What's better than a Game 7? A Game 7 decided in overtime. What's better than that? What the St. Louis Blues did on Tuesday: defeating the Dallas Stars in double overtime for an improbable berth in the Western Conference finals, and doing so off the stick of St. Louis area native Patrick Maroon, no less.

Here's a recap of last night's action (check out replays of every playoff game on ESPN+) and what to watch for tonight, in today's edition of ESPN Stanley Cup Playoffs Daily:

Jump ahead: Last night's game | Three stars
Play of the night | Today's game | Social post of the day

About last night ...

Game 7: St. Louis Blues 2, Dallas Stars 1 (2OT) (Blues win the series 4-3)

Much has been said about the Blues' incredible turnaround, going from last place at the start of January to ... here. We now have two teams in the conference finals that were 300-1 (Blues) and 100-1 (Hurricanes) to win the Stanley Cup at points during the regular season. With his team stalled offensively, Stars goaltender Ben Bishop needed to stand on his head, and he did up until the bitter end. Through two periods, the Blues had 52 shot attempts to the Stars' 22.

Since neither team could break through, this one needed to be decided in double overtime, and Patrick Maroon played the part of hometown hero. This is the third Game 7 in these playoffs to be determined in overtime, which is now an NHL record.

Three stars

1. Patrick Maroon, LW, St. Louis Blues. Prior to Maroon, the only previous player to score an OT winner in a Game 7 in or near his hometown was Yvon Lambert in 1979 (Montreal vs. Boston). Lambert was born in Drummondville, Quebec, close to Montreal.

2. Ben Bishop, G, Dallas Stars. One of the biggest reasons this game got to double overtime? The Stars goalie. He was spectacular, making 52 saves. It felt like nobody was going to beat Bishop on Tuesday.

3. Robert Thomas, RW, St. Louis Blues. Two assists and an overall sensational night from the 19-year-old, who became the first teenager with multiple points in a Game 7 since the Canucks' Trevor Linden on April 15, 1989 vs. Calgary.

Play of the night

Now this is how you draw a penalty.

Robert Thomas is unreal with the puck, and his ability to keep it just led Dallas to take a penalty out of desperation. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/WTXwaGSIEm

- St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) May 8, 2019

Dud of the night

The Dallas Stars were an offensively challenged team in the regular season who seemed to fix their woes in the playoffs. They reverted to old ways Tuesday night.

The Stars tied the game with 4:05 left in the first period. Since then the shots are 25-2 for the Blues.

- Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) May 8, 2019

On the schedule

Colorado Avalanche at San Jose Sharks, Game 7, 9 p.m. ET (series tied 3-3)

All signs point to Sharks captain Joe Pavelski returning for Game 7. That's huge for San Jose, which has been without him for the whole series following his injury in Game 7 of the first round. They've compensated with a strong bounce-back goaltending performance from Martin Jones. Colorado, which has arrived ahead of schedule, can make its first Western Conference finals since 2002 .The Avalanche's top line hasn't totally been on the past few games, and the team will look to them for a big Game 7; Nathan MacKinnon feels particularly due for another big moment.

Social post of the day

Patrick Maroon's son after his father scored the OT winner.

I'm not crying, you are. pic.twitter.com/wf8zE8aHv0

- Leah Kessel (@leahflame) May 8, 2019

Maroon took less money and term to sign with his hometown team this summer, and be with his son more often.

Quotable

"That's kinda been the story of the season. When our backs are against the wall we play our best and find a way to fight through it." -- Blues winger Robert Thomas.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has labelled Trent Alexander-Arnold's quick-thinking corner routine which led to the all-important fourth goal in the 4-0 win against Barcelona a "genius moment."

Trailing 3-0 from the first leg of their Champions League semifinal, Liverpool had a mountain to climb at Anfield, but had matched that scoreline before the hour mark.

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And, with 11 minutes remaining until extra-time and the Barcelona players having switched off from a corner, Alexander-Arnold spotted Divock Origi unmarked and played in a low ball to the Belgium international, who clipped it into the roof of the net to send Liverpool into a second successive final.

"We all know you need luck in this situation, or a genius moment like Trent Alexander-Arnold [for the fourth goal]," Klopp said after the match. "I saw the ball flying into the net and I had no idea who took the corner and who scored because it was too quick for me.

