down substantially on their turnovers after they had 20 in the opener.

“We’re in good shape, we’ve just got to do what we’re supposed to do,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We can’t turn the ball over 20 times and expect to beat a good team. If you turn over 20 times against the team that is No. 1 in offensive transition, then you’re gonna lose the game. ... Twenty turnovers for 29 points ...”

“But we saw some things. We did some things right, some things we could have done better, which we know. We just have to be better with our execution and basically understanding what we’re doing, and then offensively, understand how we want to attack.”

Jokic finished with 29 points (12-for-24 shooting), 12 assists and nine rebounds and Gordon added 25 points, including a pair of key free throws late in regulation. Jamal Murray added 21 points (on 7-for-20 shooting, 3 for 7 from behind the arc) to go with nine rebounds and seven assists for the Nuggets, who improved to 4-0 under interim coach David Adelman, Michael Malone’s replacement.

Westbrook finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals with just one turnover while shooting 5 for 17 from the field in 34 minutes off the bench.

Harden led the Clippers with 32 points, 11 assists and six rebounds while shooting 11 for 22 from the field (4 for 9 from 3-point range). Kawhi Leonard added 22 points (on 9-of-15 shooting), six rebounds and three steals (but seven turnovers) and Ivica Zubac had 21 points and 13 rebounds while shooting 10 for 15 from the field.

For Leonard, who had the hot hand coming into the series, seeing Harden get into a groove was a positive despite the result.

“It was great. He’s been great all year,” Leonard said. “He’s been great all year and he was great tonight. He pretty much was carrying us the whole game.”

During the Clippers’ late-season sprint to 50 wins, they nearly earned home-court advantage for the first round. On Saturday, the fifth-seeded visitors slowed and simplified things early and nearly swiped that advantage from the fourth-seeded Nuggets in the opener.

Denver’s defense didn’t provide much resistance through the first quarter and much of the second and the Clippers led by as much as 15 points before halftime. The Clippers’ game plan seemed clearly geared toward getting easy looks at the basket, whether they came via pick-and-rolls or sneaky backdoor cuts.

Zubac was an early beneficiary, mostly by finding and punishing mismatches. When the Nuggets sent help, Kris Dunn made timely back cuts for easy layups. Harden caught fire early with three tough driving layups in a row at one point, then two huge 3-pointers to close the first quarter.

The Nuggets kept it close with 10-0 and 11-0 runs toward the end of the first two quarters and closed to within 53-49 by halftime. The Clippers maintained a lead for much of regulation, but the Nuggets never let them get comfortable.

“They got more physical defensively,” Lue said. “I thought (Jokic) did a good job of just mixing up his coverages, whether he’s in the blitz or being a drop, and we just didn’t read it well once he did do that. I just thought that physicality really changed the game defensively.”