LOS ANGELES – The defending champions Denver Nuggets, powered by 32 points from Nikola Jokic and a “mindset change”, shook off a slow start to beat LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers 114-103 in Game 1 of their National Basketball Association (NBA) first-round series on April 20.
The Nuggets, who swept the Lakers in four games in the Western Conference Finals on the way to their first title last season, continued their dominance of star-studded Los Angeles, who had dropped all three regular-season meetings.
The game was the finale of the first day of the play-offs, which saw the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Phoenix Suns 120-95, the New York Knicks fend off the Philadelphia 76ers 111-104, and the Cleveland Cavaliers overcome the Orlando Magic 97-83.
In Denver, Jokic added 12 rebounds and seven assists. Jamal Murray had 22 points with 10 assists and Michael Porter Jr scored 19 for the Nuggets, who used a 13-0 scoring run to take charge in the third quarter. They limited the Lakers to 18 points that period.
Anthony Davis scored 32 points and pulled down 14 rebounds while James added 27 points for the Lakers, who cut a 15-point deficit early in the fourth quarter to six, only for the Nuggets to pull away again.
Jokic’s only three-pointer of the game pushed the Nuggets’ lead to 103-93. He added a dunk over James, who took a hard fall with a minute remaining but stayed in the game to the end.
“Mindset needed to change,” Jokic said of the Nuggets’ third-quarter resurgence. “For the second half, defence was amazing.”
Nuggets coach Michael Malone added: “No team in the play-offs, if you get down 12 early, you’re not going to just take your ball and go home.
“We still have plenty of fight left in us and we know that we were better than what we were playing early.”
Lakers coach Darvin Ham said the Nuggets’ 15-6 superiority in offensive rebounding was key as Denver piled up 18 second-chance points.
“You can’t allow them to get multiple possessions,” said Ham, who added that he still believed the best-of-seven series, which resumes on April 22, will be a “hard-fought” affair.
In Minneapolis, Anthony Edwards scored 23 of his 33 points in the second half, as the Minnesota Timberwolves thrashed Kevin Durant and the Suns in their Western Conference clash.
Against a team that also had their number in the regular season, Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert – bolstered by a strong supporting cast – turned the tables.
Towns scored 19 points, Gobert added 14 points and 16 rebounds and the Timberwolves reserves – led by 18 points from Nickeil Alexander-Walker – outscored the Suns bench 41-18.
“I think everybody here knows that’s my favourite player of all time,” Edwards said of two-time NBA champion Durant. “That was probably one of the best feelings ever in my whole life, for sure.”
Durant finished with 31 points and seven rebounds. Devin Booker added 18 and Bradley Beal 15, but the Suns could not find a way through the Timberwolves’ stifling defence led by Gobert.
“It’s just one game,” Edwards said. “They’re going to be ready the next time we play them.”
In New York, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart scored 22 points apiece for the Knicks and Miles McBride came up big off the bench with 21 – 13 of them in the second quarter.
The 76ers got a jolt shortly before half-time when NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid came down from a highlight reel dunk and appeared to hurt his surgically repaired left knee.
He returned for the third quarter, coming up with a steal and feeding Kelly Oubre Jr for a dunk that gave the Sixers a three-point lead late in the period.
The Sixers, led by 33 points from Tyrese Maxey, could not stay in front, and with less than two minutes remaining, Hart drilled a pair of three-pointers and O.G. Anunoby made another to help the Knicks seal it.
The Knicks host Game 2 on April 22, with the Sixers breathing a sigh of relief that Embiid, who finished with 29 points, eight rebounds and six assists, apparently will be ready as they try to even the series. AFP
