LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Nikola Jokic picked out two birthday presents for his coach. He just didn’t know which one he would be wrapping.
“Before the game I told him, ‘Coach, I’m going to give you a really good present — I’m going to get you home or I’m going to get you to the conference finals,’” the Nuggets center said.
Michael Malone was thrilled with the present he received.
Denver’s dynamic duo of Jamal Murray and Jokic led another stunning turnaround as the Nuggets advanced to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2009.
Murray scored 40 points, Jokic had a triple-double by the third quarter and Denver again overcame a double-digit deficit to shock the Los Angeles Clippers 104-89 in Game 7 on Tuesday night.
Denver became the first team in NBA history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit twice in the same postseason. The team beat Utah in Game 7 in the first round.
“Those guys stepped up on the biggest moment,” said Malone, who turned 49 on Tuesday. “You find out a lot about people in these moments. Man, did we pass the character test or what?”
Even more history: The Nuggets are the third team in the U.S. major pro sports to rally from a pair of 3-1 deficits in the same playoffs, joining the 1985 Kansas City Royals and 2003 Minnesota Wild.
“It’s fun to silence everybody,” said Murray, who scored 25 in the first half.
They certainly quieted the noise around the Clippers, who hoped the additions of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George would lead them to their first-ever conference finals — and beyond. But LA’s stars fell flat.
“It hurts. It hurts. But we move on,” George said. “Year 1 together, first run together, of course we wanted to win this. But we’ve been very optimistic about us being together and building something going down the road.”
Leonard finished with 14 points on 6-of-22 shooting, while George had 10 points on 4-of-16 shooting. The Clippers fell to 0-8 all-time in games where they could clinch a trip to the conference finals.
This marked the third time that coach Doc Rivers was on the losing end of a series where his team led 3-1. It also happened when he was with Orlando against Detroit in 2003, and with the Clippers against Houston in 2015.
“I’m the coach and I’ll take any blame for it. But we didn’t meet our expectations, clearly,” Rivers said.
The Nuggets celebrated in style after the game, dumping water on each other and jumping around in the locker room.
“This is a really interesting team,” Jokic said. “We don’t have many superstars.”
That’s debatable.
The 7-foot Jokic had a monster game with 16 points, 13 assists and 22 rebounds, which were the most by a Nuggets player in an NBA playoff game. He broke his record of 19 that he set last season and shared with Marcus Camby.
In a familiar trend, the Nuggets found themselves down by 12 in the first half. They also trailed 61-54 with 10:50 let in the third when they caught fire. The Nuggets went on a 35-13 run to build a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter.
They led by as many as 20.
Denver also rallied from double-digit deficits in its last two games to stun the Clippers.
“We were right there. There’s no excuses,” Leonard said. “We should have finished it off. Like I said, the last three games pretty much mirrored each other.”
Jokic insisted the third-seeded Nuggets weren’t feeling any pressure. He said Game 7 was just another game. After all, this was Denver’s fourth straight Game 7 dating to the playoffs last season.
“Honestly, you could just see the difference in the two teams. That team’s been together,” Rivers said. “We haven’t. And you could see it as the games went on.”
Denver’s plans were to enjoy the moment — briefly, anyway, before getting ready for the Lakers.
“You have to celebrate the moments,” Malone said. “This is a moment. It’s my birthday. We’re going to go party.”
TIP-INS
Nuggets: Jerami Grant and Gary Harris each had 14 points.
Clippers: G Landry Shamet turned his right ankle in the first quarter, limped down the floor, hit a 3-pointer and then hobbled to the locker room. He returned just before halftime. … Montrezl Harrell led the Clippers with 20 points.
The Nuggets coaching staff went with their customary all-black outfits (a nod to singer Johnny Cash). The Clippers wore salmon-colored polo shirts that have been lucky for them inside the bubble.
Just coaches being a little superstitious.
“I worked with coaches that knew the record of the ties they wore,” Malone said. “Yes, we are a weird group. We’ll look at any advantage necessary. As the jump ball goes up, it doesn’t matter what we’re wearing.”
MIAMI HEAT 117, BOSTON CELTICS 114 (Game 1 Eastern Conference Final)
Jayson Tatum thought he had a dunk to tie the game.
Bam Adebayo had other ideas — and in the biggest moment of his young NBA career, Miami’s All-Star big man more than rose to the occasion.
