The Denver Nuggets advanced to the Western Conference semifinals

Coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the National Basketball Association playoffs, the 3rd-seeded Denver Nuggets ended the Utah Jazz season by coming away with a 80-78 Western Conference win that went down to the final seconds at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Tuesday night.

Led by 7-foot Nikola Jokic of Serbia scoring a game-high 30 points, bringing down 14 rebounds and handing out four assists, Denver will now face the 2nd-seeded Los Angeles Clippers in the conference semifinals. The Nuggets had won game one here, but the Jazz answered back with three-straight wins and Denver won the next two to force a game seven.

In a game one of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Boston Celtics finished strong in getting past the defending champion Toronto Raptors, 102-99. This one was close throughout. It was 28-28 after one quarter, the 4th-seeded Celts held a 50-48 halftime advantage, but Toronto went in front 78-70 after three quarters.

But it was in the final quarter that the 6-foot-9 Jason Tatum continued his red-hot playoffs by tossing in 17 of his game-high 34 points to go with eight boards and a team-high six rebounds, and Boston outscored the Raptors, 32-21, to cap the triumph.

Daniel Theis also did his part for the Celtics by scrubbing the boards for nine rebounds. OG Anunoby was high scorer for 2nd-seeded Toronto, and he also accounted for seven boards, two less than teammate Serge Ibaka, who also contributed 17 points while Kyle Lowry had the most assists, seven, and tallied 16 points.

The teams play again Thursday night.

In the low-scoring defensive struggle matching Denver and Utah, the Jazz had a chance to win it when Mike Conley’s 3-point attempt hit the rim and bounced out at the final buzzer. It was 26-21 Nuggets after one quarter, and they upped it to 50-37 at the intermission, and led 65-61 heading into the final quarter.

The Jazz hung in there and is was back-and-fourth lead changes to go with six ties before Jokic put in a short hook shot for the lead that lasted until the final buzzer. Jamal Murray of Denver had turned in back-to-backs 50-point games and Donovan Mitchell of Utah had one 50 and two over 40, but this time they were overshadowed by the play of Jokic and the Jazz’ 7-foot Rudy Gobert.

Gobert scored 19 points and had the game-high 18 rebounds, Conley led the way with seven assists, and Mitchell settled for 22 points and nine boards. Monte Morris was tops for Denver in assists with five.

The teams play again Thursday night.

On the Wednesday menu, it’s the 4th-seeded Miami Heat with a 1-0 lead over the Eastern Conference No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, and in the Western Conference, it’s the deciding game seven between the 6th-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder and the 4th-seeded Houston Rockets.