The Washington Wizards held off a 56-point outburst from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and finish their 16-game NBA shedding streak.
Jokic, who gained his third NBA Most Helpful Participant award final season, posted a career-high — topping a 53-point efficiency in Sport 4 of the 2023 Western Convention Semifinals towards Phoenix and a document 50 factors within the common season towards Phoenix. Sacramento in 2021.
The Serbian huge man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, however it was to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 factors from Jordan Poole, gained for the primary time since October 30.
Poole made a career-high 9 Washington three-pointers whereas the Nuggets made simply 5 of their 24 makes an attempt from past the arc.
Justin Champagnie scored 23 factors and Jonas Valanciunas added 20 factors and 12 rebounds for the Wizards, who have been lacking a sequence of key gamers together with Kyle Kuzma, Malcolm Brogdon and Saddiq Bey.
Washington took management early towards a Nuggets staff with out 5 regulars, together with Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray and Dario Saric, who have been all dominated out hours earlier than the sport.
They outscored the Nuggets 36-29 within the first quarter and led 69-57 at halftime.
Jokic went for broke within the third in an effort to show issues round, connecting on a shocking 9 of 20 shot makes an attempt and scoring 23 factors because the Nuggets minimize the deficit to 6 factors heading into the ultimate interval.
The Wizards minimize their result in 13 early within the fourth interval, with Jokic getting some relaxation on the bench, and Denver failed to chop the deficit under 5 factors for the remainder of the sport.
“Listening to some MVP chants was fairly cool when MVP (Jokic) was on the court docket,” Poole mentioned of the cheers from Washington followers when he went to the free throw line within the closing seconds.
In the meantime, Evan Mobley scored a career-high 41 factors and grabbed 10 rebounds for the league-leading Cleveland Cavaliers in a dominant 116-102 victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
Mobley set the tone with 23 factors within the first quarter, when he made 5 of six three-pointers and the Cavs pushed their result in 22 earlier than taking a 63-52 benefit into halfway. time.
“He didn’t contact the rim on the three,” teammate Caris LeVert mentioned of Mobley’s effort. “They have been all rustling, like the primary 4 or 5… it was actually a sight to see.”
Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland added 18 factors every for the Cavs and Jarrett Allen added 11 factors and 10 assists as Cleveland improved to 21-3.
– Grizzles maintain off Celtics –
In Boston, Ja Morant scored 32 factors with 9 rebounds and 9 assists to guide the Memphis Grizzlies to a 127-121 victory over the defending champion Celtics.
Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 27 factors and grabbed 9 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who held off the Celtics’ comeback try within the fourth quarter.
Boston took the lead for the primary time early within the closing interval, going up 97-94 on Payton Pritchard’s three-point basket.
Memphis regained the lead for good with 8:25 remaining, pulling away after Boston minimize the deficit to at least one on a Jayson Tatum basket with 4:34 remaining.
Jrue Vacation scored 23 factors to guide six Celtics gamers in scoring in double figures. Pritchard and Jaylen Brown scored 22 every whereas Tatum was simply shy of a triple-double with 17 factors, 13 rebounds and 9 assists.
There have been, nonetheless, a number of triple-doubles elsewhere.
Dallas guard Luka Doncic recorded his second triple-double in as many video games with 30 factors, 13 rebounds and 11 assists within the Mavericks’ 125-118 victory over the Raptors in Toronto.
Kyrie Irving added 29 factors and Klay Thompson scored 20 as six Mavs gamers reached double figures to safe a seventh straight victory.
Detroit’s Cade Cunningham scored 29 factors with 10 rebounds and 15 assists because the Pistons beat the New York Knicks 120-111.
Cunningham recorded his fifth triple-double of the season, the third within the NBA this season behind Jokic’s 9 and LeBron James’ seven.
Jalen Brunson scored 31 factors and dished out 10 assists to tempo the Knicks, who noticed a four-game successful streak finish.
bb/multilevel marketing
