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Brunson's 3 sends Knicks to semis, Clippers beat Nuggets to force Game 7

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1 daysBasketball

The NBA's most clutch player delivered when it mattered most.

Jalen Brunson drained a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds left to send the visiting New York Knicks to a 116-113 win over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday and a berth in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

A week after receiving the league's clutch player of the year award, Brunson scored eight of his 40 points in the final 2:23 to help the third-seeded Knicks close the game on an 11-1 run and set up a second-round series against the No. 2 seed Boston Celtics.

The Pistons, who rallied back from an early 15-point deficit to go into half-time with the lead and later stormed back from 11 down in the fourth, had one final chance to tie the score, but Cade Cunningham's pass slipped through the fingers of Malik Beasley and fell out of bounds with four-tenths of a second remaining.

Cunningham led Detroit with 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds but missed all eight of his 3-point attempts, while his back-court mate Tim Hardaway Jr. was 1 of 6 from outside the perimeter and scored seven points.

New York's Mikal Bridges had no such trouble with his shot, scoring 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting, while OG Anunoby added 22 points and Karl-Anthony Towns chipped in 10 points and 15 rebounds.

Clippers grind out win over Nuggets to force Game 7

The Los Angeles Clippers shrugged off back-to-back losses and staved off elimination with a 111-105 win over the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 to even their Western Conference first-round series at 3-3.

Game 7 will be Saturday in Denver.

James Harden stepped up with 28 points after combining for 26 points in Game 4 and Game 5 losses, Kawhi Leonard added 27 points and 10 rebounds and Norman Powell scored 16 of his 24 points after half-time for the Clippers, who held on after the Nuggets went on a late 15-5 run to pull within five points with just under one minute to play.

Los Angeles clamped down defensively on Nikola Jokic, holding the three-time league MVP to just five points on 2-of-9 shooting in the second half.

Jokic finished with 25 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, with Jamal Murray contributing 21 points for the Nuggets.

Clippers big man Ivica Zubac and the veteran Nicolas Batum led the defensive charge, with Zubac finishing with five blocks - including two on Jokic's driving layup attempts in the final 1:35 - and Batum recording two of his three blocks in the final 64 seconds.