Soobum-Im-US PRESSWIRE

Denver Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson will become a restricted free agent next summer unless he signs a contract extension with the Nuggets prior to Oct. 31.

Lawson has said since the season ended that he thinks both sides will agree on an extension.

“I’m still confident,” Lawson said to HOOPSWORLD. “My agent is working with Masai Ujiri and Josh Kroenke so I feel like in the next couple of weeks something will get done. We’ll see.”

According to sources close to the situation, the Nuggets’ current offer is in the neighborhood of $44 million over four years, which is just south of what it will likely take to get a deal done before free agency. The 2013 free agency class isn’t going to be overflowing with starting-caliber point guards like Lawson. On the open market, he could very easily receive an offer in the $12-13 million range per year.

So, while the Nuggets may need to up their offer a bit, the two sides do appear to be close enough to where an agreement can be made before the deadline.

via HoopsWorld.com

A max offer sheet would be a 4-year, $58 million deal. So Lawson is clearly pretty far off from getting that.

Lawson averaged 16.4 points and 6.6 assists per game in 34.8 minutes per game for the Nuggets last season. Those are great numbers but with the league being as deep as it’s ever been at the point guard position, perhaps that is why Lawson isn’t in the max-contract ballpark.

Oklahoma City Thunder’s James Harden on the other hand is. Harden is already one of the five best shooting guards in the league and will without question receive a max offer sheet next summer if a restricted free agent.

The Thunder also have until Oct. 31 to reach a deal with Harden and it seems less likely that they will than Lawson and Denver.

Andre Iguodala made two free throws with two seconds left to put Philadelphia ahead.

The Bulls led 78-75 with 25 seconds left following an Omer Asik dunk. Thaddeus Young scored for the 76ers on the next possession then Asik was fouled at the rim with seven seconds left and would miss both free throws.

Iguodala rebounded the second miss and immediately pushed the ball back up court and drove hard right at Asik to the rim and was fouled to set up the game-winning free throws.

The Bulls were obviously not the same without Rose despite having success during the regular season when he was sidelined.

The series was very low-scoring for both teams but the Bulls simply did not have enough people step up with their injuries. Carlos Boozer scored three points in Game 6.

The 76ers win their first series since 2003 and will meet the Boston Celtics in the second round.

The Boston Celtics survived at home in Game 6 against the Atlanta Hawks 83-80 to win the series 4-2.

The Celtics led by two with two seconds left and Al Horford was fouled attempting a layup. He would miss the first and make the second and the Celtics hung on to win.

Kevin Garnett came through with a classic performance. He scored 28 points to go with 14 rebounds and five blocks.

The Eastern Conference second round matchups are now set with the Celtics having homecourt against the 76ers and Miami with homecourt versus Indiana.

The Los Angeles Lakers lost 113-96 in Game 6 to the Denver Nuggets. There will be a Game 7 in this series now.

The Nuggets got off to a great start while the Lakers looked sluggish. Denver scored the first 13 points of the game and never looked back.

Kobe Bryant missed the shootaround before the game but still played of course. He looked sick but still scored 31 points on 13-for-23 shooting.

Kobe was the only Laker with anything going. Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol for the second game in a row were not their usual selves. Bynum scored 11 points and Gasol was 1-of-10 fro the field with three points.

Ty Lawson led Denver with 32 points and made five threes in the game including four in the first quarter. Lawson has been the key for Denver in this series but hasn’t played too well on the road yet.

Game 7 will be Saturday between these teams meaning the Thunder won’t play Game 1 of the second round until Monday. With the Lakers up 3-1 it looked like they would easily move on but now Denver surely has momentum and could easily win this series.

Metta World Peace will return for Game 7 after being suspended for elbowing James Harden. I don’t think anyone looks at this series and says the Lakers could use World Peace and they’d be fine.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant finally reached the 50-point plateau as he scored a career-high 51 points in the Thunder’s 124-118 win over the Denver Nuggets Sunday night.

Russell Westbrook was also on fire tonight scoring 40 points and Serge Ibaka had the first triple-double in franchise history with 14 points, 15 rebounds and 11 blocks (career-high).

Trailing 111-106 with 43 seconds left, Durant would score the final five points in regulation for the Thunder to send the game into overtime tied at 111.

