Clippers’ season ends with blowout loss to Nuggets in Game 7

DENVER — The way the first-round playoff series between the Clippers and the Denver Nuggets had gone, most expected the teams to produce a tight Game 7, if not another down-to-the-wire thriller.

After a pressure-cooker performance in Game 6 at the Intuit Dome extended the series to the limit, the Clippers came up well short on Saturday at Ball Arena, losing 120-101 in a game that was far more lopsided than the final score indicated.

The Nuggets used a dominant second quarter to turn a five-point deficit into an 11-point halftime lead then opened the third quarter with a 17-3 run to seize control of the game for good. Denver outscored the Clippers 72-40 in the middle two quarters and cruised across the finish line.

“I think we could have put up a better effort for sure,” Clippers star Kawhi Leonard said. “At the time, I don’t think this (Nuggets) team was 30 points better than us. We’ve seen it throughout the first six games of the series. But I’ve got to give them credit, they came out with the ball, ran hard in transition, got easy points and they made shots.”

The imported “Wall” of 125 Clippers fans, whose game tickets and airfare were funded by team owner Steve Ballmer to try to recreate a condensed version of the group of superfans that packs the section behind one of the baskets at the Intuit Dome, was rowdy after one quarter but looked as bewildered as the Clippers’ bench when the Nuggets ran away with the game.

Leonard started the second half with a 3-pointer to cut the Clippers’ deficit to 58-50, but Nikola Jokic hit a fallaway 16-footer to begin the onslaught. Aaron Gordon fed Christian Braun for a 3-pointer and then dunked to make it 65-50 and prompt a Clippers timeout.

James Harden missed a short jumper and Norman Powell had a turnover and a layup blocked, while the Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr. drained a pair of 3-pointers to send the arena into a frenzy. Gordon tipped in a Jamal Murray miss to make it 75-50 with 8:12 left in the third quarter. Jokic converted a three-point play and Gordon dunked off a lob pass from Braun to give Denver a 28-point lead with 5:40 left in the third.

For much of the second half, the Clippers simply looked lost. At one point in the fourth quarter, they trailed by 35.

“We didn’t do a good job in transition defense. They got out in transition, and the steals they did have, they were pick-sixes. They were dunks and layups,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “Then when they found that offensive rhythm, it was hard to stop. I thought (Nuggets interim coach David Adelman) did a great job of just putting guys in position to be successful, and they picked us apart.”

Gordon had 22 points and Braun scored 21 to pace the Nuggets. Jokic finished two assists away from his fourth triple-double of the series (16 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists), but the three-time league MVP picked up his third, fourth and fifth fouls over a 48-second span late in the third and went to the bench. He played only a few minutes in the fourth quarter.

“Everybody got involved,” Lue said. “When you play into a good team like that and try to take the best player in the world out, he sets everything up for everybody else.”

Murray added 16 points, Porter had 15 points and six rebounds and former Clipper Russell Westbrook had 16 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals off the bench, playing a huge role in the second quarter.

“In playoffs, we know that everybody needs to step up, offensively, defensively, whatever, energy-wise. And everybody who plays needs to contribute something,” Jokic said. “It was special today the guys did that.”

The Clippers were seeded fifth in a tightly-packed Western Conference, but they went into the postseason as the hottest team in the league. A team that waited until early January for Leonard to make his season debut as he rehabbed his surgically repaired knee won 18 of its last 21 regular-season games with the two-time NBA Finals MVP looking as good as he had in years.

“Once (Leonard) got back and got to play like himself, I thought we really put together a strong run, you know, winning 18 out of 21 and get to this position. I thought that was really good,” said Lue, whose team has three first-round playoff exits and an 0-2 play-in showing since reaching the 2021 Western Conference finals. “… I’m proud of the guys and everybody in that locker room for what we were able to accomplish as far as staying together and winning 50 games. You hate to see them go out like this in a Game 7, so that’s very disappointing.”

Leonard, who had a team-high 22 points in Game 7, was nearly unguardable for stretches of this series, particularly in Game 2, when he scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting.

Harden, who had 28 points in a bounce-back performance in Game 6, went cold in the finale. He had 13 assists but was held to seven points on 2-of-8 shooting (1 for 4 from 3-point shooting), with Braun leading the defensive effort against him.

“Everybody behind me allowed me to guard him. But I think maybe the biggest part was Russ,” Braun said. “He’s played against James, he’s played with James, so he knows his game. … The coaches trusted me tonight. We didn’t want to switch. They kept me on him all night. So, credit goes to those guys and the coaches.”

Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 12 off the bench and Derrick Jones Jr. also had 12, but Clippers center Ivica Zubac had his quietest scoring game of the series with 10 points and 14 rebounds. Norman Powell had nine points on 4-of-11 shooting (0 for 3 from 3-point range), and Kobe Brown added 13 points off the bench.

The Nuggets began celebrating early in the fourth quarter when Westbrook willingly received a technical foul for hanging on the rim and swinging back and forth after his steal and dunk put Denver up 107-76.

The Clippers’ reserves cut a 35-point deficit into the teens late in the fourth, but the Nuggets’ lead was too big to overcome and their 19-point win was their biggest in a Game 7 in franchise history.

The fourth-seeded Nuggets advance to take on top-seeded Oklahoma City, which swept eighth-seeded Memphis in the first round and has had a week off. That series begins Monday night in OKC.