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Clippers can’t stop Nikola Jokic, Nuggets in 6th straight loss – Press Enterprise

Tony Ramos — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 12:06:07 +0000

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Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun, right, reaches in on Clippers guard James Harden during the first half on Wednesday night at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

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INGLEWOOD — There are two choices every opposing coach faces when playing the Denver Nuggets.

Try to slow three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and make the rest of the team beat you or focus on stopping the role players and let the highly versatile 6-foot-11 center do his thing.

The Clippers chose the latter and Jokic obliged, scoring 55 points on 18-of-23 shooting from the field and a 14-of-16 effort from the free-throw line, with 12 rebounds and six assists in a 130-116 victory that extended the Nuggets’ winning streak to six games and pushed the Clippers’ losing streak to six games.

Neither approach against Denver has been successful for most teams this season, and the Clippers didn’t have any better luck in stopping Jokic and the Nuggets (9-2), who had three other players score in double figures.

Coming into Wednesday’s game, Jokic was averaging 32 points, 12 rebounds and shooting 72.7% from the field in the previous five games, becoming the only player to average a 30-point triple-double over a five-game stretch since Wilt Chamberlain did it in 1968.

Coach Tyronn Lue said the plan was to make him score but take away his passing, which he thought they were successful doing in the first half.

“We knew Jamal Murray (15 points) would be more aggressive in the second half, but I didn’t think he (Jokic) would score 55,” Lue said. “He made some 3s. He plays like a guard when Zu (Ivica Zubac) was on him with pin downs and all that stuff, which is tough for Zu to try to navigate through.”

And when the Clippers went small, Jokic posted up, making him a tough cover for anyone. “But I didn’t think he would get 55,” Lue repeated.

The Clippers (3-8) now hit the road for a two-week trip that begins Friday night in Dallas, and they will do it without two of their normal starters. Kawhi Leonard has missed five consecutive games because of a sprained ankle and foot, and earlier Wednesday it was announced that veteran guard Bradley Beal will undergo season-ending surgery for a fractured hip.

James Harden picked up the scoring slack again for the depleted Clippers, finishing with 23 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field and a 10-of-10 showing from the foul line with eight rebounds and five assists. Zubac had 18 points and eight rebounds, while Jordan Miller added a career-high 22 points.

Without their two stars, the Clippers relied on a variety of lineups to grab a first-half lead. With Jokic on the bench, the younger generation, players such as Kobe Sanders and Miller, had a role in the Clippers building a 52-43 lead with 7:02 left in the second quarter.

Miller beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to get the Clippers within 39-35 at the end of the first quarter, while Bogdan Bogdanovic, who has appeared in just four games this season, gave the Clippers their first lead since early in the game on a 3-pointer at the 9:16 mark of the second.

“We got to do it by committee,” Lue said before the game.

Despite Jokic returning to the court, the Clippers hung on for a 68-63 halftime lead.

Lue might have stumbled onto something. The bench players provided some needed punch in the first half and gave the normally disconnected Clippers a solid shot at beating the Nuggets – for a while.

“I think the coaches are showing a lot of confidence in these guys,” Lue said. “These guys are showing confidence. We know we got to do some things better, we know we’re short-handed and we don’t have a lot of margins for error. We understand that.”

The errors began to creep in during the second half, enabling the Nuggets to build a 14-point lead (90-76) with an 18-6 run that was capped by Jokic’s fifth 3-pointer with 5:46 left in the third.

Trailing 98-83, Lue put Sanders and Miller, and later Bogdanovic, back in the game, but by then the margin was too big and Jokic was too good. Jokic reached the 50-point barrier when he made two free throws with 1:58 left in the third to give the Nuggets a 100-84 lead.

“For the most part, the first half was really good,” Lue said. “It’s just the third quarters that are killing us, not being able to score the basketball, not taking care of the ball. So, we just got to get better with the third quarter.”

Lue said the Clippers needed a defensive mindset against the Nuggets, but like every game, there were too many breakdowns and missed opportunities. And of course, Jokic.

Jokic’s 55 points tie for the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season. Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 55 in a double-overtime game at Indiana on Oct. 23.

Jokic scored 25 of Denver’s 39 points in the first quarter. He had eight in the second before coming back with 19 in the third. He sat out most of the fourth before scoring three points to complete his night. The Serbian big man finished 5 for 6 from 3-point range.

