DENVER — The coach of the Clippers had never lost a Game 7, and so his players knew they could lean on Tyronn Lue to shepherd them in the most important game of their 2024-25 campaign.
But Lue was the first to say that he is the coach and doesn’t play, that his 4-0 mark in the seventh game of a playoff series is because “it takes really good players” to accomplish that tough feat and that he believed he had those really good players in Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and the rest of his crew to deal with the Denver Nuggets on Saturday in Game 7 at Ball Arena.
The odds, however, were against the Clippers winning this deciding game on the road and the Nuggets made sure they kept it in their favor with a 120-101 beatdown.
The home team had won 74.2% of the time in Game 7s, and by winning the best-of-seven series 4-3 over the Clippers, the Nuggets left little doubt while blowing the game open in the fourth quarter in building a 35-point lead.
When the Nuggets opened a 65-50 lead on an Aaron Gordon dunk, forcing a timeout, the fans began to chant, “Beat L.A.”
And they did in a big way, breaking the Clippers’ spirit in the third quarter with a 35-19 outburst, the start to sending the Clippers home for the summer to contemplate what might have been and sending the Nuggets for the second round against Oklahoma City.
Leonard had 22 points in 33 minutes.
But Harden was a disappointment again, his seven points on two-for-eight shooting another low-point for him in this series. He did have 13 assists.
The Nuggets, meanwhile, had six players score in double figures.
Nikola Jokic wasn’t as sharp as he has been this series, but he finished with 16 points on six-for-14 shooting, eight rebounds, eight assists and five fouls that limited his time on the court.
Gordon worked over the Clippers for 22 points, Jamal Murray had 16, and Clippers nemesis Russell Westbrook relished all of his 16 points against his former teammates.
Lue made a change to his lineup, inserting Derrick Jones Jr. as a starter in place of Kris Dunn and then starting Nicolas Batum in the third quarter over Jones, which was a sign to his team that he was willing to do what’s necessary in a Game 7.
“It takes really good players, and I think in Game 7s, the stars got to be stars,” Lue said before the game. “People say it’s a regular game, but we know it means more than that. … It’s about mentality, how you want to approach the game, what you want to do, if you want to be aggressive on both sides of the basketball. That’s the mentality that you have to have.”
Defense is where it was going to start for the Clippers and it’s what allowed them to be in control at the outset of the game.
They swarmed Jokic in the first, making it so tough that he missed his first five shots in the quarter and scored just two points.
They stifled Murray in the first 12 minutes, making it so difficult for him that he missed his first four shots and had just one point.
They put a grip on the Nuggets in the first quarter, holding them to 38.1% shooting from the field and 25% from three-point range and 21 points.
But all that momentum the Clippers had in the first shifted in the second quarter.
They were unable to hold the Nuggets for those 12 minutes, giving up 37 points, allowing them to make 50% of their shots and 50% (four for eight) from three-point range.
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