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There will be a Game 7! Nikola Jokic’s 34 points and 14 rebounds help lift the Denver Nuggets in a must-win Game 6 over the Los Angeles Clippers, 111-98.
Football wasn’t the only sporting event that went on yesterday. In a weird year for the Sports world, the NBA playoffs are heating up just as the NFL begins.
Basketball fans were treated to an entertaining upset victory by the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, thanks to a stellar performance by Jokic. The center was all over the floor, nabbing 14 rebounds and nailing 4 threes. Clippers’ star Forward Paul George finished with 33 points, but the valiant effort wasn’t enough for victory.
Not Going Away
The Nuggets have clawed and fought their way to get this point in the series, and the same was shown Sunday. Even after trailing by as many 18 points in the 3rd quarter, the Nuggets stayed alive.
Despite trailing 3-1 in this series, the Nuggets have held on. Even at 3-3, Denver is now just one win away from returning to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2009, and the just the 4th time in franchise history.
Jokic says his team is just out there having fun.
“Good” and “Amazing” are just some of the proper adjectives to describe Denver’s performance in the third and fourth quarter. From 8 minutes left in the 3rd until the final buzzer, Denver outscored Los Angeles 56 to 25.
Nuggets’ guard Jamal Murray made a few huge buckets midway through the third to eat into the deficit. This included an impressive and-1 with 5:16 left in the 3rd quarter, which cut the lead to just 7.
In the fourth, Jokic hit back-to-back clutch threes to increase Denver’s lead from 1 to 7 with under 8 minutes left. Denver never looked back.
Clippers star Kawhi Leonard said the team simply went cold in the 3rd quarter, and couldn’t keep up with Denver in the game’s final frame.
Leonard finished with 25 points and 8 rebounds but went 0-3 from the field in the third. The Clippers’ failure to close continues as they now fall to 0-7 in games where they could advance to the Conference Finals since 2014.
It all comes down to Game 7, and Leonard says the pressure of Game 7 is nothing new.
What’s Next?
These two will meet again for Game 7 on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. on ESPN.
