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Nuggets rout Clippers to advance in NBA playoffs / Photo: MATTHEW STOCKMAN - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Nuggets rout Clippers to advance in NBA playoffs
The Denver Nuggets dominated the Los Angeles Clippers 120-101 in the do-or-die game seven of their NBA playoff series on Saturday to set up a second-round clash with Western Conference top seeds Oklahoma City.
Aaron Gordon scored 22 points, Christian Braun added 21 and NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic had 16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Nuggets, whose balanced attack and stout defense was too much for the Clippers.
The Clippers had fended off elimination with a convincing game-six victory on Thursday, but any momentum they had evaporated amid another dismal performance from James Harden.
Harden scored just seven points, connecting on two of his eight shot attempts.
Kawhi Leonard scored 22 points to lead the Clippers, who emerged from a tight first quarter with a 26-21 lead.
It briefly looked like it would be another close game between teams that finished the regular season with identical 50-32 records.
But the Nuggets put up 37 points in the second quarter to seize control and continued to pile it on in the third, when a 17-0 Nuggets run pushed the lead to 75-50.
The Nuggets led 93-66 going into the fourth quarter, and even with Jokic sitting down after he was whistled for his third, fourth and fifth fouls late in the third period the Clippers could make no meaningful inroads.
The Nuggets led by as many as 35 points. They out-scored the Clippers 54-42 in the paint and with a 46-36 advantage in rebounds grabbed 22 second-chance points to the Clippers' 10.
"Everybody came to play," said Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, who scored 16 points. "Everybody was ready, the home crowd was into it and we were able to get the job done."
The Nuggets have advanced despite a tumultuous finish to their regular season, with David Adelman taking over as interim head coach when Michael Malone was sacked with just three games left.
They also went a long way toward erasing the memory of a game-seven collapse in the second round last season, when they blew a 15-point halftime lead and lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Jokic said that disappointment was the last thing on his mind on Saturday.
"I don't think about failures," he said. "I don't think about something that happened one year ago.
"My whole focus, my whole energy was at this moment, to be present and try to beat a really, really talented team."
They'll likely have to step it up even more against the Thunder, who won a league-best 68 games and swept the Memphis Grizzlies in four games in the first round.
Murray predicted "a good hard-nosed battle" against the Thunder.
"It's going to be a fast-paced game, it's going to be high energy in both arenas and it's going to be a lot of fun."
E.Danieli--INP
