Jokic, Murray, Braun make playoff history as Nuggets force Game 7

The Denver Nuggets had a collective effort from almost everyone on the floor as they held home court on Thursday night in a 119-107 victory to force a Game 7. Nikola Jokic had 29 points, Jamal Murray had 25 and Christian Braun had 23 as they finally held onto a fourth quarter lead against the No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder.

This wasn’t just any performance from the Nuggets trio, as they did something that hadn’t been done since the Bill Russell-led Celtics!

Nikola Jokic, Christian Braun & Jamal Murray each recorded 20+ points, 8+ rebounds & 5+ assists.

The last trio to do that in an NBA playoff game was the Celtics’ John Havlicek, Sam Jones & Bill Russell on April 26, 1966 ‼️ pic.twitter.com/KeZSIuMf9c

— Greg Harvey (@BetweenTheNums) May 16, 2025

Not too shabby, huh?

While the scoring is big, the most important piece here is the rebounding contributions from the three. The trio combined for 33 rebounds, almost as many as Oklahoma City had as a team, with 40. With the size of the Thunder inside with Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, having everyone on Denver crash the glass is essential to try and win the rebound battle.

The Nuggets have won the rebounding battle in three of the six games so far in the series, two of which came in winning efforts in games 1 and 6. In Game 3, they only lost the count by five. It takes a group effort to do these gritty, little things better than the opponent, and especially without Michael Porter Jr. being able to rebound like his normal self due to the shoulder injury, contributions like these from Murray and Braun are essential.

After the win on Thursday, Jokic emphasized rebounding as one of the keys to winning another Game 7.

Nikola Jokic says “defense, details, resounding and turnovers” will decide who wins Game 7 of Nuggets-Thunder pic.twitter.com/RmcoMjvDcK

— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) May 16, 2025

Especially after Game 5, in which Jokic was the only Nugget who was able to put the ball in the basket in the fourth quarter as the team let another late lead slip away. Getting 23 points from Braun on 57% shooting was vital for the Nuggets’ success on Thursday, along with the coming out party for Julian Strawther, who had 15 points while knocking down three of his four 3-pointers.

If the Nuggets want another shot at the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Conference Finals, they will need Braun to step up again in Game 7, which is slated to tip off at 1:30 p.m. Denver time on Sunday.

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