Oklahoma City Thunder star man Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his team responded well to challenging circumstances to inflict a heavy defeat on the Denver Nuggets to get level in their playoff series.

Two nights after blowing a double-digit lead to go one down, the Thunder cruised to a 149-106 victory on Wednesday in Game 2.

"We knew what was at stake tonight. We came out desperate," said Gilgeous-Alexander, quoted by ESPN, as his team became the first home team to win a game in this round of the playoffs.

"I definitely wanted to put an imprint on the game from the get [go] without trying to force anything, and ultimately still just let the game tell me what to do.

"The game's going to test me. Every possession down, they're going to throw a coverage at me, and I have to make the right decision, make the right answer. I think I did a pretty good job in the first quarter."

Gilgeous-Alexander put in a dominant performance, finishing with 34 points and eight assists before checking out of the game at the end of the third quarter with the home side 48 points up.

Series tied pic.twitter.com/v6CdzpBkNc

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) May 8, 2025

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, though, was keen for his whole team to take the praise as well as his star man.

"It wasn't a one-man show, and he was super-efficient," he said.

For the Nuggets, meanwhile, there is some soul-searching to do ahead of Game 3 on Saturday and Nikola Jokic acknowledged the one-sidedness of the encounter

"Basically, it was one team playing tonight. They were aggressive; they were going by us. They were much, much better than us today and that's why the score is so bad," he said.

Interim Nuggets coach David Adelman had a different summation of the game, saying: "We got punked."