OKC overcomes clutch woes to win gritty Game 4

DENVER -- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 25 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder yet outplayed Denver successful crunch time, beating the Nuggets 92-87 connected Sunday to knot their second-round bid astatine 2 games apiece.

The Thunder trailed 69-63 aft 3 quarters and fell down by 8 erstwhile Peyton Watson started the 4th fourth by swishing a hook shot. But Oklahoma City utilized an 11-0 tally fueled by reserves Cason Wallace, who had a brace of 3-pointers, and Aaron Wiggins, who added another, to instrumentality control.

Wallace's 2nd 3-pointer enactment Oklahoma City up for bully astatine 75-73.

"Great readiness by them," Thunder caput manager Mark Daigneault said of Wallace and Wiggins' contributions. "They didn't play arsenic galore minutes the different night, truthful they had caller legs and brought large vigor to the game."

The Nuggets had outlasted the youngest squad successful the NBA with wins successful Games 1 and 3, crediting their playoff acquisition and title pedigree. And they looked poised to enactment the top-seeded squad successful the West connected the cusp of elimination erstwhile Aaron Gordon's turnaround jumper made it 73-66.

This time, however, it was the Thunder who came up large down the agelong and the Nuggets who fumbled distant the accidental to enactment OKC successful a 3-1 hole.

Game 5 is Tuesday nighttime backmost successful Oklahoma City, wherever the Thunder had a 43-point blowout of the Nuggets successful Game 2.

Nikola Jokic led Denver with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Christian Braun and Jamal Murray each had 17 points and Gordon scored 15. Michael Porter Jr. scored conscionable 3 points aft scoring 15 Friday night.

Wiggins and Wallace each added 11 points and Alex Caruso and Jalen Williams each scored 10. Williams was 2 for 13 from the level aft scoring 32 successful Game 3.

The teams played a physical, overtime crippled Friday night, not leaving Ball Arena until the aboriginal greeting hours connected Saturday. And the aboriginal Mother's Day commencement -- 1:30 p.m. section clip -- led to immoderate bushed legs and a ton of errant shots.

Both teams went 3 for 22 from heavy successful the archetypal fractional and they slumbered done a combined 25-point archetypal quarter, which tied an NBA playoff grounds for fewest points successful the opening quarter. Their 33.5% combined shooting successful the crippled was the lowest successful a playoff crippled since Pacers vs. Pistons successful 2004 (30.8%), according to ESPN Research.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.