Despite the Beal news and the losing streak, Lue said before the game that the team was “in a good place, a good position mentally” and all they needed was a victory.

The Clippers are going to have to get that elusive victory on the road, if possible.

“We just got to find ourselves on the road and this is a great time to do it by staying together, sticking together,” Lue said.

“We hit some rough patches these last six games, so going out on the road, finding ourselves, playing better basketball, getting some wins, and it starts with Dallas coming up. It’s not going to be an easy game.”

Clippers look to regroup after heartbreaking Game 4 loss to Nuggets – Press Enterprise

Tony Ramos — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 21:11:02 +0000

INGLEWOOD — It will be the one soul-crushing dunk that the Clippers will remember. One basket at the buzzer that left them tied in their first-round playoff series with the Denver Nuggets that will cause angst as they head into Tuesday’s Game 5.

But the Clippers can’t be short-sighted; they need to look beyond Saturday’s fourth-quarter rally that ended when Nuggets guard Aaron Gordon slammed home a game-winning dunk as time expired to give Denver a 101-99 victory at the Intuit Dome.

“Sometimes basketball can be amazing, can be cool as hell, so that was amazing for them,” Clippers reserve forward Nicolas Batum said.

The Clippers, though, need to remember what got them down 20 points to begin the fourth quarter in the first place.

Leading 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, the Clippers came out a bit flat in the first half of Game 4 and then flatlined in the third quarter. The Nuggets took advantage of the lull, upped their intensity and outscored the Clippers 35-17 in the third to carry an 85-65 lead into the final period.

“I mean, you stress it a lot, about taking care of the basketball. We only had 10 turnovers, and we just didn’t get the shots that we’ve been getting throughout the course of the series, and we took some shots that we don’t normally take as well. Some questionable shots,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.

Lue said he reminded his team at halftime to stay poised, find their spots and not let the Nuggets run them off the floor.

When Lue’s plans didn’t pan out, the coaching staff decided to go to a zone defense in the fourth quarter, bringing an element of surprise to the hotly contested series. According to Synergy Sports, the Clippers played a zone on just 22 possessions in the entire regular season and the Nuggets clearly weren’t ready for the switch.

“We were able to get stops, play faster, play in transition, and then were able to execute offensively,” Lue said. “We’ve been doing that the last three games, so the fourth quarter is when we really executed and did what we’re supposed to do.”

The Clippers can’t afford lapses of any kind in Game 5 in Denver if they hope to regain home-court advantage and set up a potential clincher in Game 6 on their home court.

“You got to be better, just stay with it,” Lue said. “They’re going to give you the answers to the test. If you play the right way and do what we’re supposed to do, we’re going to get great shots.

“We’ll be ready for the next game, but our mentality is like, listen, we understand how we got to play, we know the blueprints, but now we just gotta go do it.”

Batum said the series is far from over.

“It’s 2-2. We’re not down 3-0 or something like that, it’s 2-2,” Batum said. “So, we’re right where we’re supposed to be. Both teams.

“We’re gonna go out there (Denver), we’ve done it once, almost did it twice at their place. We have to go out there, regroup, move on.”

Game 6 will be played Thursday night in Inglewood, with Game 7, if necessary, on Saturday back in Denver.

“It’s a tough one right now. It sucks to lose that way. So, we’ve gotta regroup, watch the film, figure it out, work on ourselves and move on,” Batum said.

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Kawhi Leonard, Clippers hold off Nuggets in Game 2, even series – Press Enterprise

Tony Ramos — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 09:58:34 +0000

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Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard drives past Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon during the second half of Game 2 of their first-round playoff series on Monday, April 21, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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DENVER — Through two games, one thing is clear. Nothing is going to come easy in a first-round playoff series between the Clippers and the Denver Nuggets.

After ending up on the wrong side of an overtime thriller in the series opener on Saturday, the Clippers rode a 39-point effort from star forward Kawhi Leonard to a 105-102 victory in Game 2 on Monday night, swiping home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series as it shifts to Los Angeles for the next two games.

Leonard powered the Clippers across the finish line Monday, authoring a vintage performance in a game that featured 18 lead changes and 12 ties. The 33-year-old two-time NBA Finals MVP shot 15 for 19 from the field (4 for 7 from 3-point range), hit a pair of midrange basket late and came up with a steal in the final minute.

