Monday was a night of last-minute, come-from-behind upsets in the NBA conference semifinal round, as the Denver Nuggets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 121-119 and the New York Knicks outlasted the Boston Celtics 108-105 in overtime. Denver and New York each took 1-0 leads in their series.
Denver, which trailed by as many as 14 in the game, struggled at times to stay within striking distance against one of the NBA’s best defensive teams in Oklahoma City. But the Nuggets came alive in the final minutes, when a 3 from Nikola Jokić brought Denver to within a point. Another 3 with fewer than four seconds left from Aaron Gordon, off a pass from longtime Thunder guard Russell Westbrook, won it for the Nuggets.
Gordon finished the game with 22 points and 14 rebounds, and Jokić once again etched his name in the history books. He scored 42 points (including 26 after halftime), grabbed 22 rebounds and dished six assists in the win. Jokić became just the fourth player in NBA history to record a 40/20/5 stat line in the playoffs.
If that nail-biting outcome sounds familiar, that’s because hours before in Boston, the Knicks defied the odds at TD Garden, coming back from a 20-point deficit to beat the Celtics.
The game received new life after the Knicks erased a double-digit Celtics lead with roughly seven minutes to play. Jalen Brunson finished with 29 points for the Knicks after ending the first half with as many fouls (three) as field goals (3-for-9).
After forcing overtime, the Knicks finally took control of the game. Halfway through the extra period, Mikal Bridges hit a 3 to put New York up 106-100. With three seconds left and the Knicks up 108-105, Bridges stole the ball from Boston’s Jaylen Brown to officially call game.
With the Indiana Pacers’ win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, road teams are now 3-0 in the conference semifinals.
Nuggets 121, Thunder 119
(Nuggets lead series 1-0)
Denver refuses to give up
The word for the Nuggets in Monday’s Game 1: mentality.
The Nuggets could have let go of the rope in Game 1, when the Thunder consistently forged double-digit leads. The Nuggets could have packed it in and looked ahead to Wednesday night’s Game 2. But on Monday, Denver stood its ground, fought, continued to rally and continued to play uphill.
“These playoff games are so long,” Nuggets interim head coach David Adelman said. “We just wanted to continue to give ourselves a chance. We could have said, ‘OK, we will try to even the series on Wednesday.’ No. Our moment is now.”
This is the resilience the Nuggets have played with for the better part of a month. Denver has scratched and clawed, and now, the Nuggets have a 1-0 lead in a Western Conference semifinal. — Tony Jones, staff writer
Gordon comes in clutch as Thunder let up
Just when it looked like the Thunder would cruise to an impressive Game 1 victory, Gordon did it again.
After making an improbable last-second tip-in at the end of Game 4 of Denver’s first-round series against the LA Clippers, Gordon scored the game-winning 3-pointer with four seconds remaining, helping the Nuggets steal home-court advantage.
It was a gut-punch of a loss for Oklahoma City. The Thunder led by double digits for much of the game, but they will regret allowing the Nuggets to score 27 second-chance points and race to 24 fast-break points.
Missed free throws also mattered. The Thunder made 20 of 28 from the foul line, with the two biggest misses coming from Chet Holmgren with nine seconds remaining that would have put the Thunder ahead by three. The loss wasted a masterful 33-point, 10-rebound, eight-assist effort from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a 20-point, six-assist, five-steal performance off the bench from Alex Caruso. — Darnell Mayberry, senior writer
Knicks 108, Celtics 105
(Knicks lead series 1-0)
New York won the game with resiliency
The Knicks went into Boston as major underdogs after losing all four regular-season games against the Celtics and getting pummeled in three of the four.
New York has showed throughout the season that it is a resilient group, and that popped up again in the postseason, first in a dogfight series against the Detroit Pistons and again in Game 1 against Boston, coming back from 20 points to win.
It looked early like Boston once again would run New York out of the building. However, Boston couldn’t make a 3-point shot, yet continued to take them. New York turned up its defensive intensity and got shots to fall late in the game, primarily from Brunson. The bulk of his 29 points came in the fourth quarter.
The Knicks also shot well from 3 as a team, converting on 46 percent of their attempts. The Celtics only made 15 of 60 (25 percent) from deep.
