The Denver Nuggets survived a frantic finish to complete a rally from a 3-1 postseason deficit, getting a go-ahead hoop from Nikola Jokic with 27.8 seconds remaining for an 80-78 victory over the Utah Jazz in game seven of their Western Conference first-round series in the NBA bubble on Wednesday (NZ time).
The 4-3 win vaults the third-seeded Nuggets, who had never previously rallied to win a series from down 3-1, into a second-round matchup with the second-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, beginning Friday.
After sixth-seeded Utah forged a 78-all tie on a Rudy Gobert dunk with 47.5 seconds left, the Nuggets went to Jokic inside against the Jazz's ace defender, and the Denver big man came through with a short hook shot in the lane for the game's final points.
The Jazz had two subsequent possessions.
First, the Nuggets stripped the ball from Donovan Mitchell with 8.4 seconds to go. But rather than try to run out the clock, Denver rushed the ball up the floor and watched Torrey Craig miss a contested layup with 4.4 seconds remaining.
Gobert rebounded and got the ball to Mike Conley, who had a good look at a potential game-winning 3-pointer just before the final horn, but had the shot rim out.
In the Eastern Conference, Jayson Tatum scored a playoff-career-high 34 points, Marcus Smart sunk five 3-pointers during a furious fourth-quarter comeback and the Boston Celtics rallied past the Toronto Raptors 102-99 in game two of their semifinal series.
Smart had 19 points, Kemba Walker added 17 and Jaylen Brown 16 as the Celtics took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game three will take place Friday.
OG Anunoby had 20 points and Fred VanVleet 19 for the Raptors, who dropped to 0-3 against Boston in the NBA bubble. Toronto shot 11 of 40 (27.5 percent) from deep.
