The Denver Nuggets overpowered the Los Angeles Clippers 120-101 in a decisive Game 7 on Saturday, advancing to the second round of the NBA playoffs to face top-seeded Oklahoma City in the Western Conference.
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 were too much for the Clippers.
The Clippers – who roared into the playoffs winning 18 of their last 21 regular-season games – 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.”
Russell Westbrook rubbed it in against his former team, coming off the bench to score 16 points with five rebounds, five assists and five steals.
He underscored his message midway through the fourth quarter, coming up with a steal, racing for a dunk and then hanging on the rim to purposely draw a technical foul and using the moment to rile up the crowd even more.
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.
Thunder up next
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 to see their NBA title defense end.
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.”
Denver will 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.
The series will pit MVP finalists Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander against each other.
Murray predicted “a good hard-nosed battle” against the Thunder – which starts with game one in Oklahoma City on Monday.
“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.”