The Thunder beat the Nuggets on Monday night in a tremendous display of competition between two of the best teams the Western Conference has to offer. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the big star of the night, writing his name in the NBA history books alongside Wilt Chamberlain and draining a game-winning three to top off an incredible contest. It was an invigorating playoff rematch from a conference semifinals series that went seven games last year, and served as a possible preview for this year’s postseason gauntlet.
The game also brought us another episode of the Lu Dort-Nikola Jokić rivalry. Dort caused quite the stir the last time Oklahoma City and Denver met in February, when he earned an ejection for a flagrant-2 foul for tripping the MVP big man. It elicited a furious reaction the likes of which we rarely see from Jokić and Nuggets coach David Adelman still felt it necessary to hammer home how “malicious” the move was several days after the fact. Late in Monday’s contest, history seemed ready to repeat itself.
