The Thunder newbie will see a big jump in his salary next season, from $9.8 million to $18.1, but if he walked into Sam Presti’s office and demanded an advance on that raise, the Thunder brass would be hard-pressed to say no.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets 112-105 on Tuesday night to go up 3-2 in their Western Conference semifinal series. Oklahoma City overcame a 44-point, 15-rebound night from Denver’s Nikola Jokic. The Thunder can clinch the series on Thursday in Denver.

The most competitive of the four ongoing conference semifinals heats up on Tuesday night, as the Denver Nuggets (4) visit the Oklahoma City Thunder (1) in a pivotal Game 5 of a matchup that is tied at 2-2 through four games.

Denver was last in the league in 3-point attempts per game during the regular season (31.9), but that number has jumped to 38.5 3PA in the four contests against OKC. In their first-round series versus the LA Clippers, the Nuggets fired up an average of just 29.0 3PA across seven games.