Denver had the chance to close out the series on Thursday night, as despite the game being in Los Angeles, the Nuggets could end the series in six games and move on to face the Oklahoma City Thunder. However, as was expected after the first game of the series, neither of these teams is going down without a fight.
After a strong scoring effort from the Los Angeles Clippers' trio of James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, and Norman Powell, the Denver Nuggets fell 111-105 as the series returns to Denver for Game 7. Nikola Jokic had a bounce-back performance, scoring 25 points, but interim head coach David Adelman wasn't fond of the officiating and made it known after the game.
"Nikola gets fouled a lot. I'm not sure what was happening tonight, but for him to shoot two free throws with the amount of contact that was going on out there was absolutely crazy. They put smalls on him," Adelman said after the loss. Jokic's two free-throw attempts are his lowest of the postseason so far.
"Those smalls were allowed to do whatever they want, so I'm really excited for Saturday that we're going to be able to do the same thing with their best players, because if that's the physicality we're allowed to play with, we'll react to it, and we will go there in Game 7," Adelman added. In terms of the free-throw differential, the Nuggets had nine compared to the Clippers' 15.
Looking ahead to Game 7 as Adelman and the Nuggets look to close out the series with a win, the game will be played on Saturday with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m. EST.
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