{"id":36382,"date":"2025-05-16T05:33:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T05:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/36382\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T05:33:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T05:33:45","slug":"game-3-takeaways-as-la-takes-series-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/36382\/","title":{"rendered":"Game 3 takeaways as LA takes series lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Clippers vs. Nuggets: Best supporting cast<\/p>\n

For The Hoops crew analyze whether the Clippers or Nuggets have a stronger supporting cast, excluding Kawhi and Jokic.<\/p>\n

INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2212 The Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> trailed for most of the first quarter against the Denver Nuggets<\/a> before turning things around and giving the home fans something to cheer about after securing a 117-83 victory<\/a> in the Intuit Dome\u2019s playoff debut.<\/p>\n

After a slow start from Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, he found a rhythm and helped the Clippers pull away with the Game 3 win to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference first-round series.<\/p>\n

Leonard produced a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds. He also had six assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was like opening night stuff,\u201d Clippers veteran Nicolas Batum said. \u201cWe kind of messed up our (regular season) opening night in October against Phoenix. \u2026 (The fans) were amazing, expecting them to be even better on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Tyronn Lue and Leonard were among those who also spoke highly about the fan support from the Wall, which is the Clippers-only fan section at the Intuit Dome, and its location near the Nuggets\u2019 bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody came out,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cThe Wall was great and cheering all night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuggets led the Clippers for the first 10:30 of the opening period before James Harden\u2019s two-point shot from four feet put the Clippers ahead of the Nuggets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shot put the Clippers ahead 29-28 against the Nuggets with 1:30 left first quarter.<\/p>\n

It was a lead they wouldn’t give up for the rest of the game and used a 13-0 scoring run to bolster a 42-28 lead.<\/p>\n

Harden had 20 points, nine assists and six rebounds and Norman Powell added to the scoring attack with 20 points of his own.<\/p>\n

Game 3 updates, highlights: Clippers take control of series vs. Nuggets<\/a><\/p>\n

David Adelman comments on Clippers\u2019 fan section<\/p>\n

Fans of the Clippers rallied Wednesday following comments made by Denver Nuggets<\/a> interim head coach David Adelman.<\/p>\n

Adelman spoke to the reporters regarding \u201cthe Wall\u201d and the arena\u2019s sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the crowd toward our bench,\u201d Adelman said Wednesday. \u201cIt’s like a high school crowd, which is actually really cool. And the other thing is they pump sound in the place. That place is so loud… so that building, it’s very loud whether the crowd is cheering or not.”<\/p>\n

Members of the Wall found a horse hat at their seats to wear before the game. Nuggets star Nikola Joki\u0107 is known to have a love and passion for horses and harness racing.<\/p>\n

Adelman was asked during his pregame media availability on Thursday about the horse hat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat could be a motivational factor. Hopefully, not to go home,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cI do think it\u2019s unique that they\u2019re trying this. I think it\u2019s really cool. I know people got out of sorts because I said \u2018pumping noise\u2019 or whatever. It\u2019s just really loud\u2026 I love what they\u2019re doing here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA needs more of that. More creativity. That\u2019s what we used to know when I grew up\u2026 I miss that, so it will be cool to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

NBA AWARDS FINALISTS ARE IN: MVP, rookie, defensive, clutch player of year races revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

Westbrook injury update<\/p>\n

Russell Westbrook was a limited participant for Thursday\u2019s game after being injured during pregame warmups.<\/p>\n

Westbrook scored three points, a rebound and an assist in nine minutes of play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Westbrook had left foot inflammation and was considered questionable after rolling his ankle. He shot 1-for-5 from the field (all attempts from the three-point line).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clippers vs. Nuggets: Best supporting cast For The Hoops crew analyze whether the Clippers or Nuggets have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[299,7,559,301,187,267,521,519,527,517,560,914,850,529,4034,192,4032,851,298,251,135,4033,4031,54,79,70,85,6,11,67,913,253,53,302,61,134,34,132,518,66,83,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-36382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-angeles","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-denver","12":"tag-denver-nuggets","13":"tag-exclude","14":"tag-exclude-smart-fronts","15":"tag-fronts","16":"tag-harden","17":"tag-james","18":"tag-james-harden","19":"tag-jokic","20":"tag-kawhi","21":"tag-kawhi-leonard","22":"tag-la","23":"tag-la-clippers","24":"tag-laclippers","25":"tag-leonard","26":"tag-los","27":"tag-los-angeles","28":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","29":"tag-losangeles","30":"tag-losangelesclippers","31":"tag-modular","32":"tag-modular-story","33":"tag-national","34":"tag-national-sports","35":"tag-nba","36":"tag-nba-playoffs","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-nikola","39":"tag-nikola-jokic","40":"tag-now","41":"tag-nuggets","42":"tag-overall","43":"tag-overall-positive","44":"tag-playoffs","45":"tag-positive","46":"tag-smart","47":"tag-sports","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-story"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}