Sunday 307 US professional basketball Denver Nuggets vs Oklahoma City Thunder

Match time: 2025-05-19 03:30

The Denver Nuggets are already at a deep disadvantage against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Nuggets will play Game 7 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals at Oklahoma City on Sunday, when they may lose one of the team's most important players.

Aaron Gordon, who made the winning goal in Game 1, was “unable to play” due to a strained left hamstring.

Gordon was forced to play Game 7 after being injured in a 119-107 home victory against Denver on Thursday.

Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said Gordon participated in Saturday's training.

"If Gordon could play, he would play," Adelman said.

If Gordon is unable to play or is restricted, Denver will need to rely more on Payton Watson, who averaged 14 minutes per game in this series, scoring 4.7 points and 3.2 rebounds.

Gordon averaged over 37 minutes per game, scoring 14.5 points and 9.2 rebounds.

Watson imitated Gordon during Saturday's drill. "Gorden is a fighter and we know he'll try to stick with it." After struggling early in the series, Nuggets star Nikola Jokic has performed better in the last two games, averaging 36.5 points, 14.5 rebounds and 1.5 turnovers and shooting 66.7% from the field. In the first four games of the

series, Jokic averaged 26.5 points, 14.8 rebounds and 5.8 turnovers per game, with a shooting percentage of only 39.1%.

After winning 68 games in the regular season, the Thunder are on the verge of elimination.

The game on Sunday will be the team’s first seventh game since losing to the Rockets in the first round in 2020.

Shay Gilgers-Alexander and Luganz Doulte were the only players left in that game 7.

Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault has developed the habit of sticking to the game plan regardless of the situation.

He has been using deep rotations throughout the season and has not shortened much of the rotations during the playoffs.

As the head coach, Dagnot's strategy for Game 7 of his first game will not change.

"These themes come back and forth, and you just revisit them in these situations," Dagnott said of the message conveyed at the beginning of the game. "If you need new material in these situations, your material is wrong at the beginning. Everything in the game is different."

Due to the severity of the results, it does feel different. But once the ball flies, the game is the same as before.

Degnott's approach has affected his team.

"You must understand the stakes of this game," said Chet Homgren of Oklahoma City. "Obviously, this game is a big deal, but you can't think about it as soon as you get on the court. You have to think before the game, what is the key to winning."

Oklahoma City's Jaylen Williams scored a career-worst six-pointer in the playoffs on Thursday. He has made 10 of 43 shots (23.3% shooting percentage).

The Denver Nuggets have much more experience in the tiebreak, and they beat the Clippers in the first round of this season. The Nuggets lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round tiebreak last season.

If Denver wins, the Nuggets will usher in the third series victory in team history when they are behind 2-3. Both previous wins occurred in 2020, when Denver reversed and beat the Utah Jazz and Clippers 1-3.