OKC is laughing. Jamal Murray's 43 points explosion! Denver, LAC, and West have one win left to advance to the semifinals. OKC is smiling, too
Apr 30, 2025
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Denver defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 131-115 in Game 5 of the first round (best of seven) of the NBA Western Conference playoffs in 2024-2025 at the Denver Ball Arena in Colorado on the 30th (Korea time).
Denver's ace guard Murray blew a whopping 43 points. Nikola Jokic had a triple double (13 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists).
3-2 series record, Denver's lead.
The series between Denver and the Los Angeles Clippers is drawing the most attention among the East and West first-round series.
Both teams are good enough as winning dark horses.
The Los Angeles Clippers have Kawhi Leonard revived, and Denver has Nikola Jokic, the biggest man of all time.
It was expected that the Los Angeles Clippers had a slight advantage.
Denver replaced coach Mike Malone with a shock at the end of the season. The last performance of the regular league was not very good. There were problems in defense, and so did the backup.
The key variable was Murray. Murray, who forms a one-two punch with Jokic, failed to regain his prime skills due to the aftereffects of his injury. It was also the biggest variable in this playoff.
The Los Angeles Clippers focused all on blocking Jokic instead of Murray. I had no choice but to. Denver was extremely dependent on Jokic.
However, this day was different. He made eight of his 14 3-pointers. It had a whopping 65.3 percent field-fighting rate. The LA Clippers' defensive system completely collapsed when Murray burst properly.
I had no choice but to. Focusing on stopping Murray, Jokic could explode.
Denver scored 43 points for Murray and 21 points for Russell Westbrook while completely reducing Jokic's dependence on the day.
U.S. local media cited the Los Angeles Clippers as the most likely team to catch Oklahoma City, the strongest team in the West. However, the walls in Denver were quite high.
In actual matchup achievements, Oklahoma has a lot of advantages for Denver. There are Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Harstein, who have an absolute advantage in the energy fight against Denver with a strong defense and can bully Jokic.
In addition, there is a part where Jokic's dependence can be enforced through outer compression. On the other hand, the Los Angeles Clippers have Leonard with a strong force. James Harden and Ibacha Zubachi also have a strong presence.
Main players and backup players also have good defense capabilities. Therefore, the Los Angeles Clippers are more comfortable from Oklahoma's point of view than Denver. However, the Los Angeles Clippers immediately see Denver's walls quite high. Oklahoma is laughing.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
