Houston – – Michael Porter Jr. scored 19 factors, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic added 18 every and the Denver Nuggets received the top of the West Convention 4 with a 126-111 victory in opposition to Houston’s Rockets on Sunday.
The victory offers nuggets at residence within the first spherical of the playoffs and places them within the playoffs for a seventh consecutive season.
The Nuggets elevated from 13 to half-time and used a 10-2 race, with 5 Gordon factors, to make 86-63 with about 5 minutes to play within the third quarter.
The Rockets, who had nothing to play for having lengthy saved the seeded n ° 2, drew their newcomers after this large race.
The Nuggets had prolonged the advance at 111-78 with about 9 minutes to play once they erased their bench.
Jokic, who had already assured a median of a triple-double for the season throughout Friday’s victory in opposition to Memphis, managed seven rebounds and 7 assists on Sunday. He joined his teammate Russell Westbrook and the temple of substitute Oscar Robertson on the famend temple as the one gamers to perform the feat.
Westbrook added 17 on the bench for the Nuggets, who received their third consecutive match below the performing coach David Adelman. He took over after coach Michael Malone and Managing Director Calvin Sales space was dismissed on Tuesday after Nuggets misplaced his fourth consecutive match two days earlier.
Amen Thompson and Fred Vanvleet led the Rockets with 15 factors every whereas they had been ending the common season with a 52-30 file, marking their first profitable season since 2019-20 throughout their final look within the playoffs.
The race within the third quarter pushed the advance at 20.
Jalen Inexperienced of Houston began his 82nd recreation of the season, marking the second consecutive season from every match.
Houston welcomes the seeded n ° 7 within the first spherical of the playoff collection, which begins on April 19 to twenty, and the Nuggets welcome the seeded n ° 5 Los Angeles Clippers.
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