“This is what Kawhi lives for, you know, trying to get to this point where he’s healthy for the playoffs. We know if we’ve got a healthy Kawhi, we can win any series,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “That just shows what he’s capable of doing. … Tonight, we needed every bit of it.”

Leonard stole a Nikola Jokic pass with 37 seconds left, but James Harden missed at the other end and the Nuggets’ Christian Braun grabbed the defensive rebound with 11 seconds left. The Nuggets had two looks at a game-tying shot, but Braun was long on a 3-point attempt with six seconds left, then Jokic grabbed the rebound but also missed a 3-point try with one second remaining.

Games 3 and 4 are Thursday night and Saturday afternoon at the Intuit Dome, where the Clippers went 30-11 during the regular season.

James Harden had 18 points and seven assists, Ivica Zubac had 16 points and 12 rebounds and Norman Powell added 13 points for the fifth-seeded Clippers.

“Kawhi had it going. So at that point, you just sit back and you figure out, ‘How can you impact the game?’” Harden said. “It was a big-time game; Norm hit some big-time shots in that fourth quarter, (Zubac), (Kris Dunn) had some offensive rebounds – it was a team effort.”

The Clippers haven’t lost back-to-back games since March 2-4, a stretch of 23 games, and they handed Nuggets coach David Adelman his first loss in five games since replacing Michael Malone in a stunning move on the eve of the playoffs.

Jokic had his 19th career playoff triple-double for the fourth-seeded Nuggets (26 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists), but he had seven of his team’s 20 turnovers and missed four of his 10 free-throw attempts. Jamal Murray had 23 points and six assists. Michael Porter Jr., held to three points in Game 1, had 15 points and 15 rebounds, and Russell Westbrook contributed 14 points off the bench.

The midrange shots were working early and often for Leonard. He hit his first six shots, missed a pull-up jumper early in the second quarter and didn’t miss again until early in the fourth.

Leonard scored 12 of his points in the first quarter. Late in the period, he backed down Murray on the baseline as the Canadian flamboyantly defended. Leonard spun into help, but knocked down the 11-footer anyway, taking the air out of the Ball Arena crowd.

He had 21 points by halftime and only missed one of his 10 shots before the break. He deflated the Denver crowd again at the halftime buzzer, making a ridiculous pull-up 3-pointer with two defenders tightly on him to break a 52-all tie.

“It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.”

Good thing, too, because Leonard’s teammates were a combined 26 for 66 from the field (39%).

With timely baskets down the stretch, Leonard kept the Clippers locked in a back-and-forth game. He also took better care of the ball, turning it over just once compared to his seven giveaways in Game 1.

“I made shots tonight, shot a little bit more than I did last game, but it wasn’t about that,” said Leonard, who had 12 points in the fourth quarter. “Some of my turnovers last game was just being aggressive, trying to save the ball or getting rebounds and getting pushed out of bounds. … Just wanted to come out and get a win.”

After appearing in just two playoff games over the last two years, Leonard is healthy and looking like his old self after he missed the first 34 games of the season because of lingering issues with his surgically repaired knees.

“I’m just happy I’m able to move, you know, coming out of the game feeling well,” Leonard said. “I sat and watched these playoff games the last two years, so yeah, to be front-line out there, it feels good.”

The Nuggets had nothing but praise for Leonard.

“To his credit, he was awesome tonight,” Adelman said.

“He just got to his spots,” Murray said. “And even when we’re there he made some tough shots. He had a night. He got going and he was tough to stop.”

In the series opener, the Clippers committed 20 turnovers to Denver’s 11. That script flipped on Monday, but Lue thinks there’s still improvements to be made.

“We still had some bad turnovers, like some unforced turnovers. We’ve got to be better,” Lue said. “We understand they’re going to play different defenses, but to me, if we just take the time and execute the way we can execute, we can get any shot we want. … It’s going to be a back-and-forth chess match.”

Of Jokic’s six first-half field goal attempts, five were from behind the arc. Midway through the third quarter, his frustration started to boil over. After a Leonard basket at the 8:07 mark, Jokic was visibly upset with teammates, then a couple of possessions later, he hooked and elbowed Zubac for an offensive foul. A few minutes later, he missed a pair of free throws.