Jimmy Butler’s three-point play with 12 seconds left put Miami ahead for good, Adebayo finished it off with a stunning rejection of Tatum at the rim on the ensuing Boston possession, and the Heat struck first in the Eastern Conference finals with a 117-114 win in Game 1 on Tuesday night.
“When you have great competition like this, you just have to make plays that you can’t even really explain,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And that was Bam tonight.”
The Heat were down by 13 in the opening minutes, down by 14 in the final quarter and felt like a bad call took the lead from them in the final seconds. They found a way in overtime, improving to an NBA-best 9-1 so far in these playoffs.
Goran Dragic scored 29 points, Jae Crowder scored 22, Butler had 20 and Adebayo had 18. But even after a night when Butler made a go-ahead 3-pointer late in regulation and had the go-ahead-for-good points again in overtime, he pointed at Adebayo for his favorite moment.
“Bam. That seals the game for us,” Butler said. “I love how he does any and everything that you ask him to do. I really do. You ask him to pass the ball, he does that. Score, he does that. Come up with a huge defensive stop, block, he does that. He’s a huge part to our winning. I’ve been saying it all year long and I’ll repeat it again.”
Kemba Walker’s basket with 23.2 seconds left in overtime put Boston up by one, before Butler muscled his way to the rim for a score while getting fouled by Tatum. The Celtics went to Tatum on the ensuing possession, only to watch him get denied by Adebayo.
Tatum scored 30 points for the Celtics, Marcus Smart had 26 points, Walker had 19 and Jaylen Brown added 17. The Celtics had been 156-1 since the shot-clock era started 65 years ago — winners of 92 straight — when leading by 12 or more points going into the fourth quarter of a playoff game.
They’re 156-2 now.
“Got to make better decisions,” Walker said.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens tipped his cap to Adebayo afterward.
“He is a tremendous defender,” Stevens said. “We’re going to have to figure out, again, better ways to attack, especially late. I thought we really moved it at times, then we did get stagnant.”
Miami’s Tyler Herro was one assist shy of a triple-double — finishing with 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. He would have been the second-youngest player in the last 40 years to have a postseason triple-double, one day older than Magic Johnson was when he got his first.
Johnson weighed in postgame on Twitter, lauding Miami.
Boston led 85-71 early in the fourth and kept the lead for almost all of the final period — until Butler connected on a 3-pointer from the right corner with 22 seconds left for a 106-105 Miami edge.
The Celtics tied it before the clock even started again. Derrick Jones Jr. was called for an away-from-the-play foul while Miami defended the inbounds pass, a call where the Heat argued to no avail that he got shoved instead. Tatum went to the line, tied the game with the free throw, and Boston all of a sudden went from needing a score to being able to run out the clock.
Tatum’s 3-point try at the end of regulation was short, and to overtime they went.
“Made a hell of a block,” Adebayo said. “That doesn’t dictate the series, though. We’re only up 1-0.”
TIP-INS
Heat: Miami has gotten into early trouble in all three of its Game 1s in these playoffs — down eight to Indiana early in the first round, down 11 to Milwaukee in the opening quarter of the second round and down 13 to Boston in Tuesday’s first quarter. … Andre Iguodala, who played in zero conference-final games in his first 10 seasons, has now played in 22 since 2015.
Celtics: Boston’s record for consecutive Game 1 wins is 11, from 1985 through 1987. The Celtics won eight straight from 1959 through 1962. … Gordon Hayward (ankle) was inactive again, though the Celtics believe he can play in this series. … Brad Wanamaker had five steals for Boston.
MIAMI VS. BOSTON
Tuesday was the 141st meeting all-time between the Celtics and Heat. It also marked the 39th all-time matchup between the Boston Red Sox and Miami Marlins — but it was the first time those four clubs all faced off on the same date. The closest they previously came to colliding was 2012, when the Heat topped the Celtics in Game 7 of the East finals on June 9 and the Red Sox and Marlins opened a series two days later.
WELCOME, DEUCE
Tatum’s son young Deuce cleared quarantine and was reunited with his dad — and the rest of the Celtics — in the bubble on Tuesday. “Ultimately, it’s just nice for them to see their families,” Stevens said. “I walked down the hallway with Deuce today, which was the highlight of my 70 days here. I think that’s just really cool.”
Photo credit – Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press / Lake Buena Vista, FL