Stiles Points: OKC Thunder Leans on Identity To Tie Series

It was the kind of game only a mother could love. Fittingly, it was played on Mother's Day. Inside Ball Arena, the Oklahoma City Thunder's season was on the line, down 2-1 in their second-round series against the Denver Nuggets, hoping to avoid its second straight Western Conference Semi-Final exit.

In this game, both offenses stalled like a 1997 Toyota Corolla with 250,00 miles on it trying to shoot its way down I-45. The OKC Thunder shot 35% from the floor, 24% from beyond the arc and 76.9% at the charity stripe. For as porous as that was, the Nuggets shot worse, turning in 31/24/72.

It was the Oklahoma City Thunder flipping the script of Game 1. OKC punished the Nuggets for its slow start –– eight points in the entire first frame for the Nuggets –– and out-executed Denver in the final frame with the Nuggets having five missed free throws and a five-second violation in the last 12 minutes to be outscored by 11 in that span.

This was a gutty win for the young Thunder, who many wrote off after Game 3 and wanted to bury after getting down eight to start the fourth on the verge of being down 3-1.

It was the Thunder's defense that suffocated the Nuggets all night with brute physicality, crisp rotations, creating turnovers and clogging the lane, forcing Nikola Jokic into another laboring contest.

The entire success of this Thunder team is built on the back of its defense, holding Denver to 87 points in regulation of a playoff game is special. Frustrating the Nuggets led to complaints postgame, bad looks and puzzling decisions.

OKC also got back to its bread and butter: Capitalizing on depth. As Lu Dort couldn't hit water out of a boat –– nor could anyone else on the floor –– Oklahoma City had the chance to turn to the likes of Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins and Alex Caruso to create big plays down the stretch. Meanwhile, Denver had to just shrug and hope its top six could snap out of it.

As Wallace netted all three of his triples, Wiggins and Caruso joined him in double-figures en route to the Thunder out-scoring the Nuggets players off the pine, 35-8.

Oklahoma City and Denver each head to the Paycom Center Tuesday for a pivotal Game 5 thinking there is plenty to clean up –– likely going as far to say they will never shoot that bad again, tempting the powers high above the hardwood –– but the Thunder did it's job Sunday no matter the adversity both faced.

The quick turnaround from the NBA was an uncontrollable one that allowed the Thunder to take advantage of tired legs in Denver. Which is the entire reason to acquire such depth.

It was the defense and depth that won this playoff game for Oklahoma City. Now, it sets up a best-of-3 with the Thunder owning home court advantage. As it goes in the playoffs, the most important game is the next one.

Song of the Day: Back to Life by Soul II Soul