The Celtics certainly won’t shoot this badly again, but the Knicks got the confidence they needed. If anything, New York sent a wake-up call to the defending champions. — James Edwards III, Knicks beat writer
Mismatch hunting worked for the Celtics, for a time
The Celtics took over Game 1 early with creative approaches to mismatch hunting. Tatum wanted Towns out in space so he could get the Knicks’ star in foul trouble. It worked, getting Towns out of the game early and letting Boston take control using the Hack-a-Mitchell-Robinson gambit. But when Anunoby brought New York back into the game, that gave Brunson his chance to return the favor.
Towns couldn’t score on Al Horford all night, with one particular Horford stop at the rim triggering Brunson to start forcing Horford to switch onto him. The Knicks guard got to work, burying 3 after 3 in crunch time to lead the Knicks.
This is the cycle of life in a high-level playoff game. Early in the series, teams come in with a clear understanding of how to hit their opponent’s weak points and make them sting. The first step with New York is keeping Towns out of the game, ruining their spacing since the Celtics were sagging deep off Hart all night. But advantages don’t last long at this stage. It’s not the first round anymore, and the competition level has, well, leveled out.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Celtics redrew their help scheme when Horford got switched onto Brunson, and then floated a shot at the free-throw line. Horford was able to guard Brunson and force the pass out. Boston managed to defend well as the Knicks zipped the ball around, coming back from trailing by five points in the final minutes to get Tatum an isolation on Robinson on the last Celtics possession. But Robinson forced the miss, making up for all his struggles early in the game.
Those little victories handling the cross matches will define this series. These teams are well built for each other and have someone on each side who can hunt out those advantages throughout crunch time. The Celtics couldn’t hit anything, and the Knicks’ iso defense was a big part of that, but Boston eventually will find their shot. — Jared Weiss, Celtics beat writer
Bridges comes through when New York needs it most
The final defensive play was not a surprise for those who have paid attention to Mikal Bridges during the postseason, when he’s ratcheted up his physicality to levels he never reached during the regular season.
With three seconds to go and the Celtics running an inbounds play, hoping to tie the game with a 3, Brown received a pass that sailed over the head of Bridges. But the Knicks wing didn’t even need to foul. Instead, he went for the basketball. He hugged the ball, leaning into Brown, and ripped it away from the All-Star, tossing it down the court to seal the Game 1 win.
It was hardly Bridges’ only defensive highlight of the night. Earlier in the overtime, he deflected an errant pass out of bounds and dove into his own bench, saving it, hauling a cross-court pass that eventually led to a fast break for an Anunoby and-1 dunk. It was reminiscent of a play Bridges and Anunoby, the two defensive stalwarts Hart nicknamed “Wing Stop” at the beginning of the year, made during a Game 6 to close out the Pistons in the previous round. Anunoby, against the Pistons, blocked Tobias Harris at the rim, spurring a fast-break dunk for Bridges. The one on Monday had the characters in reverse.
Brunson will get the credit for his crunch-time heroics, and Anunoby scored plentifully while also taking over offensively. Bridges shot just 3-for-13 from the field against Boston, but he hit a big 3-pointer in overtime, and his defense once again came through when the Knicks needed it most. — Fred Katz, national NBA writer
Did the Celtics shoot too many 3-pointers?
It sure sounds cliche: Every series is different.
But for Boston, that adage rings true after one game of the second round. After needing to adjust to life without constant 3-pointers against the Orlando Magic, the Celtics generated the type of looks they’re used to in the series opener against New York while setting a playoff record with 60 3-point attempts.
The problem for Joe Mazzulla’s team: Very few of those looks went down.
The Celtics made just 15 of 60, a number of wide-open misses coming in the third quarter when they could have turned the game into a laugher. During that quarter, 19 of Boston’s 20 field-goal attempts came from behind the 3-point arc. The Celtics made eight of those tries but missed just enough for New York to stay in the game and eventually charge back. The Knicks took a six-point lead late in the fourth quarter before Boston responded to force overtime.
Did the Celtics shoot too many 3-pointers? They probably settled for too many off-the-bounce looks, especially during the second half. Twice in the final moments of regulation, Tatum dribbled into 3-point attempts when he had a good matchup to attack — Brunson on the first try and Robinson on the second. Tatum missed both of the attempts when he probably should have gone to the basket instead.
Over the long term, though, the Celtics likely would love the shots they got for the majority of Game 1. They won’t miss that many very often, though it cost them in the series opener. — Jay King, Celtics beat writer
(Top photo: Zach Beeker / NBAE via Getty Images)
