Everyone thought they knew how this was going to go. After the Los Angeles Clippers dismantled the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of their 2025 first-round series, the narrative was basically written. Denver looked slow, the altitude didn't seem to matter, and the Kawhi Leonard-James Harden duo looked like it finally had the chemistry people had been waiting for since the Intuit Dome was just a blueprint.
Then came April 29, 2025.
Basketball is a weird game because of how quickly momentum shifts. One night you’re up 30, and the next you’re watching Jamal Murray turn into a human torch. Clippers vs Nuggets Game 5 wasn't just another playoff game; it was the night Denver reminded the world why they were the defending-era heavyweights. If you weren't watching the scoreboard at Ball Arena, you missed a 131-115 clinic that shifted the entire gravity of the Western Conference playoffs.
The Jamal Murray Explosion Nobody Saw Coming
You’ve seen Jamal Murray in the playoffs before. We all have. The "Bubble Murray" stories are legendary at this point, but honestly, he hadn't looked quite like that for most of this specific series.
That changed in the first quarter of Game 5.
Murray ended the night with 43 points. He didn't just score; he demoralized. He hit eight three-pointers, including a 30-foot moonshot from the logo in the fourth quarter that basically acted as a "get out of our gym" message to the Clippers bench. What’s crazy is that it wasn't just the outside shooting. He was finishing at the rim, finding his mid-range spots, and looking like the 2023 championship version of himself.
The Clippers tried everything. Ty Lue threw different looks at him—switching Terance Mann onto him, trying to trap him on the high screens—but Murray was just in that zone. You know the one. Where the hoop looks like an ocean.
The Stat Sheet That Tells a Lie
If you just look at Nikola Jokic’s scoring, you’d think he had a "bad" game. 13 points. That’s it. For a three-time MVP, that looks like a win for the Clippers' defense, right?
Wrong.
Jokic ended with a triple-double: 13 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds. He basically played quarterback. While the Clippers were selling out to stop the Joker from scoring 40, he was just picking them apart with cross-court lasers to Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon. Braun, by the way, was a sneaky hero in this one, grabbing 12 boards and finishing with 11 points in 37 minutes of pure hustle.
Why the Clippers Defense Collapsed
So, how does a team with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George give up 131 points in a pivotal Game 5?
Basically, they got outworked in the transition game. The Nuggets outscored LA 35-23 in the first quarter alone, and the Clippers spent the rest of the night playing catch-up. Ivica Zubac actually had a monster game offensively, putting up 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting. He was banging in the lane, hitting hook shots, and generally being a nuisance.
But individual brilliance doesn't win games when the other team is shooting 51% from beyond the arc.
Kawhi Leonard did his thing—20 points and 11 assists—but he looked a little gassed by the middle of the third quarter. The altitude is real, folks. Even for elite athletes. When you're chasing Jamal Murray around screens at 5,280 feet, your legs eventually turn into lead.
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The Russell Westbrook Revenge Factor (Sorta)
We have to talk about Russ. Playing for the Nuggets in this series against his former team added a weird layer of drama. In Game 5, he was a spark plug. He scored 14 points in his first seven minutes off the bench.
It was chaotic. It was loud. It was very "Russ."
He even took a technical in the fourth quarter for swinging on the rim after a breakaway dunk that put Denver up by 31. It didn't matter for the score, but it sent a message. The Nuggets weren't just winning; they were having fun at the Clippers' expense.
The Turning Point in the Third
There was a moment where the Clippers almost made it a game. Kawhi hit a three to open the second half, cutting the lead to 8. For about four minutes, it felt like LA might pull off one of those gritty, veteran comebacks.
Then Denver went on a 17-0 run.
The rebounding and defense from Denver during that stretch was, as Jokic put it after the game, "amazing." They locked the door. Every time the Clippers missed, Denver was off to the races. Aaron Gordon was a nightmare in the dunker spot, and the lead ballooned so fast that Steve Ballmer's 100-plus flown-in fans were suddenly very quiet in their section behind the basket.
Taking Action: Lessons from Game 5
If you're looking back at Clippers vs Nuggets Game 5 to understand what makes a playoff series flip, there are a few real-world takeaways you can apply to your own analysis or even your local pickup game:
- Trust the System Over the Star: Jokic only taking a handful of shots but still dominating the game through assists is a masterclass in "winning the right way."
- The Power of the Role Player: Christian Braun and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope didn't have the "sexy" stats, but their defensive rotations were why the Clippers' shooters never got comfortable.
- Conditioning Matters: The drop-off in the Clippers' defensive intensity in the second half suggests that the physical toll of a seven-game series is often decided in the weight room months before the playoffs start.
The Nuggets ended up taking a 3-2 lead after this win, and while the Clippers fought back to force a Game 7, the psychological damage of this blowout was clear. When a team can drop 131 on you without their best player even trying to score, that's a hard ghost to shake.
To truly understand the depth of this rivalry, keep an eye on how the Clippers adjust their frontcourt depth in the upcoming offseason. Relying so heavily on Zubac in the paint against Jokic proved to be a double-edged sword that ultimately couldn't cut through Denver's altitude advantage.