The Denver Nuggets, reigning NBA champions, restarted their Western Conference semi-final series against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, as did the Indiana Pacers against the New York Knicks.
The MVP of the regular season, Nikola Jokic, and his teammate Jamal Murray scored 24 points each, a decisive contribution to the away success of the Nuggets (117-90), who are led 2-1 by the Timberwolves.
Jokic added 14 rebounds and nine assists for his team, defeated at home in the first two games.
Denver will try to tie Sunday in Minneapolis, where the Serbian center said the Nuggets were determined to “play like a champion.”
“I think we played simpler,” Jokic summarized to ESPN. “We were aggressive, more aggressive than them, and I think that’s what changed the game.”
Murray, who had scored only 25 points in the first two games and was fined $100,000 for venting his frustration and throwing a heating pad on the court in the second game, this time scored 11 points. his 21 shots, as well as three interceptions.
“Our guys answered the call,” rejoiced Michael Malone, the Nuggets coach. “They showed me that they still believed in it.”
Michael Porter Jr. added 21 points and all five Nuggets starters posted double-digit scoring records against a Timberwolves team that coach Chris Finch called “lethargic” and “slow.”
Anthony Edwards was behind the previous two games with just 19 points. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 14 points, and Rudy Gobert, back after becoming a father, compiled six points and four rebounds in 27 minutes.
The Pacers, who lost the first two games of their Eastern Conference semi-final in New York, also avoided being down 3-0 thanks to a victory over the Knicks in Indianapolis (111-106).
“Everyone knows what it looks like when you’re down 3-0,” Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton said, referring to the fact that no NBA team has ever come back from such a deficit to win a playoff series.
“We had to play desperate, play hard,” said Haliburton, who scored 35 points Friday and whose Pacers will now try to even the series at home on Sunday.
His teammate Andrew Nembhard was the hero of the evening for Indiana by scoring a three-point shot, which allowed the Pacers to take a 109-106 advantage with 17.8 seconds remaining in the match.
It was the second successful basket of the game for the Canadian leader but it helped seal a physical battle, seesawing, during which the Pacers gave up a lead of 12 points before coming back from a deficit of nine points in the fourth quarter.
“I put (Nembhard) in a bad situation and he made an incredible shot,” said Haliburton, who passed to Nembhard with just four seconds left on the clock, after being in the inability to shoot against the Knicks’ tight defense.
“A big, big shot,” Haliburton said. “He really rose to the occasion when we needed him most.”
Pascal Siakam scored 26 points and Myles Turner added 21 points and 10 rebounds for Indiana.
The Knicks, already without Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic, also had to do without OG Anunoby, victim of a hamstring strain during the second game.
Injured in his right foot on Wednesday, Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson, whose participation was only decided after pre-game warmups, started slowly, but finished with 26 points and six assists.
It was Donte DiVincenzo who carried the Knicks with 35 points, hitting seven of his 11 three-pointers.