Jamal Murray tied his season high with 37 points, Nikola Jokic had 26 points and the host Denver Nuggets beat the Utah Jazz 142-121 on Saturday night.
Michael Porter Jr. had 19 points, Christian Braun and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 13 points each and Peyton Watson had 12 points for Denver.
The Nuggets won eight of nine after the All-Star break and found themselves tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the second seed in the Western Conference, a half-game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Keyonte George led Utah with 29 points, Jordan Clarkson scored 22 points, John Collins 19 points, Collin Sexton scored 17 and Brice Sensabaugh finished with 16 points for Utah. Walker Kessler grabbed 11 rebounds in the loss.
Utah has lost 10 of 12 since hitting .500 on Feb. 6 and five of its last six. The last two losses came with top scorer Lauri Markkanen sidelined with a right quadriceps contusion.
Denver scored the first five points of the game and never relinquished the lead. The Nuggets used a 16-4 run in the first quarter to take a 34-16 lead and led 38-22 after the first 12 minutes.
The Jazz scored the first basket in the second quarter, but Denver dominated the rest of the period thanks to the play of Murray. He made 5 of 7 shots in the second, including a 3-for-4 from behind the 3-point arc.
His third from deep put the Nuggets ahead 54-26 with 7:35 left in the first half. Denver continued, using a 12-1 spurt to take a 69-33 lead, then took its largest lead of the night, 74-35, on a 3-pointer from Porter.
The Nuggets’ 78-44 halftime lead was the largest in franchise history.
There was a 33-point lead on Caldwell-Pope’s steal and dunk midway through the third, but Utah got hot. An 18-1 run cut it to 95-79. After Caldwell-Pope scored a 3-pointer, the Jazz closed the third strong and trailed only 102-88 heading into the fourth.
Braun and Murray each scored 3 points early in the fourth to extend the lead to 23 points.
