Denver Nuggets avoid series sweep with gritty Game 4 win over Golden State Warriors

By Matias Grez, CNN

Updated 0958 GMT (1758 HKT) April 25, 2022

Monte Morris hit a clutch floater late on to put the Denver Nuggets back ahead.

(CNN)The Denver Nuggets avoided a first-round series sweep against the Golden State Warriors with a gritty 126-121 home win at Ball Arena.

Reigning MVP Nikola Jokic put up a game-high 37 points for the Nuggets, shooting an absurdly efficient 66.7% from the field, to go along with eight rebounds and six assists.Denver led for most of the game, finding themselves up by as many as 17 in the second quarter, but buoyed by a combined 65 from Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, the Warriors roared back in the closing stages to take a two-point lead.However, two huge buckets from Jokic and Monte Morris put the Nuggets back up after Austin Reaves secured a huge defensive stop from a Warriors' inbound pass, before Will Barton sealed with the win with a dagger three-pointer with six seconds remaining.READ: Game 3 recap — Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole combine for 80 points to put Warriors up 3-0 in seriesRead MoreNikola Jokic posted a game-high 37 points in an MVP-level performance.Despite sitting on the bench at the time, Jokic was largely responsible for Reaves' stop on the defensive end, warning the Nuggets players on the court that the Warriors were planning to lob the ball to Andrew Wiggins.«They're a championship [level] team, you know, and we needed to put up a fight, we didn't want to get swept,» Jokic told ESPN after the game. «I think we didn't deserve to get swept, so it was [having] a little bit more pride in ourselves and we were fighting.»They're a great team, but today, we won. That's what we have [to do], fight. The odds are against us, but we've beaten the odds a