NBA Playoffs : Nuggets Cool Off Sonics, Play the Mavericks Next

In four playoff games, the Seattle SuperSonics shot 53%, and didn’t fall below 50%, but Denver Coach Doug Moe figured the hot shooting had to end sometime.

It finally did Saturday. Shots that had gone swish suddenly went clank, and the Nuggets raced away with a 115-96 victory to advance to the second round of the National Basketball Assn. playoffs.

The Nuggets, winning the first-round series, 3 games to 2, will play host to the Dallas Mavericks Tuesday night in the opener of a best-of-seven series. Game 2 is scheduled for Thursday night in Denver.

“Seattle had played so good and had shot so well that I hoped one game they’d crack shooting-wise,” Moe said. “You knew they had to have one off game.”

Dale Ellis and Xavier McDaniel, who together averaged 47 points during the regular season, scored only 12 and 6 points, respectively. Ellis was 4 for 9 and McDaniel 2 for 9.

“Our team just kept coming after them and put on the pressure, like I knew we would, and finally Seattle cracked,” Moe said. “When the shots wouldn’t go, I think they got down on themselves. When you play a team like ours that pressures relentlessly, it gets discouraging sometimes.”

Lafayette Lever, playing on a strained right knee that had sidelined him the previous game, scored 11 of his 21 points in the decisive third quarter to pace the Nuggets.

Denver, playing tentatively and scoring 17 points in the first quarter, rallied in the last 8 minutes of the second quarter to take a 54-48 halftime lead, then buried the Sonics with a 20-5 flurry that produced an 86-68 lead after three quarters.

The lead grew to as many as 23 points in the final quarter.

“Denver was the better team today,” said Seattle Coach Bernie Bickerstaff, whose team shot 46% to Denver’s 51%. “Lever gave them a lift, and so did (Michael) Adams with his three-pointers and (Jay) Vincent with his jumpers. Our shots stopped dropping, and Adams got them going.”

Tom Chambers paced the Sonics with 23 points.