Thunder hero Usman Dieng beats the Nuggets at the buzzer!

Even though it’s only a preseason game, Ousmane Dieng he will remember this meeting against the Nuggets for a long time. In this “shock” of the Western Conference, in which Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren participated, the French forward was the hero of the encounter with the “game winner” at the buzzer to give the Thunder a victory (94-91).

“It was a counterattack, and action in our style. I had to shoot” he said after the meeting. “He defended well. I wanted to shoot from the first movement, so I had to get out of the way and shoot like that, but it felt good.”

BEATER GAME WINNER ALERT IN THE NBA PRE-SEASON pic.twitter.com/HKnLg5pkmU

— NBA do Povo (@NBAdoPovo) October 18, 2025

Improv

Mostly, he drew by feeling. “It was an improvisation. I think I put a similar one in G-eague last year, but it was really an improvisation” he continues. “It feels good. Like I said, I just want to play hard, defend, make the right decisions offensively and help the team win. That’s what I try to do every night, every time I’m on the court.”

Just before that, he was the one who countered Darron Holmes, and it was he who was at the center of a 17-0 run to allow the Thunder to erase a 16-point deficit (85-69) in the 4th quarter. On his “game winner” we see all the confidence built up during this successful preseason, and he finished the game with 17 points on 6 of 12 shooting, and was 1 of 6 on 3-pointers before this last shot…

Chet Holmgren’s return to school

Like the Wolves against the Sixers, the Nuggets came with a B team, without Nikola Jokic and the usual starters. Conversely, the Thunder tested their starting rotations, taking advantage of Chet Holmgren’s first preseason appearance. Pivot was served several times by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (12 points, 5 assists at 100% shooting), and the Holmgren-Hartenstein duo quickly regained their automaticity.

Their stars rested in the second half, while Denver returned to the locker room with a 13-point advantage, the Thunder gave way to their youngsters and that’s where the match changed. Seven minutes, the Nuggets will not score any more points, until this “money time” whose hero will be Usman Dieng.