Nuggets Game 5 three-pointers: Ball Arena, Christian Braun stymie Clippers’ James Harden

No fourth-quarter comeback this time.

The Nuggets closed out the Clippers comfortably in Game 5 for a 3-2 series lead behind a Jamal Murray 43-point explosion. Here are three key developments from the 131-115 win.

Nuggets fans, and Christian Braun, ride Clippers’ James Harden: Late in the third quarter, with Denver up 96-82 and Nuggets fans smelling blood, Clippers guard James Harden stepped to the free throw line.

And Ball Arena, audibly disgusted for much of the series at Harden’s unique method of pin-your-arm foul-drawing, let him have it.

“HAR-DEN SUCKS!” the fandom roared from the lower basin to the third deck, a cacophony of jeers raining down on the Clippers’ star.

He made his first free throw. Fans quieted. Then pivoted.

“YOU STILL SUCK!” they roared again, bursting into cheers as Harden’s second attempt nicked off rim.

Perhaps Denver’s fans stymied Harden Tuesday night. The star guard was lifeless for much of the night in an 3-for-9 performance from the floor. The more likely answer: The Nuggets’ Christian Braun, who has taken the Harden matchup so seriously he provoked a skirmish in Game 4. Braun stuck to Harden like glue, completely disrupting the flow of the Clippers’ offense in holding their engine to 11 points and just five assists against four turnovers.

Russell Westbrook rocks Denver’s bench woes to sleep: For two straight games, the Nuggets couldn’t squeeze any juice from bench depth that’s been bland all year. The Nuggets’ bench scored exactly six points in 64 minutes in a Game 3 blowout loss. Four points in 26 minutes in a Game 4 buzzer-beating win, as interim head coach David Adelman went full DEFCON 5 and played Nikola Jokic the whole second half.

Denver, though, got both a defibrillator and a sigh of relief from 36-year-old Russell Westbrook in the first half of Game 5, an unlikely hero after being scratched for Game 4 with a foot injury.

After misfiring on a couple wide-open corner triples early, he kept firing after the first frame, banging a ridiculous heat-check pull-up three over Nicolas Batum and bellowing to the crowd. He flung up an off-balance and-one finish off glass midway through the second quarter, rocking his hands in a baby gesture to the Clippers’ Bogdan Bogdanovic after his 16th point. And he nailed another critical triple at the end of the third as the Clippers crept back into frame, Westbrook finishing with 21 points as the rest of the Nuggets’ bench totaled two.

DeAndre Jordan, vindicated: The non-Nikola Jokic minutes throughout this first-round series have been Jamal Murray’s minutes to “hold water,” as Adelman put it pregame. And after he’d been held largely underwater in Game 4, the Nuggets’ flamethrower ignited in the second quarter with Jokic on the bench.

Denver still lost that stretch by one, in large part because Clippers coach Tyronn Lue — winning a temporary chess match — trotted out starting center Ivica Zubac. And Nuggets backup big DeAndre Jordan looked largely helpless at the rim, as the Clippers’ offense got going behind a flurry of hooks from Zubac and waltzes to the rim from Bogdanovic and Kawhi Leonard.

With a comfy 16-point cushion entering the fourth quarter, though, Adelman turned to Jordan again to nickel-and-dime Jokic a few minutes of rest. And Jordan ended up breaking the bank, firing off a beautiful alley-oop to Michael Porter Jr., swatting a Harden floater a couple minutes later to buoy a Murray runout.

When Jokic checked back in with seven minutes to go, Denver led 114-95, leaving Jordan a plus-two on the night. Fun fact: in games Jordan’s had a positive plus-minus in 2024-25, the Nuggets are 16-4.

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.