OKLAHOMA CITY — A home team in this season’s NBA conference semifinals finally built a big enough lead.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, two nights after blowing a double-digit lead in the series-opening loss to the Denver Nuggets, cruised to a 149-106 rout in Wednesday’s Game 2 to become the first home team to record a win in this round of the playoffs.
“We knew what was at stake tonight,” Oklahoma City superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said, well aware that the Eastern Conference’s top two seeds — the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics — had fallen into 2-0 holes in their series. “We came out desperate.”
Gilgeous-Alexander dominated from the opening tip until the end of the third quarter, when he checked out of the game for good with the Thunder up 48 points. He finished with 34 points and eight assists, shooting 11-of-13 from the floor and 11-of-11 from the line.
The Thunder outscored the Nuggets by 51 points in Gilgeous-Alexander’s 30 minutes, giving him the best plus-minus in a playoff game since that statistic started being tracked in 1997-98.
Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic, the three-time MVP who is expected to finish second to Gilgeous-Alexander in this season’s voting for the award, didn’t make it to the end of the third quarter. He fouled out with 1:17 remaining in the frame, exiting after being called for an illegal screen with the Thunder leading by 51 points.
“It wasn’t a one-man show, and he was superefficient,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Gilgeous-Alexander.
Gilgeous-Alexander set the tone with a spectacular start, accounting for more points in the first quarter (27) than the entire Denver team. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 13 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor and dished out five assists in the opening frame.
“I definitely wanted to put an imprint on the game from the get [go] without trying to force anything, and ultimately still just let the game tell me what to do,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “The game’s going to test me. Every possession down, they’re going to throw a coverage at me, and I have to make the right decision, make the right answer. I think I did a pretty good job in the first quarter.”
The Thunder seized control within the first few minutes of the game and never allowed the Nuggets to mount a comeback threat.
Oklahoma City tied the franchise playoff record for the most points scored in a quarter by jumping out to a 45-21 lead after the first quarter. It was also the best scoring margin in any playoff quarter in franchise history.
“Basically, it was one team playing tonight,” said Jokic, who finished with 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting, six assists, six turnovers and the worst plus-minus [minus-36] of his career. “They were aggressive; they were going by us. They were much, much better than us today and that’s why the score is so bad.”
Said Nuggets interim coach David Adelman: “We got punked.”
The Thunder had an 87-56 halftime lead, breaking the NBA record for the most points scored in a half. All five Thunder starters and reserve forward Aaron Wiggins had scored in double figures by halftime.
Reserve guards Isaiah Joe and Ajay Mitchell also finished in double figures as Oklahoma City set a franchise playoff record for points in a game.
“I didn’t really look at tonight as a response as much as I looked at tonight as just us being who we are,” Daigneault said. “And that’s how we’ve been all season. We don’t really respond to the last game when we win, we don’t have more confidence. When we lose, we don’t have more urgency. I think this team has a really good baseline that we just try to return to every day when the sun comes up.”
According to ESPN Research, the Thunder’s 48-point lead equaled the fourth-largest margin after three quarters in NBA playoff history — one point fewer than the Thunder’s 49-point advantage over the Memphis Grizzlies entering the final quarter of this season’s playoff opener.
Daigneault noted that the Nuggets didn’t play well and predicted that Denver would be much better in Friday’s Game 3. Gilgeous-Alexander downplayed any significance the lopsided margin of victory in Game 2 might have.
“I think it’s important to take the emotion out,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Winning by a hundred or winning by two, it’s still 1-1, and I think that’s very important. Like I said, especially in the series, every game’s going to look different. People are going to make adjustments. It’s going to be a different crowd, a different feel. You’re going to start hot; you’re going to start cold, everything’s going to look different. It’s important to turn the page.”
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne contributed to this report.
