NBA Playoffs: Thunder thrash Nuggets 125-93 in Game 7 and advance to West Finals

Oklahoma City (USA), May 19, 2025 – The circle around the contenders for the 2024/2025 NBA title is increasingly narrowing, with four now remaining. Completing the picture of the conference finalists are the Oklahoma City Thunder, who, with a peremptory 125-93, overwhelmed the Denver Nuggets in game 7 and snatched the pass to the Western Conference final, in which they will face the Minnesota Timberwolves. A Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the absolute star of the evening with a personal haul of 35 points (12/19 shooting for him), and his teammates needed just over a quarter to get rid of the Nuggets, who showed up at the starting blocks of the match with an Aaron Gordon who heroically managed to take the field despite the strain to his left thigh suffered during game 6 (8 points and 11 rebounds for him, who started in the quintet and remained on the parquet for 25 minutes). GIn the second quarter, in fact, OKC gave a devastating push by posting a 39-20 partial that quickly extinguished Denver's hopes., for whom the 20 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists from Nikola Jokic at times more subdued than what we are used to, and Chris Brown's 19. On the OKC front, in addition to the "usual" Gilgeous-Alexander, the ones who shone were Jalen Williams with 24 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds, and Chat Holmgren who finished with a precious double double (13 points and 11 rebounds).  

The race

And to say that the evening seemed to have started under a good star for the Nuggets, capable of fielding a defense (which also made use of the zone) very effective in limiting the Thunder's attack. The rest was done by Jokic, who together with Gordon dragged Denver up to +11 reached on 21-10 with 5' to go before the first mini-interval. An escape attempt that stung the pride of OKC who, helped by Caruso and Wiggins, closed the fraction by halving the disadvantage (26-21). Ua mini-partial of 5-0 that was then extended with another eight consecutive points scored at the start of the second quarter by the Thunder, who thus put the overtaking arrow (29-26). At that point, Denver tried to hold on to Braun, Gordon and Jokic to not lose contact but in the second part of the quarter began to skid mightily under the blows of the duo formed by Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams, which with the sound of baskets They made OKC shoot up from +1 to +14 at half time in just 3' (60-46) and a 39-20 overall partial score in the quarter that stunned the Nuggets quite a bit, who – upon returning to the parquet – continued to struggle, accumulating more and more points of disadvantage and even slipping to -27 (96-69). The fourth quarter thus transformed into a real catwalk towards the conquest of the Western Conference final for the Thunder who reached the peak of their evening even at +43 (125-82).