"Now I saw it back and it's just incredibly smart, two players connected -- in this moment it was enough. My God, genius."

Origi had given Liverpool a 1-0 lead at half-time on the night before Georginio Wijnaldum -- who came on as a replacement for the injured Andrew Robertson at the break -- scored two in two minutes to level the score on aggregate.

And Origi scored the fourth which means Liverpool will face either Tottenham or Ajax in the Champions League final in Madrid on June 1.

Kieron Pollard will turn out for Trinbago Knight Riders, his "home side", for the 2019 edition of the Caribbean Premier League.

Pollard, one of West Indies' premier short-format allrounders, has never played for the Trinidad and Tobago franchise in the CPL so far, neither in its earlier Red Steel avatar nor the revamped Knight Riders. He spent five seasons with Barbados Tridents and the last one with St Lucia Stars.

This time, for the tournament running from September 4 to October 12, Pollard will be Knight Riders' marquee player.

"We are delighted to welcome Pollard back home and it's great to continue our efforts to bring as many Trini boys home as possible," Venky Mysore, the team director, said in a statement. "I can't wait for the reaction of the fans when Pollard takes the field at our opening game on 4 September."

Pollard - who will turn 32 on May 12, the same day on which he will be in the mix for Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2019 final - will be hoping to then return home and try to help Trinbago Knight Riders add to the three CPL titles they have won to date, in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Pollard has, however, tasted glory at the CPL in the past, having led Tridents to the title in 2014.

He is the most experienced T20 player in the world, having played 474 matches so far - 59 of them internationals and the rest in leagues around the world - scoring 9,275 runs and taking 261 wickets.

The remainder of the squad will be selected at the players' draft, to be held on May 22.

Kedar Jadhav's IPL may have come to a premature end because of a shoulder injury, but his World Cup spot is likely to remain intact. ESPNcricinfo understands that the Indian selection committee, led by MSK Prasad, has been told that Jadhav's injury might not be as serious as was earlier feared.

With the ICC's playing conditions for the World Cup allowing teams to make changes to their preliminary squads of 15 until May 23, it is believed that Prasad's panel will wait till as close as possible to the Indian team's departure before naming a replacement for Jadhav, if they are forced to.

Last Sunday, playing in Chennai Super Kings' final league match in the IPL, against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali, Jadhav hurt his left shoulder while fielding in the deep. He left the field immediately and did not return.

It was understood at the time that Jadhav's IPL was likely over, and on Tuesday evening, Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming confirmed the news to the host broadcaster on the sidelines of his team's Qualifier 1 face-off against Mumbai Indians, which they lost.

"Well, he is out for us, and then it is just about being accurate with that assessment," Fleming said. "He was going through the scans and working with Patrick Farhart (the Indian team physiotherapist), so there's obviously one eye now on the World Cup and getting him fit.

"But from our point of view, he is certainly out of the tournament."

The selection panel is understood to have received an update from Farhart, which indicates that Jadhav is likely to be fully fit before the Indian squad departs for the World Cup on May 22. India play their first match at the World Cup on June 5, against South Africa.

In case Jadhav can't make the trip, the selectors will pick a replacement from the standby list of five players: Rishabh Pant, Ambati Rayudu, Axar Patel, Navdeep Saini and Ishant Sharma. Incidentally, Saini is also part of the quartet of fast bowlers who will travel with the squad to the World Cup to function as net bowlers, the other three being Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.

It was only five overs, split over two short spells, but Mitchell Starc's first bowl in the middle in three months was enough to get the Australia camp very excited at the prospect of him finding the form that had made him the Player of the Tournament at the 2015 World Cup.

Starc, who had been sidelined since the end of the Sri Lanka Test series in early February with a pectoral muscle injury, claimed 2 for 14 from five rapid overs against the New Zealand XI in the second of the three practice matches at Allan Border Field. He burst through Hamish Rutherford in the opening over to send him back for a first-ball duck, then speared a toe-crushing yorker past a well-set George Worker at the start of his second spell.

Starc decamped to the sidelines shortly after, and the difference in the attack was palpable as the New Zealand batsmen made merry against Kane Richardson, Sean Abbott and Michael Neser. The Australians have brought their own speed guns with them to these matches and Starc was pushing the needle up to leave his team-mates in the shade.

