Kevin Durant was the exact player that this Rockets team needed. Still an elite scorer at his age and can get a bucket over anyone in the clutch.
#KD#Durant#Rockets
Aaron Wiggins had a team high +14 in game 4. He also had a usage % of 26.5 which was only second behind SGA. He had a very impactful 15 minutes in the Thunder win.
#NBA#Thunder#Wiggins#OKC
What matters most for game 4 is how Jokic or SGA come back from these poor shooting performances. They can't rely on some of the performances that kept their teams in this game 3 to continue. I'm expecting a big SGA game in this must win game for the Thunder.
Part of this performance was that he could not hit anything from deep, but the fact that he could not get going from deep but still wanted to take them shows how effective the Thunder interior defense was.
Just as Jokic had a poor game for his standards, so did Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. SGA shot a horrid 31% (7 of 22) from the field, and worst of all got totally shut down in OT. Braun got the majority of time on SGA and held him to just 4 of 12 shooting against him.
What matters the most for game 4 is how the Thunder guarded Jokic. Jokic finished with a statline of 20 - 6 - 16 which would be great for most but for Jokic only having 20 points and 6 assists is below par. Isaiah Hartenstein got the bulk of the minutes on him.
For as close as this game was during regulation, the Nuggets dominated OT. The Nuggets outscored the Thunder 11-2 to take a 2-1 series lead. The Nuggets shot 5 of 7 during OT while the Thunder shot only 1 of 7, and SGA was held to 0 FGA.
This game was within a couple possessions for the entirety of the second half. The Nuggets would win the 2nd half by 5 to push it to OT. Aaron Gordon hit another huge 3 at the end of regulation:
At the end of the first half, the Thunder had a 5 point lead and the Nuggets were able to stay in it in large part due to MPJ's 15 points in the first half. Playing on a messed up shoulder seemed to be nothing in game 3 as he shot 5 of 6 from the field in the 1st half.
In the first quarter, the Thunder jumped out to a modest 6 point lead. Chet Holmgren lead this quarter in scoring with 11 points and Jalen Williams also got to a hot start with 4 assists.
Without Curry, this Warriors team is going to have to rely on defense and slow offense to get better shots and limit transition. The Timberwolves would win a fast paced and high scoring game. After Randles solid game 2, I would expect Draymond to step up his defense on him.
I would expect Podziemski, Butler, and Green to split the offensive playmaking duties in game 3. Now at home, the Warriors are not going to look to test out lineups. I would expect Kerr to lean heavy on these guys for either game 3 or 4 in hopes of having a tied series when Curry is back. Tonight could be that game.