It seems that the mid-season firings of head coach Michael Malone and several assistants ignited the spark Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets needed to make their playoff run.
The Nuggets blew out the Los Angeles Clippers 120-101 in Game 7 of the West First Round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs. This allowed them to win the series 4-3 and advance to the West Semifinals, where they will face the one-seed Oklahoma City Thunder.
It’s a significant improvement from the difficult situation they were near the end of the regular season. Denver only had three games left to play but were suffering from a four-game losing streak, which had them slide down the West standings.
This resulted in the Nuggets’ front office making the tough decision to move on from Malone, their most successful coach in franchise history. He brought them their first NBA title in 2023, ending his coaching tenure with the team with a 515-363 record (both regular season and playoffs).
Jokic reflected on him and the Nuggets bouncing back from their end-of-season struggles after the Game 7 win, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. He believed the team owner wanted to change the energy by parting ways with Malone, which happened to work in the end.
“I think the owner … wanted to change something, to change the energy, and probably he did,” Jokic said. “He got the result he was looking for.”
Nuggets Interim Coach Evaluates Series Win
It was a strong series win for interim head coach David Adelman, who seems to have righted the Denver Nuggets’ ship following their late-season struggles.
Denver is now 7-3 with Adelman leading the way, ending the regular season with three straight wins before proceeding to beat the Clippers in seven games. Adelman believes their Game 7 performance to be reminiscent of their title run in 2023.
“I thought it reminded me of the year we won it,” Adelman said of the balance his team found in Game 7. “There’s a lot of humble confidence in there. You have to go into these games with great respect for who’s across the hall here, what those guys are capable of doing. But you also can’t go into the game not thinking that, ‘Yeah, we can get this done.’ We’ve done this, we’ve seen this, we’ve been through this before and we’ve succeeded.”
Nuggets Prepare for West Semis Series Against the Thunder
Justin Ford/Getty Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets will take on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the semifinals of the 2025 Western Conference playoffs.
Jokic and the Nuggets will now prepare for a tough series against the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder, who are fully rested after sweeping the Memphis Grizzlies 4-0 in their first-round series. They highlight a talented unit in with MVP finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, All-Star Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren highlighting the group.
Both teams stand out with their offenses being two of the best in the league, placing themselves in the top five. However, the Thunder have a significant edge on the defensive side of the ball, ranking third in scoring defense and first in defensive rating. This is stark contrast to the Nuggets’ ranks of 25th and 22nd in those categories.
Adelman is happy to have gotten the Nuggets past the Clippers in the first round. But he will keep them ready to play against the best-performing team of the regular season.
“This was a memorable series,” Adelman said. “We just don’t really have time to remember it … because we fly to OKC tomorrow.”
Game 1 between the Nuggets and Thunder will take place on May 5 at 9:30 p.m. ET.
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