The Oklahoma City Thunder with Isaiah Hartenstein clearly won the “nervous duel” against Nikola Jokics Denver Nuggets. You can continue to dream of the title in the Basketball Profiliga NBA.
With the German Center in the starting formation, OKC celebrated a 125:93 victory in the decisive seventh game of the playoff quarter-final at home and is now fighting against the Minnesota Timberwolves for moving into the final series.
Top star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 35 points and Jalen Williams (24) were the decisive actors of the hosts. Hartenstein came to ten points and seven rebounds. With the nuggets, Jokic remained below his possibilities with 20 points.
OKC begins agile – and yet wins
Oklahoma City, which has been in the NBA final in 2008 since the move of the franchise from Seattle (2011/12, 1: 4 against Miami Heat), did not get a good start in the most important game of the season so far. Denver, who had to go into the seventh game in the first round against Los Angeles Clipper, quickly decided because Okc defended badly and top star Gilgeous-Alexander initially remained unusually pale.
After a threesome of veteran Russell Westbrook, who had become runner -up with OKC 13 years ago, the nuggets led 24:14 shortly before the end of the first quarter, but with an intermediate sprint to 21:26, Oklahoma remained. With a very strong second quarter (39:20), the hosts tore the game itself – also because they had the three -time MVP Jokic under control. OKC came out of the cabin with a 9-0 run – it was the preliminary decision.
In the regular season, no team was better than OKC
OKC had completed the regular season with the best record of the entire NBA (68:14 victories) and has been one of the hottest title candidates since then.
In a possible final, Thunder would meet the New York Knicks or the Indiana Pacers. The Knicks had switched off defending champion Boston Celtics in the quarter -finals, Indiana beat Cleveland Cavaliers, with 64:18 Siegen the best team in Eastern Conference.