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Jamal Murray fought an illness to score 25 points and feed the Denver Nuggets after the Thunder 119-107 Thursday evening, sending the series to Oklahoma City for a decisive match 7.
Sick since Wednesday, Murray was listed as questionable for the match. He ignited the nuggets with a game of four points to start things and sank a 3 -point stage to start the fourth trimester that pushed the two -digit Denver’s advance for the first time.
Nikola Jokic led Denver with 29 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists, and Christian Braun scored a 23 -point career record to go with 12 rebounds. But it was the second year reserve guard Julian Strawther who sparked the flight from the Nuggets, marking a career at 15 points, all in the second period.
Strawther had a pair of 3 and a lay-up during a thrust of 10-0 quarter which helped Denver take a two-digit lead, and he continued in the fourth quarter, because the nuggets finally laughed in this exhaustive physical series.
Match 7 is on Sunday, with the Minnesota Timberwolves while waiting for the winner after sending Golden State to five games.
A negative for Denver: Aaron Gordon caught his left hamstrings at the end of the match and hampered the last minutes.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 32 points, including 18 after half-time despite the game with four faults since the second quarter. But he did not obtain enough help from his generally reliable teammates to win the first trip of Oklahoma City to the Western Conference final since 2016, when he lost against the Warriors in seven games.
Chet Holmgren added 19 points. All-Star Jalen Williams scored six points on the shot of 3 out of 16.
Although the 3-point buzzer beating the Lu Dort buzzer gave the Thunder an advance from 61-58 to half-time, it was the nuggets that overwhelmed in the tunnel after erased a 12-point deficit with a 12-0 race on final 2:05 of the first half, a race plated by the 3-point of Braun.
The Nuggets, which won the title two years ago, finally obtained two days off after an exhausting period in recent weeks. They have played every two days since April 29.
Thunder has only lost consecutive matches twice this season, once in November and once in early April.
Report by the Associated Press.
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