Nuggets were eliminated in the seventh game for two consecutive years! Gordon scored 8 points and 11 rebounds with injury, Murray scored 6 of 16 shots and scored 13 points

NBA playoff Western Conference semi-finals ushered in a focus tiebreak battle. The Thunder defeated the Nuggets 125-93 at home, and advanced to the Western Conference Finals with a total score of 4-3. In this life-and-death battle, the Thunder showed great dominance from the beginning, hitting a 13-0 offensive climax to set the tone. Jaylen Williams scored 17 points in a single quarter in the second quarter, leading the team to expand the advantage to double digits; after the change of sides, the Thunder continued to suppress both ends of the offense and defense, and the score difference once widened to more than 20 points, and finally ended the series with a hearty big victory.

Although the Nuggets sent Aaron Gordon to the game with an injury (a second-degree hamstring injury), the inside player only scored 8 points and 11 rebounds in the game, failing to reverse the decline.

What is disappointing is the sluggish performance of the two stars in the backcourt: Westbrook made 2 of 7 shots in 21 minutes, scored only 6 points in 5 three-pointers, but made 4 turnovers, with a plus-negative value as low as -34;

Core point guard Jamal Murray played for 34 minutes, but only 6 of 16 shots, 1 of 8 three-pointers and scored only 13 points, with a plus-negative value -21. The inaccuracy between the two on both offense and defense became the key to the Nuggets' defeat.

It is worth noting that this is the second consecutive year that the Nuggets have fallen in the tiebreak battle. In the Western Conference semi-finals last season, they also lost to the Timberwolves with a score of 3-4, and defeated the Thunder in a life-and-death battle this season, missing the Western Conference Final for two consecutive years.

With the 2023 championship being eliminated, the NBA has also ushered in a historical record: 7 different championship teams have been born in the past seven seasons (2018-2025), and the league has never had such a long championship-change fault before. This phenomenon not only shows the intensity of league competition, but also adds more suspense to the subsequent seasons.