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Clippers vs Nuggets 2025 Game 5 Preview
The Clippers go into a pivotal Game 5 in Denver locked with the Nuggets at 2-2. Whoever wins this game controls the rest of the series – you might just say it’s an important evening for the teams involved.
Game
Information
Where: Ball Arena, Denver, CO
When: 7:00 PM PT
How to Watch: TNT, FanDuel Sports SoCal, AM 570
Projected
Starting Lineups
Clippers: James Harden – Norm Powell – Kris
Dunn – Kawhi Leonard – Ivica Zubac
Nuggets: Jamal Murray – Christian Braun – Michael
Porter Jr. – Aaron Gordon – Nikola Jokic
Injuries
Nuggets: Da’Ron Holmes Out (Achilles), Michael Porter Jr. Probable (Shoulder), Russell Westbrook Questionable (Foot)
Clippers: None
Notes
Does Ty Change the Starting 5: After Kris Dunn’s 1-9 shooting performance in Game 4, pressure picked up on Ty Lue (in media, fan, and probably other spaces) to move Dunn out of the starting unit, probably for Nic Batum. It does not seem likely that Ty adjusts the starting unit, though it would not shock me if he made that adjustment at halftime if the Clippers are not playing well on offense. I see both sides of the debate. Dunn has started most of the year, and his defense, energy, and connective playmaking have been big reasons for the Clippers’ success. Plus, his ability to at least bring the ball up the court relieves some burden on Harden. He’s also by far the Clippers’ best option on Jamal Murray and has been fantastic on defense in this series. Batum is, of course, the far superior shooter, and is someone the Nuggets can’t cheat off of to help on Harden and Kawhi. He’s also a good defender in his own right and adds more size to the starting unit to help with rebounding (though Dunn is technically a better rebounder in a vacuum). Nico is the steadier player and should play more than Kris unless Kris is really on a super impactful stretch, but I do feel Dunn’s presence in the starting unit is quite valuable, and I think Ty sticks with him one more game.
Playing Key Guys More: Ty Lue’s strategy through four games seems to be to take the long view approach and not overplay his players early. The Clippers have better, more trusted depth, and while Ty has certainly gone to his stars, he’s also given his deeper options more rope. Thus, the Nuggets, have played four players more minutes than the Clipper who has played the most (Harden, with 158 minutes): Jokic (169), Murray (169), Braun (161), and Gordon (159). Even Michael Porter Jr., who was benched in Game 1, has played more minutes (137) than any Clipper outside of Harden, Kawhi, and Zu. I think trying to keep an older, injury-prone team from shooting their wad too early in a series is smart, but I also think Ty has probably swung a little too far the other way. So far, none of them is even averaging 40 minutes per game for the series. If this game is close, Harden and Zu probably need to play 42+ minutes, and Kawhi should be at 40+. You know what’s more important than having gas in the tank for the next round? Actually making the next round!
Play Jokic Straight Up: It’s extremely demoralizing for Zu, the Clippers, and fans to watch Nikola Jokic hit seemingly impossible shots against great coverage. But just like against Luka Doncic when the Clippers went up against him, Jokic in “score-first” mode against single coverage is not as dangerous as sending help too early and allowing genius playmakers to carve up the defense. The Clippers just have to live with Zu’s (superb) defense on Jokic and hope that they score enough on the other end to win while limiting the rest of the Nuggets. And the scoring is the key: the Clippers’ defense has mostly been fantastic in this series. The reason they’re 2-2 with a narrow win in Game 2 is that their offense has not been able to consistently get out of the mud. If they can just get going on that end, the defense they’ve played is more than enough to win. So even if Jokic hits four straight mid-range jumpers in a row, keep playing him mostly straight up and don’t allow him to shift into playmaker mode.