The Clippers used a 9-2 run to lead 87-81 early in the fourth, but the Nuggets answered (getting a pair of Westbrook 3-pointers along the way) to retake the lead. The Clippers went back up by four with 5:16 left on a Powell floater.

Jokic split a pair of free throws and Porter hit a 3-pointer off a turnover to tie it before Porter sank a go-ahead free throw (but missed the second) with 3:31 left.

Zubac’s layup and Leonard’s 10-foot jumper gave the Clippers a 100-97 lead before Murray and Powell traded 3-pointers, leaving the Clippers ahead 103-100 with 1:30 left. Jokic’s two free throws with 1:16 left cut the deficit to one before Leonard hit another jumper with 54.1 seconds remaining, setting up the drama of the final possessions.

Things became heated with 5:18 left in the third quarter. Murray was called for a foul when he grabbed Powell around the waist. Powell reacted with a swipe at Murray, and both teams and coaches came out to try to defuse the situation.

Braun, Powell and Dunn were given technical fouls.

INJURY UPDATE

Porter sprained his left shoulder in the closing minutes when he turned the ball over and hit the floor with Dunn rolling over him in the scramble. Porter grimaced while getting dressed afterward and said he hoped that his shooting in L.A. won’t be affected being that it was his left shoulder.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Luka Doncic, Lakers pounce on depleted Nuggets for 9th consecutive home win – Press Enterprise

Tony Ramos — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 07:17:25 +0000

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Lakers guard Austin Reaves, left, scrambles for a loose ball against Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. during the first half on Wednesday night, March 19, 2025, at Crypto.com Arena. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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LOS ANGELES — It wasn’t even a week ago that the Lakers were in a similar position to the one the Denver Nuggets were in on Wednesday night – down multiple star players in a pivotal matchup for Western Conference playoff seeding.

The Nuggets were nearly stunned by the Lakers last Friday in Denver, allowing the visitors to stay in the game until the final minute before a strong finish helped them survive.

The Lakers didn’t make the same mistake on Wednesday when they hosted the Nuggets, who were without Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, pulling off a wire-to-wire 120-108 victory behind a strong start from Luka Doncic (31 points, nine rebounds and seven assists).

It was the 200th time Doncic scored at least 30 points in a regular-season game, the eighth in 16 games since he joined the Lakers. He’s scored at least 30 in six of his past eight games.

Doncic led the Lakers (43-25) early, scoring 21 of his points in the first quarter – opening the period by assisting Jaxson Hayes (six points, seven rebounds) on a dunk before scoring multiple baskets inside the arc.

“It’s easy for me to start there, just driving the ball,” Doncic said. “When I drive the ball, it gets better for everybody on the court.”

From there, Doncic did more damage from behind the arc, making three of his four 3-pointers during an 18-2 run midway through the first quarter on a night when the Lakers were in a collective rhythm from the perimeter.

“I don’t know what it was exactly in Dallas, but I know he had a number of big first quarters for them,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Doncic, who entered Wednesday third in the league in first-quarter scoring since making his Lakers debut on Feb. 10.

Redick added: “So this is kind of what he does and has done throughout his career.”

The Lakers made 16 of their 38 3-point attempts (42.1%), including four from Gabe Vincent (12 points), three from Dorian Finney-Smith (14 points, four rebounds, four assists) and three from Dalton Knecht (12 points).

“Sometimes teams send three guys at him. It’s just amazing that he finds the open man time and time again,” Vincent said of Doncic. “He makes the game so easy for us, you know, whether he’s getting to the free-throw line himself or walking to the rim or making a tough shot when we need one or finding the open guy over and over again. … He makes the right read every time and that’s something that’s invaluable.”

After Doncic’s hot start, the Nuggets went from switching defensively on screens involving the 26-year-old Slovenian star to trapping and regularly sending help toward him, opening scoring opportunities for his teammates.

“It’s just an advantage so the game gets back to the simplicity of it,” Vincent said. “Someone’s gonna be open. You attack until you can’t attack anymore and find the open man. We’ve done a good job of doing that. We’ve taken care of the ball in those situations as well, which is huge for us.”

Austin Reaves (22 points, eight assists, five rebounds) also made a pair of shots from deep, and Jarred Vanderbilt (10 points) scored in double figures.

