Nuggets eliminate clipper in game 7 to in NBA Playoffs | to come forward | Basketball messages

Denver Nuggets defeat La Clippers in the decisive game to set up a matchup in the second round with top seed-Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Denver Nuggets dominated the Los Angeles Clippers 120-101 in their do-or-die game 7 of their NBA playoff series to set up a collision in the second round with the western conference top seed Oklahoma City.

Aaron Gordon scored 22 points, Christian Braun added 21 and NBA MOST Valuable Player (MVP) Nikola Jokic, had 16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Nuggets, whose balanced attack and Stout defense on Saturday were too much for the Clippers.

The Clippers, who got involved in the playoffs, won the 18 of their last 21 games of the regular season, had picked up the elimination on Thursday with a convincing victory in the game 6.

But every dynamic that they had evaporated in the middle of another dark performance by James Harden.

Harden scored only seven points and had two of his eight attempts at the shooting.

Kawhi Leonard scored 22 points to lead the Clipperers, which emerged from a narrow first quarter with a 26-21 lead.

It looked briefly as if it were another close game between teams that ended the regular season with identical 50-32 records.

But the Nuggets collected 37 points in the second quarter to take control and continued to stack in the third when a 17-0 nugget run took the lead to 75: 50.

The Nuggets led 93 – 66 to the fourth quarter, and even when Jokic sat down for his third, fourth and fifth fouls at the end of the third period, the clipper could not make any meaningful entry.

The nuggets led up to 35 points. They rated the Clippers 54-42 in the color and got 22 points of the second chance of the Clipper 10 with a 46-36 advantage in rebounds.

“Everyone came to play,” said Nuggets Guard Jamal Murray, who scored 16 points. “Everyone was ready, the domestic audience was set up and we were able to do the work.”

Russell Westbrook rubbed it against his former team and came from the bank and scored 16 points with five rebounds, five assists and five steals.

He underlined his message in the middle of the fourth quarter, found theft, raced for a dark and then hung on the edge to deliberately draw a technical foul and use the moment to straighten the amount.

The Nuggets appeared despite a turbulent end of their regular season, with David Adelman taking over as interim head coach when Michael Malone was released with only three games.

Denver will play on Monday game 1 of her playoff series in the second round against the Thunder, who won the best 68 games in the league on Monday.

The series will compete against each other MVP finalists Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.