NBA-Playoff's results and snack: Nuggets defeated Thunder in OT to take the lead 2-1 series, Cavs Topers

Aaron Gordon comes back into the clutch. With less than 30 seconds in the regulation, Gordon met a decisive 3 to tie the Denver Nuggets with the Oklahoma Thunder and send game 3 into extra time, where Denver took over a lead of 113-104 for the victory. On Wednesday, the close, physical victory on Friday evening, the Nuggets brought the Nuggets a 2-1 lead before the thunder in the conference semi-final.

In Indianapolis, the Cleveland Cavaliers secured their first victory against the Indiana Pacers and scored 126-104 from a 43-point game by Donovan Mitchell and cut the Indiana series to 2-1.

The defense of the Thunder held Nikola Jokić with eight sales to 20 points, while Jamal Murray led the way for Denver with 27 points, eight templates and four rebounds.

While Mitchell cited Cleveland's indictment, he and the Cavaliers were reinforced by the return of three most important players, including the starter Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. Garland bumped into bad difficulties in the first half, but still scored 10 points, while Mobley 18 was accompanied by its 13 rebounds, four templates, three steals and three blocks.

Indiana gathered from a slow start and briefly took the lead in the second quarter. Star Tyrese Haliburton, who met the 3-winner 3 in the second matchup of the series and fought with only four points in loss.

Nuggets 113, Thunder 104

(Nuggets Lead Series 2-1)

Nuggets know how to close

Denver is not the deeper team in this series. You can certainly argue that you are not the more talented team in this series. But these nuggets have a championship frequency that can be clearly seen in the three games of this series. The nuggets simply know what to do in the games and the thunder have to fight in the two close games in the series.

The Nuggets started overtime with a 7-0 run, an increase that Oklahoma City would not recover. Denvers will always go to his two-man game by Murray and Jokić in the last five minutes. In contrast, Oklahoma City neither had a good insult in the last minutes of regulation or in the extension. This is the reason why the nuggets in this series have a 2-1 lead and two victories are from an important second round. – Tony Jones, personnel author

Lu there fights on the offensive

In all intentions and purposes, Lu does a solid job there, whose main task in this series is to heal Jamal Murray for 48 minutes. Murray ended the evening with 27 points for 19 shots (9 made field gates), but most of his goals came from there, either when he was off the ground, switched off or on the free -wing line. On a night when Jokić was also held in a rare night with low eefficient, attempts to delay Murray's inevitable hits were admirable.

But at the other end, it has decreased in these playoff efficiency efficiency of the ground distance, which violates the thunder enormously. There only finished 3 points and missed all four of his 3S. Before the evening, 29.3 percent in the post -season, after he had remarkably better ended the regular season (41.2 percent at 5.8 attempts per game).

Sometimes there looked like a man who is not trusting in his offensive game and spent decent looks out of the scope and lacked simple shots around the edge. The thunder is offensive to give good shots for great pictures, but after the metrics, Oklahoma City was actually a better defensive team than was on the bench.

Due to his offensive fights, the first half of the fourth was glued to the bench for a critical first half, with Alex Caruso getting his minutes. There would finally be 36 seconds out of the game with 36 seconds in extra time, with the game already decided. This season he probably has an all-defensive team on the way, but he has to quickly freak out of his break-in at the other end of the floor. If not, the season of the thunder could be over early. – Kelly Iko, personnel author

Cavaliers 126, Pacers 104

(Pacers Lead Series 2-1)

A complete victory

No wild comebacks and no stars that are missing in action.

Just a complete, brave victory of the Cavs, which urgently needed one.

As The athlete Garland (bricked up Big Toe), Mabley (bricked up ankles) and de'andre Hunter (bricked thumb) all used for game 3. The individual results were mixed, but together they seemed to bring together a team that had to show two difficult losses and questions about two difficult losses and questions throughout the season.

Mobley played like the NBA defensive player of the year and probably an all-NBA selection. The jumping power, the presence in the color, the gate and the ability to run the ground were all of Mobley, which showed practically no effects from the injury that he had to kick on Myles Turner's foot in game 1.

Garland shot 3 of 11 and started four fouls in the first half. He ended with 10 points, seemed to get going again in the third quarter, but returned to the game and started four sales. He hadn't played for more than two weeks and his presence was felt as a ball handler who could handle the Pacers printing.

Hunter shot 2 out of 6 for eight points in 20 minutes. His thumb is still swollen, but without asking him, it is difficult to see whether it was really disturbed by the injury. The greater story is what Hunter is concerned with that as a bank player he is part of a reserve unit that is exceeded by the Pacers. Bennedict Mathurin gave Indiana 23 points from the bank and TJ McConnell added 12 points. Ty Jerome is still struggling to Cleveland, and Kenny Atkinson carved some of the usual minutes from Jerome and gave them Sam Merrill.

Otherwise, the Pacers reduced a big deficit to 11 points in the fourth quarter before Mitchell ended their momentum. Mitchell achieved 14 in the fourth quarter and the collapse that this team suffered in game 2.

The Cavs also broke out a 3-2 zone, which the Pacers seemed to frustrate without end-a solid adaptation to the game to Atkinson. – Joe Vardon, senior writer

Beated back on the glass

After the second game of the series, the Pacers mentioned their need to improve the glass. In game 1 they ended with seven offensive rebounds and in game 2 there were a slight improvement to 11. On Friday evening they were killed again on the offensive glass. In the first half they had two offensive rebounds with four points of the second chance, while Cleveland had 13 offensive rebounds and 21 points of the second chance. In the second half, they only added two offensive rebounds and ended with four points of the second chance). Although it is not the whole difference, it is certainly still a pain point for Indiana that needs and stops all the chances that it can get.

The Pacers also fought from beyond the arch. In the first half, they shot 27.8 percent (5 out of 18) of 3 and missed 3 points at one point 13 in episode, including the last 11 of the first and the first two of the second. The second half was not much better. Indiana made only three out of eight 3-point attempts in the third quarter and ended with nine 3-point attempts from 30 chances. – Shakeia Taylor, staff author

Fighting star

Three days after drilling the game with the game, which gave the Pacers a 2-0 lead against the Cavs in their second round, Haliburton fought powerfully on Friday evening. The Star Point Guard from Indiana ended with a playoff career low of four points and marked the third time that he scored less than 10 points in the late season. He only shot 2: 8 from the field (25 percent), which was the second lowest brand of his post -season career, and only issued five templates.

Haliburton ended up awkwardly in game 2 on his left wrist, got an X -ray in the middle of the game and returned to the square with heavy wrist before drilling the game winner. He insisted that he was “okay” in training on Thursday, but his wrist was recorded again on Friday, and that could have contributed to his quiet night.

The defeat on Friday was also the first time that the Pacers lost a home playoff game in which Haliburton played. Indiana was previously 9-0 with Haliburton in the line -up, with the only defeats for the home game in the last two years in the final game of the Eastern Conference last season against the Celtics. Boston swept Indiana, but Haliburton had got out the way in the last two games in the Gainbridge Fieldhouse Fieldhouse due to a thigh injury. Pacers PR did not make Haliburton available to the media after the 22-point loss on Friday. – James Boyd, staff author

(Photo: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Pictures)