Perhaps it was David Adelman’s fault. The glue-fingered Alex Caruso and Oklahoma City launched a surprise trap attack on Denver out of a timeout, the game hanging on a fourth-quarter pendulum, and the Nuggets’ interim HC didn’t plan for a press-break alignment to squirm their way free.
Perhaps it was Michael Porter Jr.’s fault. Adelman said the hobbled wing postgame was the next man who was “supposed to flash” — and flash, he did. But Porter’s cut toward the baseline didn’t remotely shake a sliding Jalen Williams.
Perhaps it was Christian Braun’s fault. He said as much, postgame. He was the inbounder, after all, and his meander up and down the out-of-bounds baseline found no organized target.
Nikola Jokic summed it up best after the five-second violation that might’ve just tilted a playoff series.
“It’s really everybody,” the Nuggets center said postgame. “That cannot happen.”
For three games, the Nuggets had somehow stiff-armed the Thunder to the passenger seat and placed themselves behind the wheel thanks to late-game execution. Adelman had largely out-coached Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault in a battle of younger basketball minds, as the Thunder flubbed Game 1 on a series of last-second fouls. But Denver’s much-ballyhooed veteran advantage vanished at Ball Arena on Sunday afternoon. The Nuggets came out of a timeout in the fourth quarter of a three-point game and couldn’t even inbound the ball.
Oklahoma City’s sudden press forced the turnover. Closer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander buried a soft turnaround seven seconds later for an 83-78 lead, sealing a two-possession advantage down the stretch of a game where most possessions clanked off iron.
Even as inbounder Braun took expressive accountability postgame, though — noting he shouldn’t have taken the inbound until Denver was organized — Adelman shouldered a majority of the blame.
“You can’t have a mental mistake like that with four and a half (minutes) to go,” Adelman said. “And I’ll take the hit. If I come out of a timeout, maybe I have to set up a press-break alignment first to get into our execution on the other end. Because that cannot happen. That’s inexcusable.”
Blame the 36-hour turnaround between Games 3 and 4, dead-legging the jumpers of a Nuggets team that had already braved a gauntlet in Los Angeles. Blame the atrocious shooting out of the gate, an avert-your-eyes 2-of-24 from the field in the first quarter. But Denver, largely, fumbled a crucial Game 4 down the stretch, its championship savvy serving no use in a fourth quarter outscored 29-18.
“People can say it’s a tired mistake,” Adelman said of the five-second call. “That’s not. That’s an execution mistake, and that’s on me.”
