The Thunder made the regular season look soooo easy. Sixty-eight wins. The largest point differential in NBA history. A net rating not seen since Michael Jordan’s Bulls. The No. 1 seed by 16 games.
And now, after a 113-104 overtime loss to the Nuggets on Friday night, the Thunder is two losses from elimination. Put another way, OKC needs to win three of its next four games to advance.
Seven months of watching the Thunder run up the score might have lulled you into thinking this would be easy. And I, having picked the Thunder to beat the Nuggets in five, would be right there with you.
But come on, who were we kidding? The playoffs aren’t easy! That float trip through the regular season was nice and all … Wait a second, what did that sign back there say???
DANGEROUS: RAPIDS AHEAD.
And now we realize we’ve never seen the Thunder navigate these waters. Youth and inexperience rarely thrive in the playoffs.
The numbers told us this Thunder team could be the outlier, though. And the Thunder could still be exactly that. Maybe this is me continuing to ignore the warning signs, but I’m still picking the Thunder to climb out of this 1-2 hole and win the series. And if that happens, I’ll almost certainly be picking the Thunder to beat either the Wolves or the Warriors in the West Finals.
But gone is the air of invincibility around this team.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander suddenly looks stoppable. Jalen Williams was superb in Game 3, but his playoff performances ebb and flow — it’s almost like he’s 24 years old. Chet Holmgren had a dominant first quarter Friday, but there were three quarters and an overtime period still to play. Isaiah Hartenstein’s push shot was pure until it wasn’t. Lu Dort and Alex Caruso did their things defensively, but neither made enough shots. Mark Daigneault, so savvy with his challenges in the regular season, picked a strange time to twirl his finger in the fourth quarter.
And on the other side is Denver, two years removed from an NBA title. The Nuggets, despite all of their turmoil with a coaching change and a front office shakeup, look like they’ve been here before. The Thunder neutralized Nikola Jokic — who has three more turnovers than assists this series — but Denver (have yourself a series, Aaron Gordon) made clutch shots and OKC didn’t.
“It’s the playoffs, it happens,” Williams said. “It’s going to test your conviction …”
Game 2 was a breeze — the kind of Thunder win that played on repeat throughout the regular season. But Games 1 and 3? Those were hard, and the Nuggets won them both.
They’re the champs, after all, and the Thunder is the challenger.
Why did we ever think this was going to be easy?
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder now in troubled waters after Game 3 loss vs Denver Nuggets