OKC Thunder Coach Touches on Root Cause of Losses to Nuggets

With three games now past in the Round 2 series with the Denver Nuggets, the No. 1-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder find themselves in a 1-2 deficit.

They were able to snag a Game 2 with by a blistering 43 points, but saw crunch-time collapses on either side of it.

Most recently, the Thunder led the Nuggets for most of the way in Game 3, forcing MVP candidate and three-time winner Nikola Jokic into one of his worst postseason games ever. Despite that, OKC crumbled late, unable to hold onto its lead late in the fourth and in overtime.

In the postgame presser, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault touched on one of the root causes of the two losses: advantage creation.

“One thing, is it’s just really hard to manufacture advantages late in games,” Daigneault said. “Just because the nature of a possession game, especially when the pace gets slow like this. I think it was challenging for both teams, it was a grind in the last six minutes of that game for everybody.

“So it just comes down to who can execute and who can make the most plays, they executed a little better, made a couple more plays. I think that’s what it comes down to.”

In the fourth quarter of Games 1 and 3, the pace of play has slowed down immensely, leading to a half-court bout between the two teams to finish it off. Jokic and co-star Jamal Murray can create advantages at the drop of a hat with their pick-and-roll game, but OKC has been left flailing with a myriad of options, none of which have been consistent.

In the regular season, the Thunder’s own MVP candidate in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was good enough to do so by himself, using his unprecedented coordination, change-of-pace and elasticity to get into rhythm shots that he could hit with ease. In the much more physical postseason — where nearly every bucket matters — those shots haven’t been easy to come by.

And the blame doesn’t rest squarely on SGA. The rest of the Thunder are either too young and inexperienced, or too limited overall to be real crunch-time difference-makers on a play-to-play basis. Co-stars Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren have shown flashes in their still-fresh careers, but certainly not enough to contend with Jokic and Murray.

Down a game with one still to play in Denver, it’s likely time to hit the drawing board. Or the mirror.

Oklahoma City is talented enough to replicate parts of Game 2, coast to big leads and hang onto them. But it’ll be impossible to continue in the Playoffs without tight games, which to this point it hasn’t proven it can win.

The Thunder and Nuggets will play a pivotal Game 4 at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 11.