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Nikola Jokic had 30 points as the Denver Nuggets secured their ticket to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a thrilling 80-78 Game 7 victory over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old Serbian star, who also had 14 rebounds and four assists, had been in the background to scoring phenomenon Jamal Murray in the series, but Jokic was eliminated in the winner-take-all clash in Orlando, Florida. .
“We don’t give up. We just didn’t want to quit. I’m glad I won the game, ”Jokic said.
The Nuggets advance to the conference semifinals where they will face the Los Angeles Clippers in another best-of-seven series. Game 1 is Thursday in the NBA’s quarantine bubble in Florida.
Tuesday’s game ended with a wild sequence that included Utah’s Mike Conley firing a desperate shot at the bell that rang the basket but failed to land.
Donovan Mitchell also had a chance to tie on Utah’s previous possession, but fumbled on a drive to the basket. Denver immediately dropped to the other end, but they missed an easy layup on their final game possession that would have sealed it.
Murray scored 17 points and Michael Porter finished with 10 points and nine rebounds for the Nuggets who advanced in a series for the first time in franchise history after being three games to one down.
They are only the 12th team in league history to come back and advance after being down 3-1.
Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz with 22 points and nine rebounds.
In the Eastern Conference, Jayson Tatum scored 34 points in the playoffs and Marcus Smart scored five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as the Boston Celtics rallied to beat Toronto 102-99 in the second game of their series.
Kemba Walker finished with 17 points and Jaylen Brown had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Celtics, who took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal.
Game 3 is Thursday.
“Marcus Smart has been a winner since he got here,” said Celtics coach Brad Stevens of Smart, who finished with 19 points and six 3-pointers. “We’ve been in the playoffs every year since he was here and that’s not a coincidence.”
The teams were tied 28-28 at the end of the first quarter, but the defending NBA champions, the Raptors, led 78-70 going into the quarter.
OG Anunoby scored 20 points, Fred VanVleet finished with 19 points and seven assists and Pascal Siakam scored 17 points for the Raptors, who had opportunities to equalize but made some unusual mistakes down the stretch.
Kyle Lowry hit a pair of free throws with 61 seconds left to cut the Celtics’ lead to just one, 100-99, but that was the closest Toronto could get.
Losing has been an unknown sensation for the Raptors in the NBA bubble. Toronto had only lost one game during the seed round, a 122-100 setback for the Celtics.
Toronto had an eight-game winning streak at the start of this series, but has now lost both games to Boston.
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