OKLAHOMA CITY – The Nuggets had the legs required to pull off an improbable upset for seven minutes of Sunday’s Game 7.

Denver walked, albeit gingerly, onto the top-seeded Thunder’s home court and quickly turned a raucous crowd into an anxious one. Christian Braun opened the scoring with a floater and exploded for a dunk before Nikola Jokic’s reverse layup and Michael Porter Jr.’s putback gave the Nuggets an 8-4 lead in the first few minutes.

A couple more buckets from Braun and five free throws from Jokic took the muggy Oklahoma air out of the building. It looked like the Nuggets might have the necessary magic when Aaron Gordon, playing through a Grade 2 hamstring strain, mustered the strength to finish a three-point play that put Denver up 21-10.

“That was our opportunity to really take control of the game,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said.

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Neither team scored for nearly two minutes. Oklahoma City ended the drought when Cason Wallace found Chet Holmgren for an alley-oop that gave the Thunder fans some life.

“Once they got back into it, they kept bringing new people in,” Adelman said. “They did overwhelm us.”

Oklahoma City brought Alex Caruso into the game during Denver’s opening run and had the 6-foot-5 veteran start guarding Jokic as physically as he could. The Thunder closed within five by the end of the first quarter, led by 14 at halftime and extended the advantage to 32 points before Adelman pulled his rotation players with nearly 10 minutes left in the 125-93 elimination game loss.

“They got a squad,” Gordon said. “Very interchangeable, they have a lot pesky defenders. They’re well-coached.”

After having to the end of the regular season to avoid the play-in portion of the postseason and enduring a seven-game battle against the Clippers in the first round, the Nuggets didn’t have much left in the final three quarters of their 14th postseason game against a younger and deeper opponent.

“To be honest, playing seven games against them reminds me of just playing AAU. It was like an AAU tournament out there,” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said. “Everybody is young, athletic, flying around.”

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Caruso, the Thunder’s oldest player at 31-years-old, finished with three steals, while reserves Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins chipped in two apiece. The Nuggets finished with 23 turnovers. The Thunder recorded 16 steals and turned the live-ball opportunities into 37 points off turnovers. Denver managed seven points off Oklahoma City’s 10 turnovers.

“You’re not going to win a playoff game like that. I give them a lot of credit,” Adelman said. “They were the aggressor. It’s how the whole series has been. Early, I thought we were. We had control of the game and then we lost it very quickly. When you lose, it’s crushing.”

Jokic led the Nuggets with 20 points but scored 17 before halftime. His only shot of the second half was a 3-pointer late in the third quarter that cut the Thunder lead to 24. He added nine rebounds and seven assists. Braun pitched in 19 points. Jamal Murray needed 16 shots to score 13 points, while Porter finished with six points on eight attempts.

Russell Westbrook and Julian Strawther were Denver’s most effective reserves, scoring six points apiece on seven and eight attempts, respectively.

“Definitely it seems like the teams that have the longer rotation, the longer bench are the ones who are winning,” Jokic said.

“It’s versatility. They can put in a lot of guys, a lot of good defenders and a lot of good offensive players.”

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 35 points. Jalen Williams (24), Holmgren (13), Caruso (11) and Isaiah Hartenstein (10) also scored in double figures. The Thunder advance to play Minnesota in the conference finals, while Denver started what could be an offseason full of change.

“Crushed for the guys in there. Just the effort they gave to get to this position, have the opportunity today, then to have the start that we wanted and then for it to go sideways so quickly, I thought we controlled the pace of the game early,” Adelman said.

“It’s easy to forget that now.”