INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- James Harden rebounded from a quiet night in Game 5 on Tuesday to score 28 points on 10 of 20 shooting. Kawhi Leonard added 27 points and 10 rebounds and the LA Clippers forced a Game 7 of their first-round NBA playoff series with a 111-105 win over the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 on Thursday night.
Norman Powell had his most effective game of the series with 24 points for the Clippers, who rebounded from back-to-back losses with an impressive effort at new Intuit Dome. Los Angeles took control in the second half while playing tenacious defense on Nikola Jokic, who scored 20 of his 25 points in the first half.
Game 7 is Saturday in Denver.
The Clippers did it Thursday by getting Harden going early and ensuring he had space to operate with a key lineup change at halftime. Clippers coach Tyronn Lue inserted Nicolas Batum in to start the second half in favor of the more defensive-minded Kris Dunn, who had become a liability on the offensive end as Denver sagged off of him and often sent his defender to blitz Harden whenever he caught the ball. Batum is a more dangerous offensive player, and he's versatile enough to stay with Denver guard Jamal Murray, who torched the Clippers for 43 points in Game 5, but had only 21 in Game 6.
Harden played 46 of 48 minutes on Thursday, a heavy workload, but the Clippers were facing elimination and Harden is that important to their success.
The win Thursday was the first elimination game Harden has won since Game 7 of a first round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2020.
The win also came after Lue called all of his players the night before LA's win to make sure he heard positivity and belief in his players' voices. He didn't want to take anything for granted after the Clippers folded down the stretch Tuesday, saying he "took a lot of temperatures" to make sure they were mentally ready to fight for their playoff lives.
"I had a lot of phone calls," Lue said. "A lot of phone calls. Just talking to the guys, being positive. Making sure they understood that we didn't play our best [in Game 5] and our attention to detail wasn't good."
The Clippers team that stormed into the playoffs with eight straight wins and 18 in 21 heeded Lue's calls in Game 6.
Los Angeles led by 15 with less than six minutes to play, but Denver made an 11-2 run to trim the Clippers' lead to 107-101 before Powell buried a 3-pointer with 1:47 left.
Powell's clutch bucket was Los Angeles' only field goal in the final 5:57, but the Clips hung on with defense. Russell Westbrook missed a layup under pressure and had another layup blocked on consecutive possessions in the final minutes, and Zubac blocked a layup attempt by Jokic with 24 seconds left.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