"I was sitting near the speed gun and it was pretty quick - 148kph one of them - and the rest of us were about 135, so I was asking Dene Hills [one of the team performance analysts] to push it up for us," Richardson said, on the day he was added to the World Cup squad as a replacement for Jhye Richardson. "And they only lost three wickets, two of them to him. It was pretty exciting to see him back hitting the stumps.

"It was a trump card to have at that last World Cup, sitting back and watching that was pretty amazing, so if we can get Mitch back to that sort of form - and that looked like it, to be honest - if he's swinging the ball at pace, he'll take wickets and make everyone's job easier."

New Zealand batsman Will Young, who has scored 190 runs across the first two matches in Brisbane, spoke with wide eyes about facing Starc. "It did feel that quick, I left one off a length and it just kept rising and I was like, 'Woah, that's steep' and then it went for four byes over the keeper," he said.

Starc was under pressure for large stretches of the 2018-19 season as Test success became hard to come by, before he finished in style with a ten-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in Canberra. There is a limited sample size on which to judge his recent one-day returns because since the 2017 Champions Trophy, due to a mixture of injury and resting, he has only played seven ODIs, taking 11 wickets at 37.36 with an economy of over a run-a-ball.

With Jhye Richardson now having joined Josh Hazlewood on the list of bowlers missing the World Cup, the onus will be on Starc and Pat Cummins to propel Australia's pace attack. Kane Richardson will be part of the support cast that is hoping to follow in their slip stream.

"Having guys like that around and following them my role will be completely different because they are a different breed of bowler," Richardson said. "That's the beauty of our attack, having blokes who can play different roles. It would be nice if I play and I come on with them 4 for 20 after Mitch and Pat are done, but if we can get them firing it makes everyone's job, including mine, much easier."

England will attempt to exploit home advantage in the 2019 Ashes with confirmation they will use the same specification of Dukes balls used to good effect in the 2017 and 2018 home Test series.

While the ECB has introduced a slightly amended type of ball into Championship cricket this season - a move intended to reduce the advantage bowlers have enjoyed in recent seasons - the Test team will continue to use the same Dukes balls that saw them beat South Africa, West Indies and India at home over the last couple of years. England claim the decision is more about producing entertaining cricket than playing to their own advantage, though the two are not necessarily exclusive.

The Test ball, with a more pronounced seam, generally helps seam and swing bowlers. James Anderson has taken his Test wickets in England at a cost of 16.06 in that period; 10 runs below his overall career average. The other Dukes ball, with a less pronounced seam, will continue to be used in the 2019 County Championship season, which is already producing higher scores than in recent years. It was introduced at the instruction of the ECB Cricket Committee, which was conscious of the balance between bat and ball on early- and late-season domestic pitches when much of the Championship season is contested.

The move could backfire, though. The Australia attack, at full strength, is impressive. And while there may be a presumption that England's skill and experience in such conditions will counteract the Australia side's pace, there is no reason pace and skill should exist independently. Australia's seamers will enjoy using these balls every bit as much as England's. The ball will also be used in the Test against Ireland.

All of which means we should be in for some exciting cricket. The first-class game is generally more entertaining when the ball slightly dominates the bat and this decision should ensure bowlers - well, seamers at least - are kept interested throughout. Whether the balance has moved too far towards such bowlers remains to be seen; this news is unlikey to create a splurge of fifth-day ticket sales.

"This is not about having two-day games," Ashley Giles, the director of England's men's teams, said.  "This is honestly about having a fair contest.  My concern was this [current] ball would make it too batting friendly on good Test wickets in the middle of the summer. That was the primary reason.

"We've seen some really good Test cricket in this country over a number of years.  It's not as if we are talking about playing against an attack that is not very good.  The Aussies are quite handy themselves. 

"There are elements of risk to it because we are choosing to go with this ball and they have a formidable bowling attack.  Clearly, Jimmy Anderson is one of our best weapons - one of the best bowlers ever - so we want to bring him into the game."

