The Nuggets defeated the Clippers 120-101 in the series finale Saturday, using an impressive shooting display to dispatch the Clippers in a series where four games were decided by six points or fewer, including two two-point margins. The Nuggets advance to the second round and a matchup against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. Game 1 is Monday in Oklahoma City (9:30 p.m. ET, TNT). The home team had won 112 of 151 Game 7s headed into Saturday’s finale. However, there has been a Game 7 road winner in the past eight NBA playoffs, including two Game 7 road winners in 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021. With the home fans and the altitude on the Nuggets’ side, Denver pulled away from the Clippers in the third quarter, going on a 24-4 run to take an 82-54 lead on an Aaron Gordon dunk.

The Denver Nuggets are on to the next round of the playoffs, defeating the LA Clippers 120-101 in emphatic fashion. The Nuggets will play the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals with Game 1 tipping off Monday. Denver led by as many as 31 points in the game and outscored Los Angeles 72 to 40 in the second and third quarters. Denver is the first team to outscore an opponent by 15-plus points in multiple quarters in a Game 7 in NBA history, according to ESPN Research. Aaron Gordon led Denver with 22 points, while Christian Braun added 21.

Nikola Jokic got plenty of help from his teammates and Denver’s scoring surge held up in a 120-101 blowout of the shellshocked Los Angeles Clippers in a Game 7 laugher on Saturday night. The Nuggets led by as many as 35 and while the franchise’s biggest blowout in a win-or-go-home scenario won’t make up for last year when Denver blew a 20-point fourth-quarter lead over Minnesota at home in Game 7 of their Round 2 series, it certainly exorcised some of those demons. “It feels good,” interim Nuggets coach David Adelman said, “but I also know we’re flying to O-K-C tomorrow.”