The Denver Nuggets survived a frantic finish to complete a rally from a 3-1 postseason deficit Tuesday night, getting a go-ahead hoop from Nikola Jokic with 27.8 seconds remaining for an 80-78 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 7 of their Western Conference first-round series in the NBA bubble near Orlando.
The 4-3 win vaults the third-seeded Nuggets, who had never previously rallied to win a series from down 3-1, into a second-round matchup with the second-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, beginning Thursday night.
After sixth-seeded Utah forged a 78-all tie on a Rudy Gobert dunk with 47.5 seconds left, the Nuggets went to Jokic inside against the Jazz’s ace defender, and the Denver big man came through with a short hook shot in the lane for the game’s final points.
The Jazz had two subsequent possessions.
First, the Nuggets stripped the ball from Donovan Mitchell with 8.4 seconds to go. But rather than try to run out the clock, Denver rushed the ball up the floor and watched Torrey Craig miss a contested layup with 4.4 seconds remaining.
Gobert rebounded and got the ball to Mike Conley, who had a good look at a potential game-winning 3-pointer just before the final horn, but had the shot rim out.
In winning for the third straight time after falling behind 3-1 in the series, the Nuggets prevailed despite getting just 17 points on 7-for-21 shooting from Jamal Murray, who suffered a bruised thigh in a collision with Utah’s Joe Ingles in the second quarter and was never the same.
