Chet Holmgren produced 15 points and a career-high 21 rebounds and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 36 points in his return from injury, lifting the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 127-121 victory over the visiting Denver Nuggets on Friday.
While Gilgeous-Alexander, playing his first game since sustaining an abdominal strain on Feb. 3, helped the Thunder dig out of an early 16-point deficit.
In overtime, though, Gilgeous-Alexander remained on the bench.
It didn’t matter, as Alex Caruso continued his strong play from the end of regulation.
With the Thunder up by three and just more than a minute remaining in OT, Caruso picked off Tim Hardaway Jr.’s pass and finished with a layup.
Denver’s Jamal Murray hit a trio of 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds to finish with 39 points, but Oklahoma City hit all eight of its free throws during that span to hold on.
The Thunder have won six of their past eight games while the Nuggets have dropped seven of their past 11.
Caruso hit a pair of big 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter, including one with 1:23 remaining that put the Thunder up 107-105.
After Denver’s Nikola Jokic turned the ball over, Oklahoma City missed two chances to extend the lead before Jokic tied it on a hook shot with 38 seconds remaining.
Caruso’s drove to the basket in the final seconds, but his floater bounced off the rim at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
With Gilgeous-Alexander having played 34 minutes, the Thunder kept the reigning Most Valuable Player on the bench in overtime.
Jokic finished with 23 points, 17 rebounds and 14 assists while teammate Christian Braun also scored 23.
Early in the fourth quarter, after Jared McCain’s jumper put the Thunder up by two, Oklahoma City’s Luguentz Dort knocked Jokic to the floor by stepping in front of Jokic as the Nuggets star moved up the court.
As Jokic popped up and confronted Dort, the Thunder’s Jaylin Williams got into Jokic’s face.
Jokic wrapped his hand around the back of Williams’ neck briefly and Williams grabbed Jokic’s jersey.
After a review, Dort had his foul upgraded to a flagrant-2, and he was ejected. Jokic and Williams were each assessed a technical foul.
Just a few minutes later, Oklahoma City’s Isaiah Hartenstein was called for a flagrant-1 foul after making contact with Murray’s eye area.
It didn’t take long for the game to get chippy in a rematch of last season’s seven-game second-round playoff series.
Less than three minutes into the game, Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander were at the center of a quick clash when Gilgeous-Alexander took exception after Jokic collided with Hartenstein.
Jokic was called for a foul, and in the continuation of the play, Gilgeous-Alexander threw the ball off of Jokic, earning a technical foul.
