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Lengthening the game to over three hours, the final 13 seconds were drawn out. Every tick mattered as Nikola Jokic's nonchalant 3-pointer turned it into a surprising one-point game.
It turned into a game within a game. You foul me, I foul you. The Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets exchanged intentional fouls as they see-sawed the ball back and forth with each other.
For the Thunder, it was to foul up three and never give the Nuggets a chance at a decent look from the outside. For the Nuggets, it was to breathe in some final hopes to snatch Game 1. Chet Holmgren blinked first in the game of chicken.
Holmgren clanked both attempts as the Thunder held a 119-118 lead with 10 seconds left. Christian Braun grabbed the board. Russell Westbrook pushed the pace. Aaron Gordon caught a fancy pass to drill the game-winning 3-pointer. Wow.
Just like that, the Thunder suffered a shocking 121-119 Game 1 loss to the Nuggets. They played with fire for most of the second half as they never put Denver away. And they were finally burned for it as the buzzer sounded with Jalen Williams' heave missed.
Thunder fans left the arena speechless and in shock. Scrolling through social media, Mark Daigneault became a scapegoat for the first time after beating expectations in his tenure. Everybody leaned on hindsight as the foul-up-three strategy ultimately allowed what it hoped to prevent — a decent look from the outside that ended the game.
"That's usually our deal. To foul up three and to play that game. 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," Daigneault said. "We'll continue to look at it, learn from it but I didn't think that's why we lost the game."
Twitter notifications heated every media member's phone with complaints. Everybody wondered why the Thunder were so quick to intentionally foul instead of relying on their league-best defense. That's been their principle for years.
"The fouling up three, that's on me. I think giving the foul and getting the foul executed is critical. If there's something to learn from that, it's probably giving it too early on my part," Daigneault said. "That's not on the players. They're executing what I'm telling them to do."
These types of outcomes will cast doubt. Everybody leans on hindsight to surgically criticize every small mistake in the final moments that could've altered the final result. But it's a fruitless exercise. Reality is, the Thunder are down 0-1 in a game they led for most of the night. Such is life in the NBA playoffs. Now it's about bouncing back and not letting this meltdown roll over to Game 2.
"It's the playoffs. We have to embrace it. We have to embrace the struggle of the playoffs. We have to embrace the adversity of the playoffs. The playoffs are a mountain to climb. It's not gonna be easy for anybody," Daigneault said. "We kinda coasted through the first round. It was challenging in the games but we had control in the whole series time but no one just walks their way through a series at this point in the season. Credit Denver, they were the better team tonight. We can learn from it. We need to execute it better. But it's a series and the first to four."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: After Game 1 meltdown, Mark Daigneault explains foul-up-3 strategy
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