OKLAHOMA CITY – The one man who can say fatigue wasn’t a factor with support from the numbers was the one who played the most in the Nuggets’ Game 5 loss to the Thunder.

“You don’t think about that when you play. I felt good,” Nikola Jokic said roughly an hour after playing all but 3 minutes and 52 seconds of Denver’s 112-105 loss Tuesday at Paycom Center.

“We had good looks. We had everything. We just didn’t make it.”

Jokic typically gets roughly five minutes of rest to start the second and fourth quarters during the regular season. Those breaks are shortened by a couple of minutes in the postseason. When things are tight in the second half of playoff games, he might not get any sort of break after halftime. The Nuggets are 1-3 in the last four playoff games Jokic plays the entire fourth, but Jokic has maintained the extra few minutes don’t feel meaningful in the moment. With the season on the line Thursday, Jokic might be in line for another restless second half.

Jokic and interim coach David Adelman discussed it Tuesday, and Jokic ended up playing the entire second half with Adelman’s blessing.

“He felt good. I was going back and forth with it. With the four timeouts, that was a big factor for me,” Adelman explained.

“I felt comfortable with that. It felt like the momentum of the game was going our way, and he was very sure of himself. I wanted to play through him. … I’ll look back at it and doubt myself, because we lost the game.”

In the fourth quarter, Jokic capped his 44-point performance by going 4 of 6 from the field and making the team’s only 3-pointer after the third quarter. The rest of the team went 1 of 15 from the field and 0 of 11 from 3-point range in the fourth. Jamal Murray went 1 of 6 from the field with his only make coming in the final 20 seconds. Murray said fatigue wasn’t a factor.

“I don’t want to use that. I play better when I’m tired,” Murray said. “I got to go get the ball and do something.”

Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon each missed all three of their fourth-quarter attempts, while Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Russell Westbrook missed their only attempts. Seven of the nine attempts that quintet took in the fourth were 3-pointers. Some rattled out, while others weren’t close.

“You can say it’s fatigue. I think (it’s) shot quality, too. I thought early in the quarter, we did get good shots. They didn’t fall. Late, their pressure got to us, and we were up against the clock a lot. If it is fatigue, that’s on me. I’m deciding who is going to run it, who is going to be out there,” Adelman said.

“I like the group that we had. We had good rhythm there going to the fourth. I thought we sustained it early. … We didn’t have enough at the end.”

The Thunder have multiple advantages when it comes to minutes played and rest. Of the Thunder’s 68 wins this regular season, 54 were decided by more than double figures. Oklahoma City swept Memphis in the first round, while the Nuggets survived a seven-game slugfest with the Clippers. The Thunder have used a 10-man rotation in the meaningful minutes, while Denver’s rotation has maxed out at eight players.

“I do not regret it right now, after a loss, but if I go back and watch the tape, maybe I’ll have a different opinion tomorrow,” Adelman said.

“We’ve played well. We’ve played with great effort, intention. If we continue to do that, and the ball goes in, we’re going to have a great chance to get back here on Sunday.”