SAN ANTONIO — LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan helped San Antonio overcome a huge effort by Nikola Jokic and force a Game 7 against Denver.
Aldridge scored 26 points and DeRozan added 25 to help the Spurs beat the Nuggets 120-103 on Thursday night.
"They've been great at throwing a punch at us and running away with it," DeRozan said. "We tried to sustain that and understand whatever they do we have to match it, be more aggressive, understand we have to keep our rhythm, being aggressive on both ends and we did that."
Jokic scored 27 of his 43 points in the second half to post the third highest point total this
Game 7 is Saturday in Denver, where the Nuggets had the league's best home record during the regular season. The winner will face Portland.
"I don't know, it's my first Game 7," Jokic said when asked what he expected in the finale. "It's probably going to be even tougher than this one."
The young Nuggets have to ponder that after a strong effort wasn't enough in Game 6.
Denver dominated the paint, outscoring San Antonio 72 to 36, but the Nuggets were 8 for 31 outside the paint. The Spurs were 4 for 9 on 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to help overcome Jokic's output.
"He played great tonight, he did his thing, that's for sure," San Antonio
The Spurs had five players score in double figures, including a series-high 19 points from Rudy Gay. Every San Antonio starter shot 50
"We had a lot of people participate tonight," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "Lot of people came and had good games. I think the Nuggets have had that pretty regularly and we had that tonight, so, that was great to see."
The Spurs needed the win to continue the series after a listless performance in a 108-90 loss in Denver on Tuesday in which the Nuggets led by as many as 30 points.
San Antonio surged to a 34-24 lead by shooting 67
Jokic kept the Nuggets in the game in the third quarter, scoring 17 points on 8-for-9 shooting.
San Antonio went on a 22-4 run to open the fourth quarter to take command.
Jamal Murray added 16 points and Gary Harris had 14 points for the Nuggets.
TIP-INS
Nuggets: The Nuggets have advanced beyond the first round in eight of 16 previous
Spurs: San Antonio is 23-9 against Denver in seven
ILLEGAL?
Malone is curious to see how Murray was injured on a screen by Poeltl in the third quarter.
Murray stayed in the game after remaining on the court for about 15 seconds after taking a knee to the left thigh on a screen by Poeltl. Murray jumped up after the Nuggets called time, grabbed his left thigh and worked to stretch it out. He returned after the timeout and promptly drained a jumper.
Malone said the Spurs have set illegal screens during the series, video of which he has sent to the league.
"The response from the league has been that we're right, but for some reason they don't catch them during the game," Malone said. "I'll have to watch that play, obviously. Jamal got taken out on that play. I don't know if it was dirty or not. I don't think Jakob Poeltl is a dirty player, I really don't, but I have to watch the film to see how that happened and how Jamal went down with that injury."
By Raul Dominguez, The Associated Press