OKC Thunder didn't 'leave anything on the table' in Game 7 smackdown of Denver Nuggets
One by one, the group of players that saved the Thunder’s season resigned to the bench, and Mark Daigneault’s shoulder collided with their battle-worn chests.
“Bad mother —,” he mouthed, pointing at the bony chest of Chet Holmgren.
“Bad mother —,” he mouthed, Cason Wallace’s tricep leaving a bruise through Daigneault’s quarter zip.
Daigneault didn’t need to say much else. If he wanted to use even fewer words, they were there for him: Nasty. Gritty. Thievish. Excessive. Relentless. Daigneault was feeling edgy. The words consumed him, proud that the Thunder chose Game 7 and a 125-93 demolition of the Denver Nuggets to lean furthest into its identity.
For all the misconstruing that happens in these playoffs, the amount of faces teams end up wearing, this was the Thunder he recognized.
“We’re not perfect, but they’re just so easy to bet on,” Daigneault said after OKC punched its ticket to the Western Conference finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves. “They’re great competitors, They do things the right way, they’re professional, they’re inside the team. Everybody sacrifices for the team.
“Not everybody always gets what they deserve, but this team deserves these types of opportunities.”
Only three members of the squad had played in a Game 7. There were admittedly nerves involved. Jalen Williams hardly slept. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went on “do not disturb.”
“I was nervous, to be honest,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Just knowing what’s on the line. We’ve worked so hard the whole 82-game season, we’ve all worked so hard in the summer. To know that, if you don’t bring your A-game, it could all be over with, and all for nothing. I think that nervousness motivated me and helped me play today. Helped me give my all on both ends of the floor.”
It showed in OKC’s tip-toe to settle into Sunday’s game. Nikola Jokic, still the mightiest foe the Thunder has faced, collected free throws like trading cards in the first quarter. The Thunder jumped with prematurity and angst.
But this deep into a playoff series, the tricks are meant to be out of the bag. No hands left to play. No adjustments worth raving over. Daigneault begged to differ.
After playing Gilgeous-Alexander the length of the first quarter, he left him in to start the second. SGA wound up part of a stringent eight-man rotation. A rotation Jaylin Williams wasn’t part of after hardening his husk to handle Jokic for half the series.
Jokic’s primary defender for half the amount of time that Sunday’s game remained competitive was … Alex Caruso. All 6 feet and 5 inches. The second quarter saw him and the Thunder open Pandora’s box.
OKC forced eight turnovers then, holding Denver to 6-of-20 shooting in the period. At one point, the Nuggets’ biggest challenge was to toss the ball to wing. An entry pass into the post was worth bonus points. All proved to be on Hall-of-Fame difficulty.
Caruso swam like a gold medalist inside Jokic’s reach. He bent down on both knees, fronting the post, occasionally adjusting his headband mid-harrassment. Jokic, a nuclear threat once the ball reaches his fingertips, was often forced to be looked off.
Jokic’s 20-point, 11-free-throw-attempt Sunday afternoon featured a 20.2% usage rate. That mark ranks 93rd out of his 94 career playoff games, with the lowest being his postseason debut. He had a career-low nine field goal attempts in both games.
If you saw the waxy shine atop Caruso’s bald head, chances were you were already frozen and surrendered the ball, OKC’s own Medusa.
“We’re just tryna be ruthless,” Caruso said. “Part of that, in Game 7, is Mark did a good job of telling us ‘you don’t have to do anything special. You just have to be who you are.’ We won 60-something games for a reason. We’re in the second round, in Game 7, for a reason.”
Nearly a half into Sunday’s game, the Thunder was no longer prodding or tip-toeing. It was preying. A voracious team trying to see whether to pick at bone or skin. Trying to understand how to disfigure Jokic’s worn-down Nuggets.
The running helped. The pick-sixes, the 2000 Baltimore Ravens impressions. Jalen Williams was sprinting the other way often, exploding at the rim in a 17-point quarter on 8-of-11 shooting.
Another look at this AMAZING DUNK by Cason ⤵️ https://t.co/tHMSc1lM8ppic.twitter.com/BJoUV4xe1d
— NBA (@NBA) May 18, 2025
The Thunder’s most efficient lineup — SGA-Jalen Williams-Caruso-Wallace-Holmgren — shared the floor for 7 minutes, 51 seconds. They outscored the Nuggets 31-7, composing a 172.2 offensive rating and a 41.2 defensive rating.
Caruso was a plus-40. Wallace was a plus-38.
After outscoring the Thunder by five in the first quarter, the Nuggets were outscored by 30 points in the ensuing quarters. OKC bottled up its best stuff, sparking the late-half lead it held until Nuggets reserve Hunter Tyson signaled the end of their season. Gilgeous-Alexander, as steady as he’d been all series, scored 35 points on just 19 shots (with zero turnovers) to keep the Thunder afloat.
These Nuggets — “a bunch of zombies” Daigneault called them — were valiant in their effort. After changes in leadership. After consecutive seven-game pushes. But the 68-win Thunder was left with a choice once the series grinded down to the bone.
Be yourself or go home. A decision that looked easier done than said.
“I would hate to play a Game 7 like this, an elimination game, and leave anything on the table,” Daigneault said. “You can live with the result when you are who you are. That’s what we did today.”
Joel Lorenzi covers the Thunder and NBA for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joel? He can be reached at [email protected] or on X/Twitter at @joelxlorenzi. Support Joel’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
Western Conference finals: Thunder vs. Timberwolves
- Game 1: Minnesota at OKC | 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN)
- Game 2: Minnesota at OKC | 7:30 p.m. Thursday (ESPN)
- Game 3: OKC at Minnesota | 7:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC)
- Game 4: OKC at Minnesota | 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 26 (ESPN)
- Game 5 (If necessary): Minnesota at OKC | 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 28 (ESPN)
- Game 6 (If necessary): OKC at Minnesota | 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 30 (ESPN)
- Game 7 (If necessary): Minnesota at OKC | 7 p.m. Sunday, June 1 (ESPN)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Western Conference finals are set as OKC Thunder roars past Nuggets
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