Russell Westbrook lets the Clippers hear it after big-time flush (0:22)
Russell Westbrook doesn’t hold back on his former team as he slams it home to secure a Game 7 win. (0:22)
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ESPN News Services
May 3, 2025, 10:20 PM ET
DENVER — Nikola Jokic got plenty of help from his teammates, and the Denver Nuggets weren’t about to let up when they built a big lead and raced past the LA Clippers in a 120-101 Game 7 laugher Saturday night.
The No. 4 seed Nuggets, who led by as many as 35 points, advanced to take on the No. 1-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, who swept Memphis in the first round and have had a week off. The teams split their season series 2-2, with both teams winning one on the road.
The Clippers’ season came to a screeching halt after they’d entered the playoffs as the hottest team in the league, having won 18 of 21.
Jokic had 16 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. Aaron Gordon led Denver with 22 points, Christian Braun had 21, Jamal Murray and Russell Westbrook chipped in 16 each, and Michael Porter Jr. scored 15. Denver is the first team in Game 7 history to have at least 6 players score 15 points, according to ESPN Research.
“I thought it reminded me of the year we won it,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. “I thought our rotation in the playoffs, not the regular season that year, held water the whole time. And made impact plays defensively.”
Kawhi Leonard led Los Angeles with 22 points, but James Harden scored only 7 points on 2-of-8 shooting and Ivica Zubac had his quietest game of the series with 10 points.
Hanging over the Nuggets all season was their Game 7 fiasco in Round 2 last year when they blew a 20-point second-half lead to the Minnesota Timberwolves just when it looked as though they were primed to defend the franchise’s first NBA championship.
And after frittering away a 22-point fourth-quarter advantage in Game 4 of this series — only to be saved by the first buzzer-beating dunk in NBA playoff history, courtesy of Gordon — the Nuggets and the Ball Arena crowd only grew more energized instead of anxious as the lead kept growing and the Clippers kept missing.
The Nuggets blew this one open with a 17-0 run in the third quarter after Leonard started the second half with a 3-pointer to cut L.A.’s deficit to 58-50.
Los Angeles led 26-21 after one quarter, but the Clippers were outscored 72-40 during the second and third quarters to trail 93-66 heading into the fourth quarter.
After picking up his third, fourth and fifth fouls over a 48-second span late in the third, Jokic went to the bench and watched his team continue to roll. He sat the entire fourth quarter.
The Nuggets began celebrating early in the fourth quarter when Westbrook willingly took a technical for hanging on the rim and swinging back and forth after his steal and dunk put Denver up 107-76.
“Man, close-out games are very difficult in this league, and being a part of Game 7s is difficult,” Westbrook said. “But I do think my job for this team is to bring my energy, bring my competitive spirit, nature — whatever that may be. And I think I told y’all this after Game 1 — excuse my language for my kids at home — but to go in and f— s— up. That’s what I did.”
Adelman emptied his bench with a 111-81 lead with 5:23 left. But the Clippers went on a 7-0 run and Adelman sent his starters back in at the four-minute mark.
The Clippers ended up cutting a 35-point deficit into the teens, but Denver’s lead, for a change, was too big to overcome. The Nuggets’ 19-point win was their biggest in a Game 7 in the franchise’s playoff history.
Courtesy of team owner Steve Ballmer, more than 100 Clippers fans were flown to Denver and assembled behind one of the baskets to provide extra noise. It’s an extension of “The Wall,” a section for a group of superfans at the Intuit Dome — also behind a basket — for Clippers games in Los Angeles.
The Nuggets had lost four of their previous five closeout games since winning the franchise’s only NBA championship two years ago. The Clippers also were the victims the last time Denver won a Game 7. That came in the conference semifinals in the Florida bubble when the Nuggets overcame a 3-1 series deficit.
“We’ve done this. We’ve seen this. We’ve been through this before. We’ve succeeded. So yeah … feel blessed to get out of this thing,” Adelman said. “Like I said, this is a memorable series. We just don’t really have time right now to remember it. Enjoy tonight, have a glass of red wine or whatever you like doing, but we fly to OKC tomorrow.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
