Associated Press
\n\u00a0|\u00a0 Associated Press<\/p>\n
Inglewood, Calif. \u2014 With the Los Angeles Clippers’ season on the brink, Tyronn Lue took the unusual step of checking in with several players by phone on their off day. The coach said he “took a lot of temperatures,” making sure they were mentally ready to fight for their playoff lives.<\/p>\n
In Game 6, the Clippers answered his call.<\/p>\n
James Harden had 28 points and eight assists in an outstanding bounce-back performance, Kawhi Leonard added 27 points and the Clippers forced a seventh game in their first-round NBA playoff series with a 111-105 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Norman Powell scored 24 points for the Clippers, who rebounded from back-to-back losses with an impressive effort at new Intuit Dome. Los Angeles took control in the second half while playing tenacious defense on Nikola Jokic, who scored 20 of his 25 points in the first half.<\/p>\n
“I give our guys credit for just staying with it,” Lue said. “(They) don’t get deflated, and we did a good job. … I told the guys after the game, it’s about being a team and whatever it takes to win. Those guys totally understood it.”<\/p>\n
Game 7 is Saturday in Denver.<\/p>\n
Jamal Murray scored 21 points for the Nuggets, who lost a potential series-clinching playoff game for the fourth time in five tries over the past two seasons since their 2023 championship run. Denver also blew a 3-2 series lead over Minnesota in the second round last season.<\/p>\n
The Nuggets haven’t won a Game 7 since 2020, when they ousted the Clippers from the conference semifinals in the Florida bubble.<\/p>\n
“They were quicker to the punch,” Murray said. “They played with a lot more desperation because their backs were against the wall, and you’ve got to give them credit. The whole game, they brought it.”<\/p>\n
The Clippers were pushed to this comeback win by the 35-year-old Harden, who played aggressively and craftily after receiving criticism for a passive effort in Game 5. Leonard also stepped up, with the two-time NBA champion adding 10 rebounds and five assists in an assertive outing.<\/p>\n
“It was win or go home, so there were opportunities to be aggressive, and I took them,” Harden said. “One more game. … We didn’t want to go home. We’ve got one more game left.”<\/p>\n
Ivica Zubac and Nicolas Batum teamed up for a surprisingly effective defensive effort on the typically unguardable Jokic. The three-time MVP was held scoreless for 11 minutes in the third quarter and went only 2 for 9 in the second half.<\/p>\n
Eastern Conference playoff scheduleNew York vs. Detroit<\/p>\n
(New York wins 4-2)<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 1: New York 123-112<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 2: Detroit 100-94<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 3: New York 118-116<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 4: New York 94-93<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 5: Detrot 106-103<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 6: New York 116-113<\/p>\n
Cleveland vs. Miami<\/p>\n
(Cleveland wins 4-0)<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 1: Cleveland 121-100<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 2: Cleveland 121-112<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 3: Cleveland 124-87<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 4: Cleveland 138-83<\/p>\n
Indiana vs. Milwaukeee<\/p>\n
(Indiana wins 4-1)<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 1: Indiana 117-98<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 2: Indiana 123-115<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 3: Milwaukee 117-101<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 4: Indiana 129-103<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 5: Indiana 110-119 (OT)<\/p>\n
Boston vs. Orlando<\/p>\n
(Boston wins 4-1)<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 1: Boston 103-86<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 2: Boston 109-100<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 3: Orlando 95-93<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 4: Boston 107-98<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 5: Boston 120-89<\/p>\n
Western Conference playoff scheduleGolden State vs. Houston<\/p>\n
(Golden State leads 3-2)<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 1: Golden State 95-85<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 2: Houston 109-94<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 3: Golden State 104-93<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 4: Golden State 109-106<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 5: Houston 131-116<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 6: Friday, May 2 at Golden State, 9 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 7: x-Sunday, May 4 at Houston, TBA<\/p>\n
Denver vs. L.A. Clippers<\/p>\n
(Tied 3-3)<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 1: Denver 112-110 (OT)<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 2: L.A. Clippers 105-102<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 3: L.A. Clippers 117-83<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 4: Denver 101-99<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 5: Denver 131-115<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 6: L.A. Clippers 111-105<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 7: x-Saturday, May 3 at Denver, TBA<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City vs. Memphis<\/p>\n
(Oklahoma City wins 4-0)<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 1: Oklahoma City 131, Memphis 80<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 2: Oklahoma City 118-99<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 3: Oklahoma City 114-108<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 4: Oklahoma City 117-115<\/p>\n
Minnesota vs. L.A. Lakers<\/p>\n
(Minnesota wins 4-1)<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 1: Minnesota 117-95<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 2: L.A. Lakers 94-85<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 3: Minnesota 116-104<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 4: Minnesota 116-113<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Game 5: Minnesota 103-96<\/p>\n
x-If necessary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Associated Press \u00a0|\u00a0 Associated Press Inglewood, Calif. \u2014 With the Los Angeles Clippers’ season on the brink, Tyronn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[299,7,559,1135,301,187,2159,532,850,529,851,298,135,70,85,6,11,67,302,61,134,34,132,66,83,2160],"class_list":{"0":"post-6338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-angeles","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-co","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-nuggets","14":"tag-ivica","15":"tag-ivica-zubac","16":"tag-kawhi","17":"tag-kawhi-leonard","18":"tag-leonard","19":"tag-los","20":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","21":"tag-national","22":"tag-national-sports","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-nba-playoffs","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-nuggets","27":"tag-overall","28":"tag-overall-positive","29":"tag-playoffs","30":"tag-positive","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-sports-news","33":"tag-zubac"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114437597694206366","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6338","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=6338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}