Nuggets dominate Clippers in Game 7, book ticket to second round

DENVER — Not this time.

Nikola Jokic got plenty of help from his teammates and Denver’s scoring surge held up in a 120-101 blowout of the shellshocked Los Angeles Clippers in a Game 7 laugher on Saturday night.

The Nuggets led by as many as 35, and while the franchise’s biggest blowout in a win-or-go-home scenario won’t make up for last year when Denver blew a 20-point fourth-quarter lead over Minnesota at home in Game 7 of their Round 2 series, it certainly exorcised some of those demons.

“It feels good,” interim Nuggets coach David Adelman said, “but I also know we’re flying to OKC tomorrow.”

The No. 4 seed Nuggets advanced to take on the No. 1-seeded and well-rested Oklahoma City Thunder, which swept Memphis in the first round and has had a week off heading into the second-round series that begins Monday night.

When Adelman reminded a friend recently that the reward for surviving this gritty series with the Clippers was a date with the team that went an NBA-best 68-14, his buddy retorted that what actually awaited the winner was a 72-14 team.

“OK, that’s right,” Adelman replied. “Appreciate that, bro.”

The Nuggets and Thunder split their season series 2-2 and if Denver can reproduce its effort from Saturday night, the next series could be a tight one, too.

Jokic had 16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in 33 minutes but for a change he was overshadowed by his teammates. 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.

“In playoffs, we know that everybody needs to step up, offensively, defensively, whatever, energy-wise. And everybody who plays needs to contribute something,” Jokic said. “It was special today the guys did that.”

Braun also played terrific defence on James Harden, who was held to 7 points on 2-of-8 shooting.

“Everybody behind me allowed me to guard him. But I think maybe the biggest part was Russ,” Braun said. “He’s played against James, he’s played with James, so he knows his game. … The coaches trusted me tonight. We didn’t want to switch. They kept me on him all night. So, credit goes to those guys and the coaches.”

Kawhi Leonard led Los Angeles with 22 points and Ivica Zubac had his quietest game of the series with 10 points.

“I don’t think this team was 30 points better than us,” Leonard said. “We saw that throughout the first six games of this series, but you’ve got to give them credit. They came out, ran hard in transition, got easy points and they made shots.”

Hanging over the Nuggets all season, one that included the firings of their head coach and their general manager, was their Game 7 fiasco in Round 2 last year, 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 outscored LA 72-40 over the second and third quarters and 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 LA’s deficit to 58-50.

“The rebounding and defence was amazing,” Jokic said. “We had a lot of opportunities to run and a lot of guys stepped up and a lot of guys made baskets.”

After picking up his third, fourth and fifth fouls over a 48-second span late in the third, Jokic went to the bench. The Nuggets began celebrating early in the fourth quarter when Westbrook willingly took a technical for swinging on the rim after a steal and breakaway dunk put Denver up 107-76.

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. They were rowdy when the Clippers took a 26-21 lead after one quarter but were as bewildered as the Los Angeles bench as the Nuggets ran away with it.