Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley was sprinting upcourt during Wednesday's fourth quarter just shy of midcourt when Nikola Jokic reached out and whacked him in the chest with his left arm.
Beverley flew downcourt for two more steps before stopping immediately and moving toward Denver's 7-footer with unclear intentions. Clad in matching salmon-colored polo shirts, the entire Clippers coaching staff leaped out of their sideline seats. It was easy to anticipate the worst.
Only two days earlier, Beverley had raised the ire of the Nuggets when, after the Clippers' victory in Game 3 of this Western Conference semifinal, he said that Jokic was difficult to guard because of his "flailing." Denver's coach, Michael Malone, responded the next day with a verbal fastball, up and in: "I don't listen to Patrick Beverley a whole lot."
Yet Wednesday's war of words never became Thursday's show of hands.
Instead of approaching Jokic, Beverley walked toward his own bench with a smile and palms raised, assuring his coaches he would do no harm. Nothing, in the end, came from the moment. But it said everything about the Clippers' 96-85 victory to take a commanding 3-1 series lead.
During a night the Clippers controlled from start until finish, there were moments where their composure was tested and their will could have been rattled by a Nuggets team that has already survived a 3-1 deficit in this postseason.
Each time, the Clippers' cooler heads, and crisper execution, prevailed. And because of it, the franchise is one win away from its first ever appearance in a conference finals.
Down 18 in the first half, Denver battled back to tie the score at 48-all early in the third quarter. The Clippers answer was to build a 16-point lead within the next seven minutes.
When it was down to 10 by the end of the third quarter, the Clippers allowed Denver to make one of its next six shots, and the lead ballooned to 19 with five minutes remaining.
When it was down to nine with just 2:09 left, the Clippers made their final stand. Denver's next three possessions ended by turnover, turnover, missed three-pointer.
Kawhi Leonard scored 30 points, with 11 rebounds and nine assists, the first player in franchise history to record at least that many points, rebounds and assists in a postseason game.
Ivica Zubac added 11 points and nine rebounds and Montrezl Harrell looked more like his regular-season self with 15 points in 18 minutes off the bench.
Jokic scored a team-high 26 points with 11 rebounds but Denver couldn't recover from a first quarter in which it scored just 12 points.
After punishing the Clippers in each first quarter through the first three games of this Western Conference semifinal, shooting 62% combined, the Nuggets struggled to keep pace in Game 4's opening minutes, falling behind by 17 within 10 minutes. By that point, the only Nugget to score a field goal was Jokic.
The Clippers led by as many as 18 points during the first half but only eight at halftime after Denver made six of its 11 second-quarter three-pointers after failing to make a single three-pointer during the opening quarter.
As Denver remembered how to make shots, the Clippers' offense hit dead ends after Paul George, coming off a 32-point performance in Game 3, picked up his third foul. George would finish with 10 points.
Only 54 seconds into the second half, George was hooked by Jokic 23 feet from the basket and whistled for his fourth foul. He lasted just one more minute before being recalled to the bench with the game tied.
The Clippers would, of course, respond. And again, and again, in the fourth quarter, too. Now, it is up to Denver whether it can find an answer down 3-1, yet again.
