Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets advance with a 120-101 victory over the Clippers.

DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic got plenty of help from his teammates and the Denver Nuggets didn't slow down after building a big lead to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 120-101 in Game 7 on Saturday night.

The fourth-seeded Nuggets, who led by as many as 35 points, advanced to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, who swept Memphis in the first round and had a bye week. The teams split their season series 2-2, with both teams winning one on the road.

The Clippers' season came to an abrupt end after entering the playoffs as the league's hottest team, having won 18 of 21.

Jokic had 16 points, ten rebounds, and eight assists. Aaron Gordon led Denver with 22 points, Christian Braun had 21, Jamal Murray and Russell Westbrook added 16 each, and Michael Porter Jr. scored 15.

Kawhi Leonard led Los Angeles with 22 points, but James Harden scored just seven points on 2-of-8 shooting and Ivica Zubac had his most subdued game of the series with 10 points.

The Nuggets were weighed down by last season's failure in Game 7 of Round 2, when they blew a 20-point second-half lead to the Minnesota Timberwolves just as they appeared poised to defend the franchise's first NBA championship.

And after blowing a 22-point, fourth-quarter lead in Game 4 of this series—only to be saved by the first buzzer-beating dunk in NBA playoff history, courtesy of Gordon—the Nuggets and the Ball Arena crowd were able to control the lead they'd built and kept growing, as the Clippers kept failing.

The Nuggets opened the scoring with a 17-0 run in the third quarter after Leonard started the second half with a three-pointer to cut LA's deficit to 58-50.

Los Angeles led 26-21 after the first quarter, but the Clippers were outscored 72-40 during the second and third quarters to fall behind 93-66 entering the fourth quarter.

After racking up his third, fourth, and fifth fouls in a 48-second span at the end of the third, Jokic went to the bench and watched his team continue to advance. He sat out the entire fourth quarter.

The Nuggets began celebrating during the fourth quarter that put Denver up 107-76.

Denver interim coach David Adelman emptied his bench with a 111-81 lead with 5:23 left, but the Clippers went on a 7-0 run and Adelman sent his starters back in the fourth minute.

The Clippers ended up narrowing a 35-point deficit, but Denver's lead, for a change, was too big to overcome. Their 19-point victory was the largest in a Game 7 in franchise playoff history.

Courtesy of team owner Steve Ballmer, more than 100 Clippers fans were flown to Denver and gathered behind one of the baskets to provide extra noise as an extension of "The Wall," the section designated for the die-hard group of fans that fills the Intuit Dome—also behind a basket—for Clippers games in Los Angeles.

The Nuggets had lost four of their five series-ending games since winning the franchise's only NBA championship two years ago. The Clippers were also the victims the last time Denver won a Game 7 in the conference semifinals in the Florida bubble when the Nuggets overcame a 3-1 series deficit.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor using a generative artificial intelligence tool.