With one last beating on the Phoenix Suns field, the Denver Nuggets were the first team to qualify for the NBA Conference Finals on Thursday while the Boston Celtics forced a seventh and final game in their series against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Nuggets, the best team in the West in the regular season, defeated Kevin Durant and Devin Booker's Suns by a resounding 125-100 and finished this semifinal 4-2 on aggregate.
Their next rivals will be the Golden State Warriors or Los Angeles Lakers, who dominate that semifinal 3-2.
The Serbian Nikola Jokic, with a monumental triple double of 30 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, once again led a game recital for the Nuggets at the Footprint Center, who attended resigned to another humiliating elimination of the Suns after the suffered year past against the Mavericks.
Phoenix faced the game already diminished by injuries to two key pieces, point guard Chris Paul and center DeAndre Ayton, and already in the game its two stars were far from jeopardizing the visitor's victory.
Kevin Durant finished with 23 points and Devin Booker stayed at 12, after shining in the previous five games of the series with an average of almost 35.
None of them could eclipse the umpteenth exhibition of Jokic, double winner of the MVP award, who is starring in a huge playoffs in search of his first ring.
“We knew what awaited us so we went out with the same mentality as on our pitch,” said the Serb.. “Moving the ball, being aggressive, looking for space, forcing them difficult shots. And I think we did it.”
– Painful elimination for Durant –
Jokic, the sixth player in history to add three triple doubles in a playoff series, scored or assisted on 26 points for his team in the first quarter, the same as the Suns had in that entire quarter.
The Nuggets closed the first quarter with a 17-0 run and at halftime they already dominated by 30 points (81-51).
A year ago, the Suns went to the locker room with the same disadvantage against Luka Doncic's Mavericks in Game 7 of that conference final.
Trying to save their pride, the Suns started the second part with an 11-4 run that reduced the gap to 23 points.
Denver coach Michael Malone stopped the advance with a timeout and Jokic and his squire Jamal Murray (26 points) retook full control of the game.
This painful elimination leaves the Suns project very touched, whose new owner, Mat Ishbia, inaugurated the position in February, landing Kevin Durant, one of the great superstars of the last decade, for whom he delivered a monumental package of players and rounds. Draft to the Brooklyn Nets.
At 34 years old, “Durantula” accumulates another disappointment in the playoffs and continues without fighting for the third ring of his career since his departure in 2019 from the Warriors.
The Nuggets, on their side, will try to break their historic Western Finals barrier. Jokic's team has lost in this instance in its four attempts, the last three at the hands of the Lakers (1985, 2009 and 2020).
– The resurrection of Tatum –
Fueled by the fourth-quarter resurrection of star Jayson Tatum, the Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers 95-86 to tie this East semifinal 3-3.
The Celtics, current runners-up, thus earned the right to play Sunday's seventh game at home.
With no margin for error, Boston managed to stay in the game despite Tatum's dismal performance in the first three quarters, in which he barely scored 3 points on a 1/13 series from the field.
But the All-Star forward never lost confidence and appeared when his team needed him most to condemn the Sixers in a spectacular fourth quarter in which he scored 16 points with 4 3-pointers.
“Humbly, I'm one of the best players in the world,” Tatum declared after the game.
“One goes through difficulties, downturns, but the game is long. Fortunately, I have fantastic teammates who have endured,” said the forward about the great performance of secondaries like Marcus Smart, who had 22 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.
The Sixers missed a golden opportunity to qualify for their first conference Finals on home court since 2001.
James Harden was the symbol of the offensive ineffectiveness of the locals with just 13 points (4/13) while Joel Embiid, the brand new NBA MVP, finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds.
“We stopped moving the ball. I don't think I touched the ball in the last four minutes of the game,” lamented the Cameroonian.
The Sixers will have to recover from this blow to avoid conceding their fifth elimination in this round in the last six seasons.