OKC's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, left, disrupts Denver's Christian Braun during Sunday's West Conference semifinal Game 4 in Denver. (AP photo)

DENVER (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets at their own game Sunday.

The NBA’s youngest team made all the clutch plays in crunch time against an experienced squad teeming with a championship pedigree, knotting the second-round series with a 92-87 win in Game 4.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored nine of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, pulling the top-seeded Thunder from the brink of a 3-1 deficit against a Denver team known for closing out games while winning six of its last seven playoff series — and the two tight games earlier in this series that resumes Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.

About 36 hours after an exhausting overtime Game 3 Friday night, the early Mother’s Day tip-off produced an ugly first half that featured a combined 25 points in the first quarter and ended with OKC up 42-36 at the break.

“Quick turnaround with an early game today, we made an intentional effort to use our depth today and get everybody going,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.

Down by eight points early in the fourth quarter, the Thunder used an 11-0 run fueled by reserves Cason Wallace, who had a pair of 3-pointers, and Aaron Wiggins, who added another, to wrest control.

Wallace’s second 3-pointer put Oklahoma City ahead for good at 75-73.

“I really thought the difference in the game was their bench kind of lit a fuse for them,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. “They made 3s … pretty incredible in a game where the two teams shoot 21 of 86 from 3.”

Denver looked poised to put the top-seeded team in the West on the cusp of elimination when Aaron Gordon’s turnaround jumper made it 73-66.

This time, however, it was the Thunder who came up big down the stretch and the Nuggets who fumbled away the chance to put OKC in a 3-1 hole. Denver’s many late miscues included a key five-second inbounds violation.

Nikola Jokic had 27 points and 13 rebounds but his three assists were a low for this playoff run and gave him 22 assists to go with 23 turnovers in this second-round series.

Jokic said he never thinks about fatigue so he didn’t blame anything or anyone else for Denver’s 31% shooting clip and 34 missed 3s. And Adelman wouldn’t go so far as to say the NBA erred with the early tip-off, either.

“I don’t want to say that,” Adelman said. “I will say that both teams were very tired coming off an unbelievably physical overtime battle late Friday night. … I mean, both of us had super tired legs, so it was about who’s going to make that final run.”

Not his team, not this time.

“We fought. We stayed the course,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, “… and then we closed the game.”

The Thunder simply don’t have Denver’s playoff pedigree but Daigneault said his team is gaining that much-needed experience by the day.

“Every time you take punches and you get back up, you get stronger,” he said. “That’s what we’re preaching to our team. We lost a tough one the other night in overtime. We stood back up today.”

PACERS 129, CAVALIERS 109

Pascal Siakam scored 21 points and the Indiana Pacers tied an NBA playoff record by taking a 41-point halftime lead before routing the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers for a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Pacers can earn a second straight trip to the East finals with a victory Tuesday in Cleveland, where they won the first two games.

Indiana jumped to an 80-39 lead at halftime and led by 44 points. The 41-point lead matched the margin Cleveland set in Game 2 of the 2017 Eastern Conference finals against Boston, according to Sportradar.

And Indiana did it mostly without Bennedict Mathurin, one of its top playoff scorers, who was ejected just 7 1/2 minutes into the game for a flagrant foul.

Darius Garland led the Cavs with 21 points and Donovan Mitchell had 17 points despite not playing in the second half because of a left ankle injury. Coach Kenny Atkinson said his All-Star guard would have an MRI exam Monday.

For the Pacers, it was a redeeming moment in front of a towel-waving home crowd just two days after an embarrassing 22-point loss on its home court. The Cavs dominated the glass, held two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton to four points and five assists and fought harder than Indiana.

This time, the Pacers left no doubt about who would be the aggressor.

Indiana took control quickly with early runs of 11-2 and 13-0 to build a commanding 48-23 lead with 9:24 left in the first half. They didn’t stop — or back down — there, either, closing the half on a 19-2 run.