admin
Battling with Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s fourth foul started a butterfly effect that resulted in a Game 7 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets.
Gilgeous-Alexander did enough to secure a win with an efficient 32 points. But the rest of his teammates’ failure to show up resulted in a 119-107 Game 6 loss to the Nuggets in the Round 2 playoff series.
Gilgeous-Alexander picked up his fourth foul as he fought for positioning against Jokic. Gulp. That forced OKC to check him out for the final 89 seconds of the first half. A lot went wrong, but you can pinpoint that stretch as where they lost the game to the Nuggets.
By the time Gilgeous-Alexander returned to the floor, the Thunder had devolved an eight-point lead to just three. Game on as Denver took advantage of his absence. He tried to carry OKC to the finish line with an 18-point second half, but you can’t win one on five. Ask Jokic.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault played it safe with Gilgeous-Alexander. The decision to sit him out for the rest of the first half to avoid a deadly fifth foul came back to bite them at the end. Especially since he didn’t pick up another foul the rest of the way.
“They all ended without fouling out, so they were able to manage it in the game. I was a little bit conscious of it. Obviously at the end of the first to get Shai there with four,” Daigneault said. “But otherwise, we had the same opportunity as Denver in the second half and they outplayed us.”
The Thunder must avoid foul trouble in Game 7. It’s about winning on the margins. That’s one area they can control. A sea-sized free-throw discrepancy helped Denver fight off elimination. The Nuggets went 27-of-32 on free throws while the Thunder went just 10-of-16.
That’s a 17-point difference in a 12-point game. Can’t let that happen again with the season on the line for both teams. Even more so to avoid players like Gilgeous-Alexander being forced to come off the floor and limit his minutes.
#Shai #GilgeousAlexanders #foul #trouble #gave #Nuggets #hope #Game