Durant hit a three-pointer with 30 seconds left after an offensive rebound to bring the Thunder within a deuce of Denver. The Thunder forced the Nuggets into a three-point attempt at the end of the shot clock by Ty Lawson on the next possession and grabbed the defensive rebound.

After a timeout, Thunder head coach Scott Brooks had Durant come off a screen from Ibaka on the inbounds. Chris Andersen was forced to come out on Durant and Durant drove past Andersen easily for the slam to tie the game at 111.

Lawson missed a free throw line jumper at the buzzer and the game entered overtime.

Westbrook too remained hot in overtime with a big three-pointer with 4:37 left and then a 16-footer with 2:51 left that put the Thunder ahead 116-113.

Oklahoma City had the closers. Denver did not.

The Nuggets led for a lot of the game in large part to their work on the offensive glass as they collected 18 offensive rebounds with Andersen and Kosta Koufos combining for seven off the bench.

Denver also had 18 fast break points and 72 points in the paint for the game. The second unit was key for the Nuggets led by Andre Miller who scored 21 points and dished out 10 assists in 36 minutes.

Miller seemed however like the only Nugget who could consistently score down the stretch and Denver had to rely on offensive putbacks for everything else.

The Thunder don’t have this problem with their two elite scorer who combined for 91 points tonight. The dynamic duo outscored seven NBA teams by themselves tonight.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Oklahoma City trailed 58-53 at halftime but ended the first half on an 8-0 run. Then they began the third quarter scoring the first 12 points and finishing a 20-0 run ahead 65-58 with eight minutes left in the third.

Durant went 5-for-6 from three-point line in the game and was 19-of-28 overall from the field.

Ibaka’s career-high with 11 blocks marks the third time this season that he has reached double-digit blocks. Among active players, only Marcus Camby and Ben Wallace have had 10 or more blocks in a game in their career before.

This was the first game in NBA history in which players from the same team scored 50 points, 40 points and had a triple-double.

The one Thunder player that did not perform so well was James Harden who really struggled from the field going 2-of-12 and 1-of-7 from three and scoring only 10 points.

The entire Thunder bench was negative in plus-minus while every starter for Oklahoma City was positive. Ibaka had the best plus-minus at plus-31.

Oklahoma City (24-7) will host New Orleans (7-23) tomorrow night.

Mark D. Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Thunder (1-game winning streak)
105.7 Offensive Efficiency (2nd)
99.0 Defensive Efficiency (14th)
96.1 Pace (4th)

Nuggets (2-game losing streak)
104.6 Offensive Efficiency (4th)
100.9 Defensive Efficiency (17th)
97.7 Pace (1st)

This is the first time Oklahoma City will play Denver this year. The two teams met in the first round of the playoffs last season in a series that Oklahoma City took 4-1. Kevin Durant was impossible for the Nuggets to cover in that series as he averaged 32.4 points per game including two 41-point games. This season the Nuggets started off hot but have lost nine of their last 12 games. They still are one of the best teams by the stats in the NBA but clinging to a playoff spot in the West.

Thunder keys to the game

1. Points in the paint

The Denver Nuggets are the best team in the NBA at scoring in the paint and lead the NBA in taking shots at the rim attempting 33.0 per game, 5.3 more than the second team. Denver does this by spreading the floor well and penetrating with their point guards Ty Lawson and Andre Miller. It is unsure if Kendrick Perkins will return to the lineup yet tonight so the burden of protecting the paint will lie largely with Serge Ibaka, who is leading the NBA in blocks per game this season. Expect the Thunder to go small a lot in this game and if they do with Nick Collison playing center, the Nuggets may be able to take advantage and get into the paint a lot.

2. Free throws

The Nuggets and Thunder are the two best teams in the league at getting to the line. This is the case for the Thunder because of their star power with Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Denver gets to the line because you never know who is going to be shooting for them. The team that shoots the most free throws in this game will surely have the advantage since both rely so heavily on getting to the line. Durant averaged over double-digit free throw attempts against the Nuggets in their playoff series last year so should have no trouble doing the same tonight.

3. Transition

Both teams are also two of the best at scoring on the break this year. Oklahoma City has really turned up their transition game lately as their defensive rebounding has been improving. Sometimes transition production is a result of which way the basketball bounces so whichever team is getting the most opportunities on the break should be the one leading on the scoreboard. The Thunder are going to need to play sound defense and have good positioning to rebound against the Nuggets so that they can get out and run.

Prediction: Oklahoma City wins 108-100.