Denver - Nikola Jokic, who has only three games left this season after Denver Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth, said the group is clearly looking for changes.

The Nuggets have just lost four straight and are gone this season, and there is little time to move in the right direction before the playoffs.

The way exports in the early stages of the playoffs looked inevitable. Jokic's Prime wasted seasons.

"If we don't make changes, there's nothing we can do even in Game 7," a mine tool executive told ESPN.

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

"I think the shop owner...want to change something, change the energy, maybe he did," Jokic said. The Nuggets beat La Clippers 120-101 in Game 7 of the first round of the playoff series to win 120-101. “He got what he was looking for.”

The fourth seed Nuggets were proficient in Game 7, leading the Clippers to end the most competitive series in the first round with a 35-point advantage. Los Angeles is the NBA's hottest team, winning 18 of 18 games in the last 21 games, while Kawhi Leonard and James Harden are finally healthy and at their highest level at the end of the season. Every superstar in this series has left his mark.

However, in Game 7, Denver’s support cast was the difference. Christian Braun was very valuable in the series against his Harden defense, but he helped Denver get a strong start on Saturday, scoring a 21-point nine in the first quarter.

"Last year, it was obvious that this team didn't have a chance, but I felt we should win," Braun said. "Obviously, they were a better team that night, but I just felt there was still a chance on the table and I felt like I wanted to be a part of it. ((Saturday) was exactly what I wanted, those people trust me, they had it all year round, but they trusted me in that moment.

“So this is the exact moment I’m looking for and I’m glad it’s gone.”

Aaron Gordon led all scorers with 22 points, with eight of them opening the second quarter of the game with a 37-point burst in Denver. Then in the third quarter, Gordon has one of the best dunks you've ever seen - a reverse, jam with both hands plunged the crowd at Ball Arena into a tizzy smell, seemingly suppressing the Clippers' spirit once and for all. Sixth man Russell Westbrook scored 10 of 10 points in a decisive 16 in the second quarter, hitting two huge 3-pointers, pushing his series average to 3 points, the best in any postseason of his career.

What makes the Clippers particularly painful is that they basically dare to beat them from behind the arc in 30.5% of the 3-point shooting game. According to Genius IQ, Westbrook's average separation between him and the closest defender was 9.1 feet in his three-point attempt in this series. This is the second largest separation of all players in the playoff series since player tracking in 2014.

Westbrook said after a great performance in the first game he will talk about the way his former team defended him after the Nuggets “take care of business” and won the series.

"I think they think it's the best option to stop me or bring me out of this series," Westbrook said. "But one thing no one knows is that I work hard. So no matter what someone does, I'm always ready and I'll be ready for anything because I'm ready for everything."

"Like I said, after the first game, if they continue to do that, I'll pay. I don't know what I've shot for the series."

Westbrook told him he shot 42% from the field and said with a smile: "Damn it, it's solid. I guess that's not very good for them."

Westbrook also received five assists, five rebounds and five steals in just 27 minutes of the game.

The Nuggets role-player's performance far exceeded the under-average performance of a foul Jokic, who only scored 16 points and 16 points in 14 shots.

Overall, six Denver players scored in double figures, but none of them exceeded 22 points. It's the kind of balanced attack for the 2023 Nuggets in the championship battle, with interim head coach David Adelman being confident enough to quote the team in his post-match comments.

Adelman said of the balance his team found in Game 7, "I thought it reminded me of the year we won. There was a lot of humble confidence there. You have to be very respectful of the whole hall they are here, what those guys are able to do. But you can't get into the game either. We've done it, we've seen that, we've experienced it before, we've made it."

The Nuggets will have only one day to prepare for Oklahoma City’s top seeds and start the second round Monday night.

“It’s a memorable series,” Adelman said. “We just don’t have time to remember it. … because we’re flying to OKC tomorrow.”