The total order of balls is understood to be for somewhere around 600, with each one costing around £60. They will also be used in Lions games, Australia's tour matches and in the training sessions of both teams. Giles confirmed there had been talk about using a Kookaburra ball, but said Dukes had responded "brilliantly" to the ECB's requests for an adapted version. The 2017-18 specification Dukes ball was used during the second half of the 2018-19 Sheffield Shield season.

Giles also said he anticipated having little dialogue with the groundstaff at each Test venue and that England had requested only "good wickets".

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Toss England chose to bowl v Pakistan

England have won the toss and put Pakistan into bat in the first ODI at The Oval. Under overcast conditions in a game reduced to 47 overs-a-side due to rain that delayed the start by 75 minutes, Eoin Morgan chose to stick with batting second. With further rain very much possible over the next few hours, DLS could come into play, a fact not lost on Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, who admitted he would have bowled first too.

Jason Roy wasn't deemed fit enough to start yet, meaning James Vince will open the batting with Jonny Bairstow, while Moeen Ali's absence gives Joe Denly another chance in the middle order. Jofra Archer, whose potential inclusion in the final World Cup squad has generated much fiery debate in England, starts alongside Liam Plunkett and Chris Woakes as the three frontline fast bowlers, while Adil Rashid is the lead spinner.

Pakistan's team is fairly predictable, although Yasir Shah's absence might come as a mild surprise, given the legspinner needs game time should he be required to fill in for an illness-stricken Shadab Khan at the World Cup. Mohammad Amir, not chosen in the preliminary squad, starts in a bid to gain a spot in the final 15, while allrounder Imad Wasim is the lead spin option.

This five-match series is the last cricket either team plays ahead of the World Cup, where England kick off proceedings with the opening game against South Africa on May 30.

England: 1 James Vince, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Joe Denly, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Chris Woakes, 11 Liam Plunkett.

Pakistan: 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Haris Sohail, 5 Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt/wk), 6 Asif Ali, 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 11 Mohammad Amir

DENVER -- Backed up against elimination following a disappointing Game 5 where the Denver Nuggets led by as many as 31 points, Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard said he was still waiting for his team to play its best game.

"We don't feel like we've played our best basketball yet, and with our backs against the wall, we don't really have a choice," Lillard said. "So our mindset is just to get the next one, take care of home, and make it back here. So that's what it is."

Lillard had a similar viewpoint at the Blazers' shootaround Tuesday morning when talking about why he has confidence to win another game in Denver.

"Knowing that we've won here once and also knowing that we haven't played our best yet," Lillard said. "We haven't played a really good game in our opinion. It would be great to have that happen tonight."

Well, it didn't.

The Nuggets housed the Blazers 124-98 in an atypical game for the series. Entering Game 5, the cumulative score in the series was separated by two points. The Nuggets set an early tone, and with Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic remaining matchup issues on the interior, and the Blazers' top scorers not keeping pace, the game got away from Portland.

"They played as good as they can play and we played as worse a game as we could play," Lillard said.

Most everything kind of went wrong for the Blazers, starting with hitting 36.7 percent from the field, to missing 14 free throws, to getting crushed on the glass 62-44, to noticeably struggling with defensive coverages throughout the game.

"This was our worst basketball the last six weeks," Enes Kanter said.

Lillard's calm, focused demeanor is a driving force for the Blazers and he wasn't reactionary following the deflating performance in Game 5.

"Whether you lose by one or you lose by 25, it's one game," Lillard said. "We're going back home to try and force a Game 7 and just make it back here."

Lillard showed a bit more of an aggressive scoring mindset early, taking a couple of deep 3-pointers off the dribble, something the Nuggets have worked to take away in the series. He finished with 22 points on 9-of-21 shooting and, along with CJ McCollum (12 points on 5-of-16 shooting), sat the entire fourth quarter.

After winning the quadruple-overtime marathon in Game 3, the Blazers dropped a tight Game 4 and appeared to carry some of the regret Tuesday of not taking advantage of an exhausted Nuggets team.

"I don't think anybody in here feels like we can't beat them," forward Maurice Harkless said. "I know what we're capable of. We've been in tough situations before and we've figured out a way to make stuff happen."

Game 6 is Thursday in Portland and, if the Blazers can win, Game 7 would be in Denver on Sunday.

