Before Sunday's game, the Denver Nuggets basically had nowhere to go: they trailed 3-2 in the series, they could not stop the Utah Jazz from sinking those corner threes (or any threes) and Donovan Mitchell kept scoring against their defense like he's enjoying a free buffet.

Then in Game 6 Jamal Murray stood out, again, and dropped 50 points, including getting 21 in the last quarter to help Denver defeat Utah 119-107 to tie the series 3-3.

To be fair, Mitchell remained unstoppable in offense in this game as he went 14-25 and made nine triples to get 44 points. Utah's 3-point shooting was also sharp enough to bury 18 at a 3-point rate of 50 percent. By the way, Denver did the same.

Mitchell had already scored 232 points in the first six games of the series and he needed only another 10 to surpass LeBron James in total points scored in the first-round playoffs.

However, his performance this time failed to bring Utah to victory in Game 6 all because Murray did even better. Murray did not share Mitchell's athleticism or power, thus his offense happened more in the perimeter. Yet when Murray found the right touch, he could put up a crazy scoring performance like the one on Sunday night.

Having gone 9-13 in the first half to get 25 points was already good enough and made Murray the first player to score at least 25 points in half of the game three times since Allen Iverson in 2001. In Q4, Murray was even more incredible as he made seven of eight attempts to get 21 points. During the same period, Mitchell sank two straight triples, trying to help Utah catch up, but his efforts were outshined by those of Murray.

"We found something we're fighting for as the NBA, as a collective unit … and I use these shoes as a symbol to keep fighting all around the world," said Murray in the post-game interview. He had the faces of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor on his sneakers. With the 50-point game on Sunday, Murray broke Denver's franchise record of total points scored in single playoff series held by Carmelo Anthony and joining Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bernard King, Michael Jordan and Iverson in scoring 40+points in three playoff games in a row.

Murray was 38 points away from James' record. It did not sound so close compared with Mitchell, but if you watch what Murray did in the series, you won't be surprised if he actually does it after Game 7.

Everything went for Raptors from the beginning

The Boston Celtics defeated the Toronto Raptors 112-94 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Their victory should not be very surprising, but the way they did it, or the way Toronto lost it, was so odd.

Toronto tried to stick to their usual playing style from the beginning, which was to speed up and go for early offense. Nonetheless, their pursuit of fastness made the whole team anxious on the court. The starting-lineup going 3-13 was bad enough, committing a total of 11 fouls that upset coach Nick Nurse's rotation.

Things continued to get worse for Toronto in the second quarter. The team only scored four points via fast break in the first half. Meanwhile, as they tried too many unreasonable attempts in offense, the team's field goal and 3-point rates in the first half were only 28.89 and 20.83 percent respectively. If it weren't for the 11 free throws Toronto earned, the game would have been long gone before the second half.

By contrast, Game 1 could go even better for Boston. Since the opponents' defense had the weakness of leaving open threes, Boston grasped most of such opportunities and punished Toronto hard from downtown: Boston buried in total 17 triples at a 3-point rate of 43.59 percent and eight of them came from Marcus Smart (5-9), Brad Wanamaker (2-4) and Semi Ojeleye (1-3), who have been usually left open on purpose.

Better touch aside, Boston were doing better than responding to changes on the court. Pascal Siakam who fell into foul trouble in Q1 (three personal fouls) began to find his game back in the third quarter. He scored in two straight possessions against the defense of Jaylen Brown. Coach Brad Stevens immediately sent Ojeleye to the court. While Ojeleye slowed Siakam down, another Celtic would soon come to trap him. As a result, Toronto's counter-strike was soon stopped.

What would rile Siakam even more was that he was totally outperformed by Jayson Tatum in Game 1. Both were the main scorers of their teams and were taken "good" care of from the beginning. Siakam apparently wanted to take responsibility and he worked hard but his efforts were invested in the wrong direction. He did not have the delicate offensive skills of Tatum and his perimeter shooting remained cold. Committing too many fouls too early interrupting Siakam's game pace. Boston's decent defense denied him easy point chances via early offense. Siakam should consider doing more off-ball plays unless his touch suddenly grows hot.

Tatum played smarter than Siakam. He did not force his way against Toronto's special defense on him – every time he had the ball, two Raptors would face him and were always ready to double team him. Tatum used that to distract the opponents' defense, creating a number advantage for his teammates. Moreover, when he saw an opportunity, he would take it with no hesitation. Some of Tatum's moves reminded you of the Los Angeles Lakers' No. 24.

"We're not ourselves and I think we've got to play a lot better. I think especially at the offensive end, I just thought we just weren't really very good, and we didn't make many shots, and we didn't play with great composure down there," said coach Nurse after the game.

In the other game on Sunday, the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Dallas Mavericks 111-97 in Game 6, knocking the opponents out 4-2 in the series. Luka Doncic did everything he could with 38 points, nine rebounds and nine assists but he could not save the team. Averaging 31.0 points, 9.8 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game made Doncic the first in NBA history to put down at least 30+8+8 in his playoff debut. Again, please remember, he is only 21 years old.

The Clippers' Marcus Morris was ejected after he swiped and smacked the right side of Doncic's head in the first quarter. This was not the first time he tried to hurt Doncic in the series but his punishment came just too late. "It was a terrible play. What can I say? It's two games in a row he did something like that. I really hoped the first game it wasn't on purpose, but looking back on the foul this game, you know what I think. I don't want to deal with that kind of players. Just move on," said Doncic.

The Clippers side, again, refused to apologize. Morris insisted he did not mean to hurt anybody and called his move only "a hard call." Perhaps Doncic is too young to benefit from referee calls, but someday Morris will meet the player who won't let him get away with those "hard calls."

The Clippers will meet the winners between the Nuggets and the Jazz in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals.