Instant reaction from the Nuggets’ 125-93 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of their second-round NBA playoff series:
1. Refs let Alex Caruso expose Nuggets’ flaws: That OKC strategy of “Maybe if we foul the Nuggets every possession, they won’t call most of them?” Yeah, sadly, that worked. Alex Caruso was the most impactful player from either side in Game 7, and for all the wrong reasons if you’re a Nuggets fan. In hindsight, three things ultimately ended Denver’s season on Sunday. 1.) Most of the “core four” were playing with some to extreme degrees of hurt; 2.) They got no-shows from Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.; 3.) Once the refs decided that Caruso could do whatever he liked to Nikola Jokic and any other OKC defender could sag off their man to help without any fear of Nuggets reprisal, Denver was toast.
2. Gordon=pure toughness: Did you really think Mr. Nugget wouldn’t do everything humanly possible to suit up in a do-or-die Game 7? Aaron Gordon didn’t just start at Paycom Arena. With one working hamstring, he’d collected more rebounds after two and a half quarters (11 boards) than the Lakers’ Rui Hachimura had racked up (nine rebounds) across 79 minutes, combined, over Games 4 and 5 against Minnesota. After suffering a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring late in Game 6, Gordon went from “hopeful” to “doubtful” to “game-time decision” to “playing” in about 70 hours. As painful as Sunday’s narrative became, nobody in the Mile High City will ever forget how AG played through all that pain.
3. Turnover blues: How do you let the mojo from a fast start on the road in a Game 7 fritter away? By turning the ball over repeatedly. By giving a home team easy buckets that get an OKC crowd even more amped up. Denver’s 24-14 lead to open this game felt about 48 hours old by the first two minutes of the second quarter, when the Thunder used their slap-happy defense to force six Nuggets turnovers during the game’s first 14 minutes. At halftime, OKC had collected 12 points off turnovers to Denver’s none, which explained, in large part, how the hosts had also flipped the script on a sluggish start to forge a 60-46 lead at the break.
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