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The Denver Nuggets became the first team in NBA history to have six or more players score 14+ points in a Game 7 during their dominant win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. The No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder will be awaiting the Nuggets for their second-round matchup. It'll be the sixth time in the past seven seasons that the Nuggets advanced to the second round of the NBA Playoffs.
Aaron Gordon led the Nuggets in scoring with 22 points, followed by teammates Christian Braun with 21 and Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, and Russell Westbrook all with 16. Meanwhile, Kawhi Leonard (22 points) was the only player on the Clippers to score over 13. In what started as a close game quickly became a blowout, so here's a full breakdown for each half that led to Denver's emphatic 120-101 win.
The Clippers came out of the gate putting the clamps down on the Nuggets throughout the first quarter, forcing them to shoot just 38.1 percent from the field. Jokic didn't score a single basket, despite racking up six assists, while teammate Braun led all players in scoring with nine points heading into the second. Clippers star guard James Harden also spent most of the first quarter without putting up any points until in the final two minutes. But it was Clippers teammate Derrick Jones Jr. who led the team in scoring heading into the second period with seven on the board.
The second quarter, however, was all Nuggets despite Jokic and Murray starting off the game 0-8 from the field. Denver ended up shooting a whopping 50 percent (13/26) from the field after a first quarter where they shot just 38.1 percent, carrying over into the second quarter a 16-4 run. Clippers, on the other hand, shot 40 percent (8/20), with Leonard carrying a heavy load. The team started the second quarter missing five straight shots, leaving the Nuggets plenty of opportunity to retaliate. But after the Nuggets went on their run, Leonard got them back on track with a three-pointer followed by an and-one.
Going into the second quarter down 26-21, the Nuggets surged by putting up 37 points to take a commanding 58-47 lead at halftime. Nuggets' 14 fast break points overtook the Clippers' four, along with 17 bench points to the Clippers' seven. In the third quarter, Denver took it up another level, but this time way above what they did in the second quarter. After Leonard made the first shot of the half, Denver went on a 21-0 run that was kick-started by a Jokic floater.
Eventually, Michael Porter Jr. drained a pair of threes to put the Nuggets up by a game-high 23 points (at the time). While it may not have lasted long, the Nuggets did have a 29-point lead just a minute before heading into the fourth quarter. Between Russell Westbrook putting back his own missed free throw and Aaron Gordon's 180 alley oop, the Nuggets had complete momentum as they started to embarrass a Clippers team that saw themselves down 93-66 heading into the fourth.
Denver was shooting over 52 percent from the field following the third quarter and 45 percent from three. The fourth period was one where Clippers fans turned off their TVs to watch something else. The Nuggets eventually got out to a game-high 35-point lead that forced them to play their bench players with six minutes left in the game.
