Harden, Kawhi lift Clips past Nuggets to force G7

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- James Harden rebounded from a quiet night in Game 5 on Tuesday to score 28 points on 10-of-20 shooting, Kawhi Leonard had 27 points and 10 rebounds and the LA Clippers forced a Game 7 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series with a 111-105 win over the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 on Thursday night.

Norman Powell had his most effective game of the series with 24 points for the Clippers, who rebounded from back-to-back losses with an impressive effort at Intuit Dome. LA took control in the second half while playing tenacious defense on Nikola Jokic, who scored 20 of his 25 points in the first half.

"I give our guys credit for just staying with it," Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. "(They) don't get deflated, and we did a good job. ... I told the guys after the game, it's about being a team and whatever it takes to win. Those guys totally understood it."

Game 7 is Saturday in Denver.

The Clippers did it Thursday by getting Harden going early and ensuring he had space to operate with a key lineup change at halftime. Lue inserted Nicolas Batum to start the second half in favor of the more defense-minded Kris Dunn, who had become a liability on offense as Denver sagged off of him and often sent his defender to blitz Harden whenever he caught the ball. Batum is a more dangerous offensive player, and he's versatile enough to stay with Denver guard Jamal Murray, who torched the Clippers for 43 points in Game 5 but had only 21 in Game 6.

Harden played 46 minutes Thursday, a heavy workload, but the Clippers were facing elimination and Harden is that important to their success.

The win Thursday was the first elimination game Harden has won since Game 7 of a first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2020.

"It was win or go home, so there were opportunities to be aggressive, and I took them," Harden said. "One more game. ... We didn't want to go home. We've got one more game left."

The win also came after Lue called all of his players the night before Game 6 to make sure he heard positivity and belief in his players' voices. He didn't want to take anything for granted after the Clippers folded down the stretch Tuesday, saying he "took a lot of temperatures" to make sure they were mentally ready to fight for their playoff lives.

"I had a lot of phone calls," Lue said. "A lot of phone calls. Just talking to the guys, being positive. Making sure they understood that we didn't play our best [in Game 5] and our attention to detail wasn't good."

The Clippers team that stormed into the playoffs with eight straight wins and 18 in 21 heeded Lue's calls in Game 6.

LA led by 15 with less than six minutes to play, but Denver made an 11-2 run to trim the Clippers' lead to 107-101 before Powell buried a 3-pointer with 1:47 left.

Powell's clutch bucket was the Clippers' only field goal in the final 5:57, but they hung on with defense. Russell Westbrook missed a layup under pressure and had another layup blocked on consecutive possessions in the final minutes, and Ivica Zubac blocked a layup attempt by Jokic with 24 seconds left.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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