Friday, 26 April 2019:

Patty Mills' San Antonio Spurs have avoided elimination from the NBA Playoffs and forced the Denver Nuggets into a sudden death game seven.

The Spurs ran away with a 120-103 victory in San Antonio on Thursday to even the series 3-3 with the decider in Denver on Saturday (Sunday AEST).

Canberra-born Mills had a poor shooting night but energised the Spurs with his speed and unselfish play to guide them on a game-winning 22-4 run to close the third-quarter and start the final period.

Mills had six points, six assists and three steals.

He missed nine of 12 field goals and all seven three-point attempts.

The Spurs were led by their All-Stars, with LaMarcus Aldridge scoring 26 points and DeMar DeRozan 25 points.

"We had to come out aggressive because it was do or die," DeRozan said.

The Nuggets are the Western Conference's second seed and the Spurs a lowly seventh seed, but the Spurs have had 22 consecutive seasons where they made the playoffs and are coached by the great Gregg Popovich.

Nuggets' centre Nikola Jokic had 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists but the team shot a poor 26 per cent behind the three-point line.

The Spurs shot 42 per cent from distance despite Mills' form.

"Any team facing elimination is not going to roll over," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.

"I kept telling the guys we have top put them to bed."

Australia's large NBA contingent will be heavily involved in a busy few days of playoff basketball with Andrew Bogut's Golden State Warriors aiming to finish off the Los Angeles Clippers in Friday's (Saturday AEST) first-round series game six in LA.

The Warriors are up 3-2 and head coach Steve Kerr did not rule out replacing Bogut as a starter and inserting guard-forward Andre Iguodala to form the team's smaller, faster "death lineup".

"There's no question I have to consider all of our options in terms of rotations," Kerr said.

Ben Simmons' Philadelphia 76ers travel north to Canada to play the Toronto Raptors on Saturday (Sunday AEST) in game one of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semi-final series.

On Sunday (Monday AEST) Aron Baynes and his Boston Celtics take on the NBA's top overall seed, the Milwaukee Bucks, in the other Eastern Conference semi-final's opener.

AAP