BJ Mathews is the host of the THE PULL UP! Basketball Podcast. He is a Clippers credentialed creator representing thePeachBasket. In this article, Clippers Face Elimination After Jamal Murray’s Masterclass-Is There One More Comeback Left in LA?, he recaps the Nuggets wire-to-wire win in game 5 and the Clippers outlook as the go to game 6 facing elimination.
DENVER, COLORADO. — — “Does it help playing in the main gym? Yeah, sure it helps,” Jamal Murray responded. The Denver Nuggets snatched back the momentum from the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday night in a 131-115 victory to take a 3-2 lead. The Nuggets the day before the game practiced in the main gym at the Ball Arena, and it showed.
Prior to game 5, the Clippers two best players Kawhi Leonard and James Harden were big in games 1 and 2. Game 4 it was the “Nikola Jokic show” being down 2-1 in the series. It was only a matter of time until “Playoff Murray” showed up. It was an absolute masterclass from Murray with catch and shoot 3’s, pull up 3’s, and even a
couple of highlight dunks. Murray’s career scoring average is 16.9 ppg while his career playoff average is 24.7 ppg. That is the largest difference in NBA history!
Denver Nuggets head coach hinted Murray was due for a big game: “You can kind of tell the way the ball comes off of his hands certain nights. I thought he had a lot of great lift on his jumpshot. Some of the early drags he was just pulling up into three-point shots, his left-handed finishes complementing the shooting.”
Westbrook Returns with Fire
However, Murray wasn’t the only one who had it going. Russell Westbrook came back after being out for game 4 with foot inflammation. However, that didn’t seem to affect him at all scoring five of his 21 points in the first quarter. Some hot shooting mixed in with some trash talking with Bogdan Bogdanovic and the Clippers bench fed right into Westbrook’s game. Which went as far him rocking the baby in front of the Clippers bench with an and one conversion on Bogdanovic.
The first bucket for Westbrook, was an And-1 conversion, followed by knocking down his patented midrange backboard shot. At one time, Westbrook had arguably one of the best midranges pull up jumpers in the NBA. He converted on 50% of his midrange shots.
Clippers Face Elimination: Nuggets Dominate from Start to Finish
It was an opposite game for the Clippers they didn’t lead one time the entire game. Throughout, the first half they tried to stay close against the 4th ranked Nuggets offense it just wasn’t enough. The Clippers top 3 ranked defense didn’t seem to help much either. Six of the seven main players for the Nuggets, shot over 50% percentage from the field that was pretty much the game.
The Clippers arrived in Denver Monday evening, which showed the players having to take more time to get adjusted to the altitude in Denver. After being asked, “what was going on in the first quarter,”? Norman Powell could be seen breathing heavily speaking to the sideline reporter. Ivica Zubac finished with a team high 27 points, Leonard finished with 20 points and 11 assists, and Harden finished with just 11 points
The Nuggets finished with Murray dropping a series high 43 points, the unsung hero of game 4 Aaron Gordon had 23 points, and the spark plug off the bench Westbrook added in 21 points. Nikola Jokic had by far his most quiet game of the series with 13 points just shy over 35 minutes which signified a great team win.
Looking Ahead
Losing game 4 in the fashion they did, put the Clippers in a tough spot to have to fight for their playoff lives going into game 6. However, this is very Clipper like choosing to do things the hard way. For example, the 2021 playoffs coming back from two 2-0 leads against the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz. The multiple comeback wins in that season earned the team the nickname “Cardiac Clips” for the surprises of games.
The Nuggets are going into game six with all the momentum securing home court if the series goes seven, they will have the home court. The Clippers are going to need to pull out one more trick out of their hat this series. Anything short of that could mean an early offseason for the Clippers along with possible changes going into the Summer. Clippers HC Ty Lue said postgame, “The Intuit Dome will be rocking we’ll be fine.”
