It wasn’t a pretty game by any stretch, but the LA Clippers beat the Nuggets in Game 4 to go up 3-1 in the series.
Of all the games we’ve seen in the playoffs, that was certainly one of them. If you told a LA Clippers fan beforehand that the Clips would never trail throughout the game, they would probably think it was a comfortable win where the Clippers offense was ticking. But that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
The game was a slog; the good guys shot 29% from 3 and 42% from the field, while the Nuggets shot 33% from 3 and 40% from the field. Neither team eclipsed 100 points (the final score was 96-85). It was reminiscent of the late ’90s playoff basketball in every way except for most of the good ways.
Not everything was bad. Kawhi Leonard bounced back from two subpar scoring games; he finished one assist away from his first playoff triple-double – 30 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists. Montrezl Harrell shot an efficient 60% from the field. Ivica Zubac played pretty solid defense on Nikola Jokic, who only shot 48% from the field and came back to Earth from beyond the 3 point line.
But outside of that, nobody could find a rhythm. Exactly two people – Morris and Trezz – shot better than 50% from the floor. Lou Williams was 3 for 11 and Landry Shamet was 1 for 7. Paul George picked up 3 fouls early and could never get his game going.
Part of the reason nobody could get into a rhythm was the constant stoppages. The referee crew led by Scott Foster showed up to play, and it was rare to get more than a couple minutes without a stoppage for a foul call or instant replay.
There were bright spots on defense. Denver didn’t just magically miss all their shots; especially when Kawhi locked in on Jamal Murray, the clamps on the Nuggets’ scorers were tight. And on the defensive end, the intensity lasted all four quarters, which was a welcome sight after some up and down games in the postseason.
Despite being 1 win away from the team’s first-ever Western Conference Finals appearance, there was little in the way of celebration after the buzzer sounded. These guys know there’s plenty of work left to be done, and we may be seeing the team start to lock in as they get closer to a series against the Lakers or Rockets.
That potential series is in the future, though; there’s still one more win needed against the Nuggets. Game 5 of this series is on Friday, September 11th at 6:30 PM Eastern.