OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder grew up on Sunday.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points, Jalen Williams added 24 and the Thunder rolled into the Western Conference finals, beating the Denver Nuggets 125-93 in Game 7.
The top-seeded Thunder will host the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves starting Tuesday. It’s Oklahoma City’s first trip to the conference finals since 2016.
Oklahoma City went a league-best 68-14 in the regular season, becoming the youngest team to win at least 60 games. To back up their status as the best team in the league, the Thunder had to get past three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and a Denver squad that won the NBA title in 2023 and beat the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games in the first round this year.
Coach Mark Daigneault said his players handled the pressure well.
“There’s not many games, you wake up in the morning and you know that you’re going to remember the game for the rest of your life, and Game 7 is one of them,” he said. “To be able to focus through that and perform the way these guys did today was very impressive.”
Jokic had 20 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Nuggets. Aaron Gordon, a key player for Denver throughout the playoffs who hit the winner in Game 1 against the Thunder, started despite a strained left hamstring. He had eight points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes.
“What he played with today, I don’t know many people that would even attempt to go out there and run up and down,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. “And he did it in Game 7 against Oklahoma City on the road. That that was one of most incredible things I’ve ever seen. He was extremely close to not playing. I was surprised.”
The Thunder fell behind by 11 in the first quarter, but took the lead early in the second. Oklahoma City outscored Denver 39-20 in the period to take a 60-46 lead at the break.
Gordon was called for a flagrant-1 foul for elbowing Gilgeous-Alexander in the face early in the third quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander made both free throws, and then Williams hit a short jumper to give Oklahoma City a 66-46 lead.
Cason Wallace got loose on a fast break and dunked on Jokic to put the Thunder up 78-57, sparking delirious roars from the crowd.
Oklahoma City cruised from there and now hopes to make another leap.
“We’re better now than we were at the beginning of the series, and it’s because of them,” Daigneault said. “They pushed us to the limit.”
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