"We've got two must-wins," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "Somebody was gonna have a must-win after tonight, and it's us. So we've got two must-wins ahead of us."

TORONTO -- Brett Brown became a meme, Joel Embiid was mocked by Toronto Raptors fans the way he normally mocks opponents and the Philadelphia 76ers suffered one of their worst losses in the franchise's postseason history in a 125-89 defeat Tuesday night.

The Sixers now trail the Raptors 3-2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

"I think we laid an egg," said guard Jimmy Butler after the 76ers coughed up 19 turnovers leading to 31 Toronto points and failed to crack 100 points for the fourth time this series.

That was putting it lightly.

The Raptors blew the doors off the Sixers early -- outscoring them 37-17 in the second quarter -- and then piled on late, leading by as many as 40 points in the fourth quarter.

By halftime, Philadelphia had committed more personal fouls (16) than they made field goals (14), and the Sixers' two All-Stars, Embiid and Ben Simmons, struggled as much as anyone. The duo combined for seven turnovers in the first half, which was more than the field goals and assists they combined to register in that time (six).

Embiid, still reeling from the upper respiratory infection that limited him in Game 4, finished with 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting (2-for-6 from 3), six rebounds, one assist and eight turnovers. In the past five postseasons, only two players have finished a game with one or zero assists and eight or more turnovers: Kevin Durant in 2016 and Embiid, who has now done it twice, as he matched his one-assist, eight-turnover game in the first round against the Miami Heat last year.

"It sucks," Embiid said. "I know I got to do a better job for us to win. I got to do the little things. When I'm needed to score the ball, I got to show up. Setting screens, I got to do a better job of rebounding the ball. So that's on me. ... I just got to do more."

Embiid played one of his finest games as a pro in Game 3 against the Raptors, putting up 33 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks to put the Sixers up 2-1 in the series. In the two losses since, he has totaled just 24 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks.

When the Sixers center checked out of Game 5 for good with 9:05 remaining in the fourth quarter, fans in the stands at Scotiabank Arena -- including Canadian rapper Drake, the Raptors' global ambassador -- spread their arms out and mimicked Embiid's airplane celebration that he broke out after his late windmill dunk in Game 3.

Embiid hasn't been able to help the Sixers land a win since.

"I just saw them shake their bodies," Embiid said of the fans. "I didn't pay attention about what the hell they were doing. Good for them. ... I don't care if it offends anybody, but what I do is all about having fun. I don't care. And I'm going to do that because I know I'm going to dominate."

Butler backed the tough talk out of the Sixers big man.

"Not concerned, man," Butler said of Embiid. "We're going to ride or die with big fella. Everybody around this locker room knows that. Everybody in the world should know it. The fans should know it.

"We'll be just fine. We're going to keep doing what we're doing, encouraging him to keep battling through all the injury, through all sickness. And we're here with him."

Brown looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was on the sideline as the carnage unfolded in front of him. A few minutes into the third quarter, with the Sixers trailing by 15, Brown slumped back in his seat on the bench and stared up at the rafters with a pained look on his face, his reaction instantly going viral.

Brown said the Sixers' spirit "went away quicker than I had hoped" in Game 5, but he pointed to Thursday's Game 6 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia as a chance at redemption.

"We're excited to go back to Philadelphia," he said. "Nobody's walking out of here, 'Woe is me.' I promise you that. We have a prideful team; we have a team that had a poor performance tonight. ... But nobody's walking out of here thinking anything else but we're excited to go back to Philadelphia and find a way to win. This is the bottom line.

"There is no dent to our spirit; there is no self-pity. We're excited to get back and get ready to play again."

In what was tied for the second biggest loss in Philadelphia playoff history (the Sixers lost 121-81 to the Boston Celtics in 1982), Simmons and Embiid combined to score just 20 points. It was the third-fewest points they've scored combined this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research, and all four of their lowest combined scoring outputs have come against Toronto.

"It just wasn't there," Simmons said. "Offensive wasn't there; defense wasn't there. We were terrible tonight."

Still, there's another game to be played -- and Embiid said there's at least one more game after that, telling Drake he planned to see him back in Toronto for a Game 7 on Sunday.

