We’ve gotta be better. We know that. … That’s not what this is right now, in the present. So we’ll react the right way, like we did in Game 3 in L.A. Bring a different intensity. Look at what they did differently. React accordingly.”
And the best way to react accordingly to a dismal first half on Wednesday, Adelman and his players believed, was to play through it for a little while longer.
“I felt like we needed to find a rhythm, a physicality,” he said. “I think that (Oklahoma City) thought that we were trying to junk up the game, which we weren’t. We were just trying to play much harder than we did in the first half. Obviously, when he fouled out, (we) got them all out with about a minute left. They got to sit the whole quarter. They get to sit tomorrow. All day Friday. And get ready for Friday night. So no, I was not just gonna sit the guys at halftime. That’s not what we’re doing here.”
