(AFP) The Denver Nuggets, current NBA champions, recovered ground in their series against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a 117-90 victory, while the Indiana Pacers beat the New York Knicks this Friday in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Nikola Jokic, the NBA's Most Valuable Player, and Jamal Murray each scored 24 points in a duel in which Jokic added 14 rebounds and 9 assists for the Nuggets. The defending champions reduced the deficit to 2-1 in their series against the Timberwolves in the best of seven games.

Denver made it very clear that it was not an option to leave the fight without winning a game, after a rival full of young players humiliated them in the first two semifinal games in the Western Conference.

Jokic assured that Denver came out determined to "play like a champion." The MVP continued: "We were aggressive, more aggressive than them."

Pacers also recover

In Friday's first game, the Indiana Pacers avoided the despair of a 3-0 deficit by beating the New York Knicks 111-106.

Tyrese Haliburton scored 35 points and Andrew Nembhard was the hero no one expected as the Pacers achieved their first victory of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Now, New York holds a 2-1 series lead.

As the shot clock expired, Nembhard hit a 3-pointer to put the Pacers up 109-106 with 17.8 seconds left. It was only his second basket of the night, but it set the stage for the Pacers' victory in a back-and-forth duel, in which Indiana was down by as many as 12 points. The Pacers' persistence allowed them to emerge victorious from the duel.

"Everybody knows what it looks like when you go down 3-0," Pacers star Haliburton said, alluding to the fact that no NBA team has ever recovered from that deficit to win a series in the NBA Playoffs.

Haliburton made six of the Pacers' 12 3-pointers. Pascal Siakam scored 26 points and Myles Turner added 21 and 10 rebounds for Indiana.

The Knicks, without Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic, had their star Jalen Burson despite the injury he suffered on Wednesday in his right foot. Donte DiVincenzo led the team with 35 points, while Brurson had 26 points and 6 assists.