He insisted that his group could play better and had to play better even though the Clippers snatched home-court advantage away from the Nuggets by winning Game 2 in Denver.
That didn’t matter to Clippers coach Tyronn Lue.
What mattered to Lue was his team pushing itself to a higher level against the Nuggets.
The Clippers found another gear, fielding a stingy defense and a balanced scoring attack that helped them build a 31-point lead en route to a convincing 117-83 win over the Nuggets on Thursday night. The rowdy crowd celebrated the first playoff game ever hosted at the Intuit Dome.
Six Clippers scored in double figures and that was a big reason they now have a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference first-round playoff series.
After a slow start to the series, Norman Powell appears to have found his groove, scoring 20 points on seven-for-12 shooting.
Kawhi Leonard had a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds in 35 minutes.
James Harden scored all 20 of his points in the first half to go along with nine assists and six rebounds.
Ivica Zubac had 19 points and nine rebounds, Nicholas Batum came off the bench to score 12 points, doing his damage by going four for six from the three-point line, and Derrick Jones Jr. had 10 points.
“We can play better, we got to play better,” Lue said before tipoff. “We have to play better, and that’s our mindset. Like, we got a win there, but I think we still can play better.”
The Clippers played perhaps their best defense of the series, holding the Nuggets to 40.3% shooting and 26.9% from three-point range while keeping their offense out of sorts all game.
And so with four minutes and 34 seconds left and the Nuggets about to go down by 26 points, Nuggets interim coach David Adelman pulled his starters to get them ready for Game 4 at the Intuit Dome on Saturday afternoon.
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic had his second straight triple-double with 23 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists, but the Clippers overcame his outstanding play.
Harden set the tone early for the Clippers, his shot-making and passing allowing them to open a seven-point lead to end the first quarter.
Harden scored 11 of the Clippers’ final 16 points in the first and assisted on three more when he found Batum for a three-pointer with 1.5 seconds left in the first. Harden had 20 points in the first half on six-for-10 shooting and three for five from three-point range.
It allowed the Clippers to build a 20-point lead in the second quarter, adding to it as the crowd cheered on the dominant performance.
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