OKC overcomes clutch woes to win gritty Game 4

DENVER -- The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets at their own game Sunday.

The NBA's youngest team made all the clutch plays in crunch time against an experienced squad teeming with a championship pedigree, knotting the second-round Western Conference series with a 92-87 win in Game 4.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored nine of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, pulling the top-seeded Thunder from the brink of a 3-1 deficit against a Denver team known for closing out games while winning six of its past seven playoff series -- and the two tight games earlier in this series that resumes Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.

About 36 hours after an exhausting overtime Game 3 on Friday night, the early Mother's Day tipoff produced an ugly first half that featured a combined 25 points in the first quarter and ended with OKC up 42-36 at the break.

"Quick turnaround with an early game today," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "We made an intentional effort to use our depth today and get everybody going."

Down by eight points early in the fourth quarter, the Thunder used an 11-0 run fueled by reserves Cason Wallace, who had a pair of 3-pointers, and Aaron Wiggins, who added another, to wrest control.

Wallace's second 3-pointer put Oklahoma City ahead for good at 75-73.

"I really thought the difference in the game was their bench kind of lit a fuse for them," Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. "They made 3s ... pretty incredible in a game where the two teams shoot 21-of-86 from 3."

Denver looked poised to put the top-seeded team in the West on the cusp of elimination when Aaron Gordon's turnaround jumper made it 73-66.

This time, however, it was the Thunder who came up big down the stretch and the Nuggets who fumbled away the chance to put OKC in a 3-1 hole. Denver's many late miscues included a key five-second inbounds violation.

It was a rough offensive game for both teams. They went 3-for-22 combined from deep in the first half and shot 33.5% overall for the game, the lowest combined field goal percentage in a playoff game since Pacers vs. Pistons in 2004 (30.8%), according to ESPN Research.

"We fought," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We stayed the course ... and then we closed the game."

The Thunder simply don't have Denver's playoff pedigree, but Daigneault said his team is gaining that much-needed experience by the day.

"Every time you take punches and you get back up, you get stronger," he said. "That's what we're preaching to our team. We lost a tough one the other night in overtime. We stood back up today."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.