Done with Doncic, Clippers set for Nuggets’ Murray, Jokic

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. ( AP) — First came Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. Now it’s Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic.

Those players might be the future of the NBA. The Los Angeles Clippers believe their time is now.

That’s been true since the moment they signed Kawhi Leonard, who is on the best roll of his playoff career as the Clippers open the Western Conference semifinals Thursday night against the Denver Nuggets.

Leonard has scored at least 30 points in a playoff career- high five straight games — and the two-time NBA Finals MVP finished with 29 in the only game he didn’t in the first round against Dallas. Teammate Landry Shamet said he had to stop himself from laughing in the fourth quarter of Game 6, when Leonard scored eight straight Clippers points.

“That guy is a problem. We all know that,” Shamet said. “So at the end of games, he kind of goes to that next level. It’s not anything that really comes surprising. It’s what he does, what he’s expected to do and we need him to do that.”

The second-seeded Clippers won the final two games of that series, overcoming Doncic’s brilliant play in his first postseason. Porzingis missed the final three games with torn cartilage in his right knee, but the Nuggets have both their young stars ready to go.

Murray matched an NBA record with two 50-point games in one series in the first round, part of a 142-point run from Games 4-6. And when he was finally slowed in Game 7, Jokic responded with 30 points, 14 rebounds and the tiebreaking basket with 27 seconds left in an 80-78 victory over Utah.

That made Denver the 12th team to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a series but left the No. 3 seed with just one day to recover.

“It’s draining to go through a seven-game series with anybody, especially one like we had that was mentally and physically draining trying to come back from 3-1,” Denver’s Torrey Craig said. “Then you finally come back and you advance and then you play in 48 hours. So it’s going to be a challenge.”

Especially against a Clippers team that has one of the deepest and most talented lineups in the league. They won two of the three meetings in the regular season, including a 29-point romp in February.