Denver qualified for the Western Conference final by winning Game 7 against the Los Angeles Clippers (104-89), who led 3-1 in the series. The Nuggets will find the other LA crossing, the Lakers.
The two Los Angeles franchises will not meet in the Western Conference Finals. A heroic Denver team prevented the holding of this poster, dreamed of since the start of the regular season for California. The Nuggets have offered the right to play in the conference final against the Lakers by winning Game 7 of their series against the LA Clippers (104-89) after being led 3-1. They completely reversed the course of this duel, as they did in the first round against Utah (4-3). This is the first time in the history of the NBA that a team has twice managed this type of comeback in the same play-offs.
Jokic-Murray, the fatal pair
They therefore offer a remake of the 2009 conference final. At the time, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups lost 4-2 against Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, future champions. But this time the duo are called Nikola Jokic / Jamal Murray and they are irresistible. The first landed a triple-double (16 pts, 22 rebounds, 13 assists), again assuming his nickname “Larry Bird 2.0”, and the second walked on the water (40 pts, 6/13 behind the bow ), without the California defense making waves.
It was between the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth that the Nuggets made a splash to come away by 15 points. And unlike them, who had made spectacular comebacks in the two previous matches (16 and 19 lengths behind), the Clippers never resurfaced.
The disillusionment is immense for the other team of LA which did not hide its ambitions of title and fails once again to reach the last four, whereas it has never been so close in fifty years of existence. His failure was total. Offensive, like the 14 and 10 points of the stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George authors of an unworthy 10/38 on shots, defensive by letting the opponent enter one shot out of two, and psychological, Doc Rivers having finally not found the words to revive his players.
