Alexander s first career tiebreaker: Hit 32+6 but was restricted and fouled, admit defeat 40 seconds in advance

On May 16, the Thunder went to the away game to challenge the Nuggets to open the G6 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Alexander was in trouble with a foul. He committed four fouls in the first half for the first time in the past two years. Alexander did not make a foul in the second half, but Alexander was still affected by the foul trouble. He contributed 32 points and 6 assists in the whole game. He scored 30+ points for the fourth time in this round of series, but he had no choice but to join the empty-slashing group and could not stop the Thunder from losing and was dragged into the first tiebreak battle in his career.

Alexander led the Thunder to defeat the Nuggets 112-105 at home, successfully winning the battle of Tianwangshan to win the match point, which also made Alexander just one step away from leading the team to advance to the Western Conference Final. Alexander has been out of the Western Conference semi-finals in the past two seasons, and he has not tasted the Western Conference finals yet in his career.

In this game, facing the Nuggets who were fighting against the back-to-back Nuggets away, the Thunder was once widened 20-30 and 10-point gap 20-30 in the second half of the first quarter, and at the end of the first quarter, they chased to 28-31 and were only 3 points away. Alexander made the most of the team in the first quarter, but he only made 1 of 2 shots and free throws, only scored 3 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists, and had a strong presence, and he had a plus-minus value of -1 on the court.

was just Alexander's second quarter rebound. He played in less than 7 minutes in a single quarter, and had already made 3 of 4 and 4 of 6 free throws. He also made a three-pointer, allowing him to score 11 points in a single quarter. Alexander once led the Thunder to take the lead by 12 points, but was tied by the Nuggets with a 12-0 offensive. With the help of Dort's buzzer-beating three-pointer, he narrowly led by 3 points.

Alexander scored 12 points in the second quarter, but he had been called three fouls in less than 7 minutes. After Alexander made a mistake in the second half of the first half, he was soon inflicted on a fourth foul by Jokic, which forced him to leave the court for a break. It is worth mentioning that Alexander made four fouls in the past two years since October 2022.

The change of sides and the battle was fought again. Alexander effectively controlled the number of fouls in the third quarter, and no fouls occurred in a single quarter. However, Alexander scored consecutively in the start of the third quarter, and he fell into stealth mode for a while until the last moment of the third quarter. Alexander scored another 10 points in a single quarter, and he had already scored 24 points in the first three quarters.

However, Alexander only scored 2 points in the first half of the last quarter, and the Thunder were gradually suppressed by the Nuggets to widen the gap of two-digit lag. After Alexander scored consecutively and led the team to counterattack, but the Nuggets were always able to respond. Although Alexander scored 30+ points for the fourth time in this round of series, he failed to lead the team to win and advance. He admitted defeat 40 seconds in advance and was dragged into the tiebreak by the Nuggets.