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THE DENVER NUGGETS survived a frenzied finish to complete a rally from a 3-1 postseason deficit Tuesday night, earning a green-light ring from Nikola Jokic with 27.8 seconds remaining for an 80-78 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 7 of his Western. Conference first-round series in the NBA bubble near Orlando.
The 4-3 victory brings the third-seeded Nuggets, who had never before rallied to win a series from down 3-1, into a second-round showdown with the second-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, beginning Thursday night. night.
After sixth-seeded Utah tied at 78 on a dunk by Rudy Gobert with 47.5 seconds left, the Nuggets went inside Jokic against the Jazz’s ace defender, and the Denver big came in with a hook shot. short in the lane for the final game points.
The Jazz had two subsequent possessions.
First, the Nuggets took the ball away from Donovan Mitchell with 8.4 seconds to go. But instead of trying to run out the clock, Denver threw the ball across the floor and watched Torrey Craig miss a disputed layup with 4.4 seconds remaining.
Gobert bounced back and passed the ball to Mike Conley, who got a good look at a potential game-winning triple just before the final horn, but missed the shot.
Winning for the third time in a row after falling behind 3-1 in the series, the Nuggets prevailed despite scoring just 17 points on seven of 21 shots from Jamal Murray, who suffered a bruise to his thigh in a collision with Joe Ingles of Utah in the second quarter and it was never the same.
Jokic led the Nuggets with a game-high 30 points, completing a double-double with 14 rebounds.
Michael Porter Jr. contributed 10 points off the bench for Denver, which he won despite shooting just 37.3% and scoring just 30 points in the second half.
After a slow start, Mitchell led the Jazz with 22 points, hitting nine of 22, while Gobert had 19 to complement the game-high 18 rebounds.
Mitchell hit a pair of 3s (on eight attempts), giving him 33 3s in all seven games and allowing him to break Stephen Curry’s postseason record of 32 in a single drive, set in 2016. Murray finished with 32 3s in the series, though he only hit one of six from long range on Tuesday.
Jordan Clarkson added 10 points for Utah, which had never before lost a playoff series in which it led 3-1.
After Mitchell’s 13 points in the third quarter put the Jazz in contention after trailing by up to 19 points, Conley and Gobert combined for all points in an 8-0 run to start the fourth period and give Utah its first lead since the first quarter at 68-65.
Subsequently, Denver regained a four-point lead on two consecutive hoops from Murray, the latter making it 78-74 with 1:43 to play.
But Utah made one last charge, reuniting in a tie at 78 with 47.5 seconds to go to the hoops of Royce O’Neal and Gobert, both assisted by Conley, setting up the wild finish.
Mitchell was limited to two points in the first 22 minutes, during which the Jazz trailed by as many as 10 in the first quarter and 19 in the second. – Reuters
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