NBA news: LA Clippers decimate Denver Nuggets in Game Three

The Los Angeles Clippers made their return to the Intuit Dome to thrash the Denver Nuggets 83-117 to take a 2-1 series lead.

The Clippers’ offensive arsenal really fronted up in the contest with relatively equal distributed spoils in terms of points to further the Nuggets’ woes as their supporting cast struggled yet again.

Film News Blitz and Sports News Blitz’s Aidan Leo offers additional context to the game three affair.

Harden and Leonard led their Clipper charges

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard led his charges with 21-11-6, with ‘The Beard’ James Harden supporting his effort with 20-6-9.

Possibly even more significantly, both Ivica Zubac and Norman Powell provided major contributions that totally swerved the tide of this game in the Clippers direction.

Zubac came away with 19 points and nine rebounds, and has been a defensive stalwart against ‘The Joker’, who is impossible to stop at the best of times.

Powell had 20 points in the contest, on 7-12 FG.

Great effort from the Clippers starters, who also got double-digit contributions from two players off the bench in Nicolas Batum and Derrick Jones Jr. respectively.

A statement performance from the Clippers overall who have shown to be the best performing team in the West so far, second only to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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The Nuggets’ supporting cast fail the Joker yet again

Nikola Jokic, who was reported to be unhappy with the team’s efforts and displays this season, was yet again spotted berating his team and coach at the end of proceedings.

Frustrations from the team’s intensity level and quality of performance, particularly on the defensive end, is why the head office deemed Coach Mike Malone’s sacking a necessity.

However, outings such as game three indicate the continuation of the Nuggets' spineless, careless efforts they have displayed at different points throughout the season.

Jokic, as he has done all season, let his team know just what the best player in the world can do.

His game ended with a triple-double of 23-13-13 on nine of 14 shooting, just sensational from the big man.

His supporting cast were subpar, to say the least.

Although Jamal Murray had 23 points, he has not been the Jamal Murray of old who thoroughly assisted Jokic in past triumphs.

His regular seasons tend to be below the standard he tends to show come playoff time, but that seems to have now fallen off as well.

Michael Porter Jr. was horrific, he played 35 minutes and came away with seven points on 1-9 shooting from three-point range.

Shocking for a team’s third scoring option.

Aaron Gordon, who tends to rival Porter Jr. for the third best player slot on the Nuggets, also illustrated the deplorable with his 15 points on a grim 6-16 FG.

With little to no contribution from Christian Braun in his 38 minutes or from the bench, with Russell Westbrook leaving the court in the second half with left-foot inflammation.

Bar Westbrook, when he is on his game, there seems to be no dynamism or difference-makers on the Nuggets’ bench.

That will cost them in this series.

They need to fix up or this one will end in six, or possibly five games.

Looking ahead to Game Four

Murray, Porter Jr. and Gordon will have to step up their game if the Nuggets are to have any chance in reviving their season after such a decrepit performance.

With Game Four continuing at Intuit Dome, I fear that if the Nuggets stroll out on the court in the same shameful manner, this series could be all but over.

On the Clippers end, they have been far and away the best team in this series.

Game one was somewhat unlucky considering Leonard and Harden got hot early and tailed off in the latter stages of the game, particularly in crunch time.

However, the Nuggets defense had no answer nor stopping power for the Clippers’ leading vanguard.

I suspect the series is drawing an early close, but Nuggets fans need not despair just yet.

When you have a Joker in hand, you always have a chance.

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