Thunder’s late-game strategy goes horribly wrong with brutal missteps in loss to Nuggets

The Thunder tried playing it safe — and it led to the worst-case scenario.

With the Thunder leading by three points in the final seconds of Game 1, head coach Mark Daigneault went with a popular strategy in today’s NBA: Intentionally fouling so the opposition has no chance of getting off a game-tying 3-point attempt.

But it backfired tremendously. 

Denver knocked down free throw after free throw and as the Nuggets matched the intentional fouls until Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren missed a pair. Now only down one point, Aaron Gordon knocked down a game-winning 3-pointer for Denver.

The problem with the Thunder’s plan was how little time they were running off the clock between fouls. 

Oklahoma City was routinely fouling the instant that Denver inbounded the ball, giving the latter ample time to return the favor after hitting its free throws.

If the Thunder would have perhaps allowed the Nuggets to run the clock down much further before they intentionally fouled the first time, there would have been fewer chances for Oklahoma City to miss its own free throws and less opportunity for a Denver comeback.

That wasn’t all, though. 

The Nuggets took Nikola Jokic off the floor before a Thunder inbound because he had five fouls. 

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander then escaped from Denver’s intentional foul attempts for a quick and easy dunk — so, instead of subbing in on the presumed free throws, Jokic was now stuck on the bench while his team had no timeouts and had 11 seconds to go the entire length of the court in search of three points.

Oklahoma City still fouled immediately and allowed Jokic to sub back in. 

The Nuggets knocked down a pair, Holmgren missed his, and now Denver has wrestled home-court advantage away from from top-seeded Oklahoma City.

The Denver lead in the final seconds was its first since the opening quarter.

Daigneault stood by his late-game decisions.

“That’s usually our deal is to foul up three and to play that game,” Daigneault said postgame. “I thought we executed the fouls pretty well. Got the ball in bounds pretty well. It didn’t go our way tonight, but it’s worked out well for us in the past. We’ll continue to look at it, maybe learn from it, but I didn’t think that’s why we lost the game.”