LOS ANGELES — Kevin Durant scored 31 points, Devin Booker added 30 and the Phoenix Suns defeated the Los Angeles Clippers without Kawhi Leonard 112-100 to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.
The Clippers, who lost Game 3 by five points, again made a strong run with Leonard watching from the bench. He has missed two straight games with a sprained right knee.
They’re also without Paul George, who hasn’t played since March 21 because of the same injury as Leonard. Russell Westbrook finished with a game-high 37 points. Norman Powell added 14 points and Terance Mann had 13 off the bench.
Game 5 is Tuesday in Phoenix.
Elsewhere, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets delivered the type of disciplined performance that’s a prerequisite for lasting a long time in the NBA playoffs.
Jokic had his seventh career triple-double in the playoffs with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists and the Nuggets beat the Timberwolves 120-111 to take a 3-0 lead in the first-round series.
“We didn´t want to give them life,” said Jokic, the two-time reigning NBA MVP who led the league with 29 triple-doubles this season. “We wanted to be the aggressor. We wanted to punch them first.”
Michael Porter Jr. had 25 points and nine rebounds and Jamal Murray added 18 points and nine assists as Denver withstood another dashing game by Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards to send a loud crowd of white-shirt-wearing fans home from another frustrating postseason loss.
“Proud of the group,” Nuggets coach Mike Malone said. “They handled their business like they´re supposed to, like mature teams do.”
“Our decision-making on offense just kind of let us down,” coach Chris Finch said according to AP.
Bruce Brown had 12 points to lead Denver’s 29-10 edge in bench points, and the Nuggets shot a hard-to-beat 57 per cent from the field. “No disrespect to the T-wolves, this is about us, but we don´t want to go back to Denver,” Malone said.
Meanwhile, Jalen Brunson scored 21 points, RJ Barrett broke out of a slump with 19 and the New York Knicks held the Cleveland Cavaliers to the lowest point total in the NBA this season, rolling to a 2-1 lead in the first-round playoff series with a 99-79 victory.
The Knicks emphatically bounced back from a loss in Game 2 and moved halfway to their first series victory since 2013.
They led by 27 points in the fourth quarter, when a sold-out crowd of 19,812 at Madison Square Garden was so loud there was little chance of hearing much of what the public address announcer was saying – especially as seldom-used veteran Derrick Rose was checking into the game to a huge ovation.
Josh Hart added 13 points for the fifth-seeded Knicks. They became the first team to allow fewer than 80 points during the regular season or postseason.
