Nikola Jokic got plenty of help from his teammates and the Denver Nuggets weren’t about to let up when they built a big lead and raced past the Los Angeles Clippers in a 120-101 Game 7 laugher Saturday night.
The No. 4 seed Nuggets, who led by as many as 35 points, advanced to take on the No. 1 seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, which swept Memphis in the first round and has had a week off. The teams split their season series 2-2, with both teams winning one on the road.
The Clippers’ season came to a screeching halt after they’d entered the playoffs as the hottest team in the league, having won 18 of 21.
Jokic had 16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Aaron Gordon led Denver with 22 points, Christian Braun had 21, Jamal Murray and Russell Westbrook chipped in 16 each and Michael Porter Jr. scored 15.
Kawhi Leonard led Los Angeles with 22 points, but James Harden only scored 7 points on 2-of-8 shooting and Ivica Zubac had his quietest game of the series with 10 points.
Hanging over the Nuggets all season was their Game 7 fiasco in Round 2 last year when they blew a 20-point second-half lead to the Minnesota Timberwolves just when it looked like they were primed to defend the franchise’s first NBA championship.
And after frittering away a 22-point fourth-quarter advantage in Game 4 of this series — only to be saved by the first buzzer-beating dunk in NBA playoff history, courtesy of Gordon — the Nuggets and Ball Arena crowd only grew more energized instead of anxious as the lead kept growing and the Clippers kept missing.
The Nuggets blew this one open with a 17-0 run in the third quarter after Leonard started the second half with a 3-pointer to cut L.A.’s deficit to 58-50.
Los Angeles led 26-21 after one quarter but the Clippers were outscored 72-40 during the second and third quarters to trail 93-66 heading into the fourth quarter.
After picking up his third, fourth and fifth fouls over a 48-second span late in the third, Jokic went to the bench and watched his team continue to roll.
The Nuggets began celebrating early in the fourth quarter when Westbrook willingly took a technical for hanging on the rim and swinging back and forth after his steal and dunk put Denver up 107-76.
And Denver interim coach David Adelman emptied his bench with a 111-81 lead with 5:23 left. But the Clippers went on a 7-0 run and Adelman sent his starters back in at the 4-minute mark.
The Clippers ended up cutting a 35-point deficit into the teens but Denver’s lead, for a change, was too big to overcome. Their 19-point win was their biggest in a Game 7 in the franchise’s playoff history.
Courtesy of team owner Steve Ballmer, more than 100 Clippers fans were flown to Denver and assembled behind one of the baskets to provide extra noise. It’s an extension of “The Wall,” a section for the group of superfans that packs the Intuit Dome — also behind a basket — for Clippers games in Los Angeles.
The Nuggets had lost four of their previous five closeout games since winning the franchise’s only NBA championship two years ago. The Clippers also were the victims the last time Denver won a Game 7. That came in the conference semifinals in the Florida bubble when the Nuggets overcame a 3-1 series deficit.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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