Sports Time Radio

I believe most people and the NBA as well had hoped to see the battle of L.A. in the Western Conference finals. Unfortunately the Denver Nuggets had other plans on Tuesday night.

In Game 7the Nuggets pulled off the upset over the Los Angeles Clippers and they did it in surprisingly easy fashion 104-89.

Denver was down 56-54 gong into halftime, but outscored the Clippers 50-33in the second half to pull away for the victory and advance to the Western Conference finals to face the other Los Angeles team the Lakers.

This past off season the Clippers signed the biggest free agent on the market in Kawhi Leonard and then they made a big trade to acquire Paul George as they tried to give themselves a chance to go to the NBA finals out of the Western Conference.

Sadly for the Clippers Leonard and George combined to go 10 for 38 from the field including going 4 of 18 from behind the 3-point line. Not exactly the formula for success the Clippers had hoped for. It wasn’t just Leonard and George who struggled shooting. Lou Williams has provided a spark off the bench all season for the Clippers went 3 of 11 from the field including going 1 of 4 from behind the 3-point line. As a team the Clippers shot 37.8% from the field in Game 7 going 34 of 90 and 9 of 35 from the 3-point line.

While the Clippers where having their issues shooting the basketball Jamal Murray made another case for himself to be looked at as one of the better players in the NBA. Murray played 45 minutes in Game 7 and dropped 40 points on the Clippers. Murray went 15 of 26 from the field and hit 6 of the 13 3-pointers he attempted.

As a team the Nuggets shot 49.4% from the field going 38 of 77. Denver also shot 35.1% from the 3-point line going 13of 37 and they also hit 15 of the 16 free throws they attempted.

No you can see why it’s Denver moving on to the western Conference finals to face the Lakers while the Clippers are headed home. The question now becomes; what do the Clippers do?

Like pretty much every coach does Doc Rivers the Clippers head coach took the blame for the Game 7 loss, but he wasn’t the one shooting the basketball. While you can’t blame Rivers for the Clippers shooting woes his team was up 3 games to 1 in this series and couldn’t close it out. The Clippers also had leads of 16,19 and 12 points in the final three games of the series and couldn’t hold the lead. This was Rivers 21st season as an NBA head coach and while he no longer holds the title President of basketball operations for the Clippers he is very involved with the construction of the teams roster, but of course the idea of moving on from Rivers is going to come up.

If the Clippers actually do decide to replace Rivers as their head coach which I don’t think they will he wouldn’t be out of work long if he wanted to continue to coach in the NBA. Rivers has 943 wins and one NBA title on his resume as an NBA head coach.

What do you think the Clippers will do. Will they keep Rivers as their head coach? Or will the let him go?

While the Western Conference was still trying to figure out who the Lakers would play the Eastern Conference tipped off Game 1 of their Conference finals and the Miami Heat stayed hot grabbing Game 1 117-114 over the Boston Celtics in overtime.

With 12 seconds left in overtime Jimmy Butler hit a jump shot and was fouled on the play. After Butler hit his free throw Miami took the lead for the final time in the game at 116-114. Bam Adebayo split a pair of free throw for Miami’s final point and when Jayson Tatum’s 29 foot jumper ended up off the mark Miami had a Game 1 win and a 1-0 lead in the series.

Goren Dragic led the Heat with 29 points with 29 points while Jae Crowder added points and Butler scored points. Adebayo handed out a team high 9 assists and scored 18 points while Tyler Herro came off the Miami bench to put up a double-double with 12 points and a team high 11 rebounds. Herro also handed out 9 assists to tie Adebayo for the team lead.

Boston was led in scoring by with a game high 30 points. Tatum also grabbed a game high 14 rebounds. Marcus Smart added 26 points while Kemba Walker scored 19 points and Jaylon Brown added 17 points. Brad Wanamaker came off the Celtics bench to score 11 points. Walker and Wanamaker tied for the team lead in assists with 6.

There are no NBA playoff games tonight, but on Thursday the Heat and the Celtics will play Game 2 of their series while the Nuggets will have to wait until Friday to start their Western Conference final series with the Lakers.

Who do you have meeting the the NBA finals?

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