Nuggets get desired 'result' from firings, advance in playoffs - ESPN

DENVER — Nikola Jokic was blunt after the Denver Nuggets fired coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth with just three games left to go in the regular season, saying the organization was clearly looking for change.

The Nuggets had just lost four in a row, the season was slipping away and there was very little time left to turn things back in the right direction before the playoffs.

An early postseason exit looked inevitable with the way the Nuggets were going. A wasted season of Jokic's prime.

«If we don't make the changes, there's no way we're even in a Game 7,» a Nuggets executive told ESPN.

Instead, Denver is back to playing the type of basketball they did two years ago, when they won the NBA championship.

«I think the owner… wanted to change something, to change the energy, and probably he did,» Jokic said after the Nuggets finished off a 120-101 win over the LA Clippers on Saturday night in Game 7 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series. «He got the result he was looking for.»

The fourth-seeded Nuggets were masterful in Game 7, leading the Clippers by as many as 35 points to finish off what had been the NBA's most competitive series of the first round. LA came in as the hottest team in the league, winning 18 of its final 21 regular-season games as Kawhi Leonard and James Harden were finally healthy and in peak form. And each superstar in this series left his mark on it.

In Game 7, however, Denver's supporting cast was the difference. Christian Braun had mostly been valuable for his defense on Harden during the series; but on Saturday, Braun helped get Denver off to a strong start, scoring nine of the teams 21 points in the first quarter.

«Last year, obviously the team had a missed