Clippers force Game 7 vs Nuggets

LOS ANGELES, United States — The Los Angeles Clippers downed the Denver Nuggets, 111-105, at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California Friday (Manila time) to set up a titanic NBA playoff decider.

James Harden led the way for the Clippers with 28 points, while Kawhi Leonard finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds and five assists as Los Angeles bounced back from Tuesday's 131-115 Game 5 drubbing in Denver.

A fired-up Clippers side held off a late charge from Denver to level their series 3-3 and force a decisive Game 7 in Denver on Saturday (Sunday Manila time).

A nip-and-tuck contest hinged on a huge third quarter by the Clippers, who outscored Denver 32-22 to open up a double-digit lead which stretched to 15 points with just under six minutes remaining.

Denver rallied to cut the gap to just five points with less than a minute remaining, but the Clippers held firm to set up the do-or-die match.

"It was win or go home — and we didn't want to go home," Clippers star Harden said.

"We've got one more game in a couple of days. We've got to be better. Still a lot of mental mistakes, still a lot of execution that we can get better at. But we've got to go out there and take it."

Denver interim head coach David Adelman pinpointed the third quarter as the moment the game swung away from his team.

"We got sped up, we didn't handle it — we played defense but we never could come up with the 50-50 ball. That quarter absolutely killed us," Adelman said.

"We played a really good fourth quarter, but we've got to be better throughout the whole game."

Nikola Jokic led Denver with 25 points while Jamal Murray finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.