INGLEWOOD, Calif. — An arena rarely becomes bulletin-board material in an NBA playoff series. But there was Denver interim coach David Adelman, one day before Game 3 of the Western Conference first-round series between the Nuggets and the LA Clippers at the Intuit Dome, supplying fuel for a Clippers fanbase that was already guaranteed to be at full tilt.
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“They have the crowd towards our bench — it’s like a high school crowd, which is actually pretty cool,” Adelman said of The Wall, 51 steep rows uninterrupted by suites designed to provide a cacophony right on top of visitors. “The other thing is, they pump sound in that place. That place is so loud. It reminds me of Phoenix; we lost there a couple of years ago in the second round, where you couldn’t even hear each other talk to each other, the timeouts, the coaches. So that building is very loud, whether the crowd is cheering or not. So we have to be prepared for that.”
Needless to say, that did not go over well. Within a couple of hours, the Clippers provided a tacit acknowledgment of Adelman’s comments ahead of the first postseason game at the Intuit Dome, a place that chairman Steve Ballmer intended to provide a real home-court advantage for a franchise that has never truly had its own space.
Can’t wait to hear @IntuitDome real loud tomorrow 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/Q9QPRD5H01
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) April 23, 2025
“When I first purchased the ball club, I asked our players, ‘Do you care about fan noise?’” Ballmer said last summer. “‘Ah, we don’t care about that. Doesn’t make any difference. We don’t pay any attention to it.’ Then the pandemic hit. The bubble, and then the pandemic. I ask players again: How is it without any noise? Not everybody, but, ‘Gosh, I really would like it. It’s almost like going to some of the Olympic Games where there’s no fans on either side in the building.’ So the concept isn’t to put pressure. The concept is to provide support, encouragement, energy. The stuff fans can provide. So while we’re all here to serve the fans and the team on the floor, it’s what it’s all about.”
Adelman’s comments would mean something different if the Nuggets got the first playoff win at the $2 billion Intuit Dome. But the Clippers met the moment Thursday, and so did their fans.
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The Clippers were already on a 7-0 run toward the end of the first quarter when James Harden had the ball at the top of the arc. The sellout crowd stood up, waving white rally towels that surely would have made Clippers reserve guard Patty Mills proud. Ballmer was standing in his usual spot as well, adjacent to the Clippers bench.
Harden hit backup forward Nicolas Batum with a crisp behind-the-back bounce pass. After pump-faking former Clipper Russell Westbrook out of the frame, Batum hit a 3 that ignited a memorable pop.
This is Playoff Intuit Dome.
Clippers end 1st quarter on 10-0 run, lead 35-28, absorb full shift Jokić pic.twitter.com/4mvIRIyHCt
— Law Murray 💭🚫 (@LawMurrayTheNU) April 25, 2025
The Clippers never looked back, taking a 2-1 series lead by beating the Nuggets 117-83. The only playoff games in Clippers postseason history with a larger margin of victory were in 2020 (a 154-111 Game 5 win over the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA bubble) and in 2014 (a 138-98 Game 2 win at Staples Center over the Golden State Warriors).
Thursday was a long way from the Clippers’ last postseason home game, a disturbing 123-93 Game 5 loss to the Mavericks last year in downtown L.A. at the arena the Clippers shared with the Los Angeles Lakers for 25 seasons. Last year’s Clippers team marked the end of an era. This year’s team, led by All-Star Harden and two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, is showing it can make a run to match the energy of the palace the Clippers now call home.
And that energy was palpable throughout the evening. Fans on The Wall were even supplied horse hats, a nod to MVP finalist Nikola Jokić’s love for horses.
“That could be a motivational factor, actually. Hopefully not to go home.” Adelman said of the hats pregame.
The Wall at Intuit Dome has horse hats tonight as a distraction tactic with the Nuggets in town. pic.twitter.com/zja4oBV5ng
— Katy Winge (@katywinge) April 25, 2025
Jokić wound up with a 23-point triple-double with only two turnovers in Game 3 after coughing up the ball seven times in a close Game 2 loss. But after the first quarter, the Nuggets trailed by double digits for the last 35 minutes of the game and were never closer than 17 points in the second half. Maybe they didn’t want to go home, but the Nuggets certainly looked like a team that wanted to get to Saturday afternoon’s Game 4 as soon as possible.
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On the flip side, the Clippers took a businesslike approach throughout the game and carried that over after the game.
“It was loud,” said Harden, who scored all 20 of his points in the first half. “It was just how we expected it to be. That’s one of the reasons why we jumped out to a huge lead. They got behind us and just rode and enjoyed that wave.”
“It was great, they did a good job of filling up the seats,” said Leonard, who followed up his 39-point Game 2 with 21 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, his first double-double in the playoffs in four years. “It was very loud at times.”
“Everybody came out. The Wall! was great, cheering all night!“- Kawhi Leonard on the first playoff game at @IntuitDome pic.twitter.com/o3GhUUbOJe
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) April 25, 2025
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue was pleased to see former Clippers such as Chris Paul and Patrick Beverley in the crowd and commented on how much that meant to the scene. He also implored his team to do it again in Game 4.
“This series is far from over,” said Lue, whose team has a series lead after three games for the first time since he was the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018. “We understand that. But tonight was a good showing for us. So we gotta come out, like I said, and validate this on Saturday.”
(Top photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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