Denver – Through two games, one thing is clear. Nothing is going to be easy in a series of playoffs in the first round between the Clippers and the Denver Nuggets.
After having finished on the wrong side of a thriller in overtime when opening the series on Saturday, the Clippers won an effort of 39 points from the star striker Kawhi Leonard to a 105-102 victory in match 2 Monday evening, dragging the advantage at home in the series of best-sept while she spends Los Angeles for the next two games.
Leonard propelled the clippers through the finish line on Monday, leading a vintage performance in a game that had 18 head changes and 12 links. The double MVP of the NBA final pulled 15 for 19 on the field (4 for 7 in the range of 3 points), hit a laundry mid -range basket and had a flight in the last minute.
Leonard stole a pass from Nikola Jokic with 37 seconds to play, but James Harden missed at the other end and the Christian Braun of the Nuggets caught the defensive rebound with 11 seconds to play. Braun was long on a 3 -point attempt with six seconds to play, and Jokic caught the rebound but also missed a 3 -point test with a remaining second.
Match 3 and 4 are Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon at Intuit Dome, where the Clippers went 30-11 during the regular season.
James Harden collected 18 points and seven assists, Ivica Zubac collected 16 points and 12 rebounds and Norman Powell added 13 points for the clippers to seed.
Jokic had his 19th triple-double in career playoffs for nuggets of the fourth seeded (26 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists), but he had seven of the 20 reversals of his team and missed four of 10 attempts to launch free. Jamal Murray collected 23 points and six assists, Michael Porter Jr. collected 15 points and 15 rebounds and Russell Westbrook contributed to 14 points from the bench.
The Clippers have not lost consecutive matches since March 2 to 4, a section of 23 games, and they gave the Nuggets coach David Adelman, his first defeat in five games since his replacement Michael Malone in an amazing movement on the eve of the playoffs.
The mid -range plans worked early and often for Leonard.
Leonard scored 12 of his points at the first quarter. At the end of the period, he fell Murray on the basic line while the camidaled Canadian. Leonard turned to help, but still overturned on 11 feet, removing the air from the crowd from the balloon arena.
He had 21 points at halftime and missed only one of his 10 shots before the break. He again deflated the crowd of Denver with a buzzer at half-time, making a pointer of 3 ridiculous points with two defenders on him to break an equality of 52 years.
With baskets in a timely time on the section, Leonard kept the clippers locked in a back and forth match. He also took care of the ball, returning him only once compared to his seven gifts in match 1. As a team, the Clippers reduced their total turnover by 20 in the opening of the series to 11 in match 2.
Of the six goal attempts on the jokic field, five were from behind the arc. In the middle of the third quarter, his frustration began to boil. After a Leonard basket at 8:07 am, Jokic was obviously upset by the teammates, then a few goods later, he hung and sank Zubac for an offensive fault. A few minutes later, he missed a pair of free throws.
In the section, Westbrook again had an impact against his former team. In match 1, a 3-point in 3 Westbrook gave the Nuggets an advance which finally helped push the game into overtime. Halfway through the fourth quarter of the match 2, he hit two 3 points from the corner to erase a six-point clipper advance and roar the arena.
More to come to this story.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
