James Harden, Kawhi Leonard lead Clippers to force Game 7

Brad James: The Clippers prevail 111-105 over the Nuggets to force Game 7 (Saturday at 5:30 pm MDT) Los Angeles shoots 50 percent for the game. Harden: 28/8/6, 10-20-Clippers Denver shoots 52 percent in the loss. Jokić: 25/8/7, 11-22, 2-4 from range-Nuggets -via x.com / May 2, 2025

One of the most interesting things that happened in Game 5 of the Nuggets-Clippers series was Ty Lue’s decision to use James Harden as the primary defender on Nikola Jokic for stretches of the game. Before Game 5, Harden had rarely matched up with Jokic. But in Game 5, he spent almost as many possessions defending Jokic as Ivica Zubac did. In some ways, it worked. Jokic had a pedestrian performance (by his standards), scoring only 13 points and shooting just 4-for-13 from the field. One could easily envision an alternate reality where the Nuggets didn’t shoot 50 percent from three in Game 5 and we’re sitting here today talking about what a genius Ty Lue is for putting Harden on Jokic. -via Substack / May 1, 2025

Lev Akabas: Using @basketball-reference.com’s Game Score metric, it looks like James Harden’s performance tends to decline later in a series Only 1 of Harden’s best 30 (!!) career playoff starts occurred in a Game 6 or Game 7 -via Bluesky / May 1, 2025

TJ McConnell on Kawhi Leonard’s shot vs. Sixers: So, I’m on the sidelines and he shoots it and hits the front of the rim and a bunch of us are like, “All right, like overtime.” And it bounced off the rim again. And I heard someone in the back of the bench be like, “What the f*ck?” And then it bounced on the other side of the rim and then just drops in. And I’m like, “What in the f*ck just happened?”. Like the one of the craziest shots I’ve ever seen. I mean, the bounce was in incredible. I don’t know if it was the Air Canada Center at that time, but it was so loud and you’re kind of just like like honestly what the f*ck just happened and you walk back and you have time to process it and it was a really shitty feeling. -via YouTube / May 1, 2025

Justin Russo: Kawhi Leonard tonight on what he thinks is contributing to the team’s poor starts in this series: “Wish I knew. … But we’ve just got to stay there, know what they’re doing and contest, and make sure we’re there on every cut, closeout, rebound.” -via Bluesky / April 30, 2025

Perhaps sensing what was needed, Jokić led the Nuggets from a 2-point halftime lead to a 20-point lead entering the fourth quarter. “Him being an MVP player, getting to his spots, making shots,” Kawhi Leonard said of Jokić scoring 16 of his 36 points in the third quarter. “Gotta give him credit. On the defensive end, we had five baskets. It’s the playoffs; it’s how it goes sometimes.” I’ve seen many Clippers comebacks, including in the playoffs. A big key to comebacks is to watch the minutes of the leading team. The Nuggets couldn’t play a single reserve more than 13 minutes in Game 4. Peyton Watson was the only reserve who played in the fourth quarter, and he was on the floor for only the first 2:45 of the fourth quarter and on the last Clippers possession when Zubac put back Harden’s miss to tie the score at 99. -via New York Times / April 27, 2025