The Lakers led 46-29 going into the second quarter after Doncic’s hot start.

“When you’ve got one player that scores 21 of ’em, you’re gonna score a lot of points in the quarter,” Reaves said. “He got it going early. He was frying. When you see that, you just want to keep giving him the ball and let him roll with it.”

That margin grew to 28 points (69-41) midway through the quarter, but the Nuggets cut their deficit to 73-59 behind their offensive rebounding and transition offense.

The Nuggets finished with 12 offensive rebounds and 14 second-chance points, in addition to 26 fast-break points, with half of those (13) coming in the second quarter and a majority of them (21) before halftime.

“Defensively, the only real lapse was that second quarter,” Redick said. “We felt like the game was going to come down to our ability to get back, defend in transition, take care of the basketball and keep them off the glass. And that wasn’t great in the first half. Cleaned all that stuff up in the second half, which was awesome.”

The Lakers indeed regained control in the third, taking a 105-77 lead into the fourth that grew to 30 near the start of the quarter as they moved into third place by percentage points in the tightly packed Western Conference standings.

Neither team played most of its main rotation players in the fourth, allowing Doncic to get extra rest amid a stretch of five home games in seven days.

The short-handed Nuggets (44-26) were led by Aaron Gordon (26 points, 11 rebounds).

Wednesday was the Lakers’ ninth consecutive home win and 16th in their past 17 games at Crypto.com Arena. They have won three straight since returning from an 0-4 road trip.

The Lakers will host the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday to close out the back-to-back set and cap a stretch of six games in eight days.

Luka Doncic sitting out Lakers’ road-trip finale against Nuggets – Press Enterprise

Tony Ramos — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 20:19:49 +0000

DENVER — The already depleted Lakers will be without Luka Doncic for tonight’s road-trip closing matchup against the Denver Nuggets, which is the second night of a back-to-back set after Thursday’s blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Doncic was ruled out on the team’s Friday afternoon injury report because of left calf injury management and a sprained right ankle.

The 26-year-old Slovenian star was sidelined for 6 ½ weeks from Dec. 25 to Feb. 10 because of a strained left calf.

Doncic was coming off a 45-point, 11-rebound performance against the Bucks, his highest-scoring game with the Lakers.

Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle injury management) and Gabe Vincent (left knee injury management) are also listed as doubtful for Friday. Two-way big man Trey Jemison (illness) is questionable.

The Lakers were already without their starting frontcourt in LeBron James (strained left groin), Jaxson Hayes (bruised right knee) and Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy).

That trio, along with Maxi Kleber (recovery from right foot surgery), who hasn’t played for the Lakers, flew back to Southern California before the team traveled to Milwaukee.

The Lakers who weren’t on the injury report are Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht, Jarred Vanderbilt, Alex Len, Cam Reddish, Shake Milton, Markieff Morris, Bronny James, Jordan Goodwin (two-way contract player) and Christian Koloko (two-way contract player).

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Russell Westbrook, Nuggets rout Clippers with both teams missing stars – Press Enterprise

Tony Ramos — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 05:21:31 +0000

By MICHAEL KELLY The Associated Press

DENVER — On a night when each team was missing a future Hall of Famer, the Denver Nuggets took care of the Clippers with the help of two former Clippers.

Jamal Murray had 21 points and nine assists, former Clippers sparkplug Russell Westbrook added 19 points and eight assists and former Clippers center DeAndre Jordan had his best night of the season as the Nuggets pounded the Clippers, 126-103, on Wednesday night.

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard was not available after he flew back to Los Angeles before the game to help his family deal with the wildfires. Leonard, who owns a home in the Pacific Palisades, made his season debut on Saturday after dealing with his surgically repaired knee.

Nuggets center Nikola Jokic was out for the second straight game due to an illness. Denver, which was also without forward Aaron Gordon, improved to 2-3 without three-time league MVP Jokic this season.

Norman Powell scored 30 points to finish with a 27.6 average in the Clippers’ four games against the Nuggets. James Harden had 16 points and Ivica Zubac and Kevin Porter Jr. each added 10.

Denver took control with a 20-3 run in the first quarter and led 55-30 late in the second before the Clippers cut the margin to 16 by halftime.

The Nuggets used another spurt midway through the third quarter to put the game away.

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