"l got to have fun. That's one of the keys of me playing so well the whole season, this postseason. It's just about -- I mean, I got to smile on the court, I got to lift my teammates up," Embiid said. "I just got to be myself, and just not really care and just do whatever I want to. And at the end of the day, that's how I dominate.

"If you see me smile, that means I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, and I intend to be doing that in two days."

DENVER -- Paul Millsap scored inside while being fouled, then did something he doesn't do very often.

The calm and often emotionless veteran flexed both of his arms.

After four games of both teams playing virtually even basketball across the board, the Denver Nuggets followed Millsap's lead and muscled their way past the Portland Trail Blazers 124-98 Tuesday night to inch within a victory of a Western Conference finals appearance.

The Nuggets lead the series 3-2.

Millsap, the steady 13-year veteran, set the tone early as he has done much of this conference semifinals series. Millsap hit seven of his first 10 shots and scored 19 of his 24 points in the first half.

"He was huge," Denver center Nikola Jokic said. "He set everything -- physicality, pace, offensively, defensively. He was really huge."

"He's actually playing really good these playoffs," Jokic added after a long pause. "Maybe he turned on the playoff mode."

When he wasn't abusing Portland's defense on the low block with an array of moves and runners, Millsap hurt Portland from outside, burying a 3-pointer while being fouled for a rare four-point play that pushed the Denver lead to 20 just before halftime. The largest lead by either team prior to Game 5 was 17, by Portland in the third quarter of a Game 2 that was decided by a mere seven points.

"They like that action with Jamal Murray and Jokic a lot," Portland point guard Damian Lillard said of Millsap. "They're playing out of the corners with Will [Barton] and Gary Harris and [Malik] Beasley ... then when all else fails, you've got to guard Millsap. They'll throw him on the block, and he's a handful for guys to guard because he's in the paint, face-up jumpers, he's making 3s. In transition, you got to find him, and then he's a monster on the glass."

Indeed, Millsap has gone into postseason beast mode, averaging 19 points, 9.6 rebounds and 54.5 percent shooting from the field against the Trail Blazers in this round.

In Game 5, Portland tried to put center Enes Kanter on Millsap early. (Kanter, a devout Muslim, is fasting from sunrise to sunset each day for the next month in observance of Ramadan.) The Nuggets adjusted, and Millsap went 5-for-5 when guarded by Kanter in the first half.

At times in Games 3 and 4, Portland tried to put Kanter on Millsap to avoid having Kanter stuck on Murray off a Jokic-Murray pick-and-roll late in games.

"They tried a few things, to switch a few things up," Millsap said. "We read them pretty quickly, but most importantly, guys were locked in today."

"I know they tried to be a little bit more physical with me these last two games against my counters," Millsap added. "For me, once they take something away and I can't bully them down there, get to my counters and just trust it."

Portland not only had no answer for Millsap, there has been no stopping Jokic. After back-to-back triple-doubles, Jokic continued his postseason surge with a near 20-20. The Serbian All-Star had 25 points, 19 rebounds and six assists before fouling out in the fourth quarter with the game in hand.

Denver ultimately outscored Portland 66-44 in the paint; the scoring margin in the paint never exceeded eight points in any of the previous four games of the series.

Jokic nearly lost his cool after taking a flagrant foul 1 shove from Meyers Leonard on a drive to the basket with the Nuggets up 20 with eight minutes remaining. Jokic, though, has kept his composure this entire postseason after being ejected three times during the regular season. He credits Millsap's calm demeanor.

"How I look at him, he doesn't have emotions," Jokic explained. "When things are not going good, he gets us together ... he keeps talking with us. ... He helps me a lot just watching him and just to learn from him to see how he is dealing with situations."

Millsap, who played in his 99th career postseason game, was the man the young Nuggets turned to on the eve of the playoffs to ask for advice on what they were about to experience.

And now many of these young Nuggets playing in their first postseason will look to Millsap again for guidance on how to close out a team on the road for the first time in the playoffs.

The Nuggets failed to clinch the series in Game 6 in the first round, losing at the San Antonio Spurs before needing to win Game 7 at home.

"It showed us what not to do," Millsap said of the Game 6 loss in Texas. "That being a lot of guys' [first] Game 6 and going into an environment like that, shocking for a lot of guys. We'll be ready."