The Washington Wizards ended their 16-game NBA shedding streak on Saturday with a 122-113 victory over the Denver Nuggets, regardless of Nikola Jokic’s 56-point efficiency.
Jokic, who received his third NBA Most Valuable Player award final season, posted a profession scoring excessive – surpassing a 53-point efficiency in sport 4 of the 2023 Western Conference semifinals towards Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season greatest towards Sacramento in 2021.
The Serbian massive man added 16 rebounds and eight assists nevertheless it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 factors from Jordan Poole, received for the primary time since Oct. 30.
Poole made a career-high 9 of Washington’s 16 3-pointers whereas the Nuggets linked on 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 had been and not using a string of key gamers together with Kyle Kuzma, Malcolm Brogdon and Saddiq Bey.
Washington seized management early towards a Nuggets crew with out 5 regulars, together with Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray and Dario Saric who had been all dominated out hours earlier than the sport.
They out-scored the Nuggets 36-29 within the first quarter and led 69-57 at halftime.
Jokic went for broke within the third in a bid to show issues round, connecting on 9 of an astonishing 20 shot makes an attempt and scoring 23 factors because the Nuggets whittled the deficit to 6 factors going into the ultimate interval.
The Wizards pushed their lead again to 13 early within the fourth with Jokic getting some relaxation on the bench, and Denver could not get the deficit beneath 5 factors the remainder of the best way.
“Hearing some MVP chants was kind of cool when the MVP (Jokic) was on the floor,” Poole stated of the cheers of Washington followers when he went to the free-throw line within the closing seconds.
Meanwhile, 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 his six three-pointers and the Cavs pushed their result in as many as 22 earlier than taking a 63-52 benefit into halftime.
“He didn’t hit the rim on the threes,” teammate Caris LeVert stated of Mobley’s effort. “They were all swishes, like the first four or five… it was definitely a sight to see.”
Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland added 18 factors apiece 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 reigning champion Celtics.
Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 27 factors and grabbed 9 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who fended off the Celtics’ fourth-quarter comeback bid.
Boston took the lead for the primary time early within the closing interval, going up 97-94 on Payton Pritchard’s 3-pointer.
Memphis regained the lead for good with 8:25 remaining, pulling away after Boston reduce the deficit to at least one on a Jayson Tatum basket with 4:34 to play.
Jrue Holiday scored 23 factors to guide six Celtics gamers to attain in double figures. Pritchard and Jaylen Brown scored 22 apiece whereas Tatum was simply shy of a triple-double with 17 factors, 13 rebounds and 9 assists.
There had been a number of triple-doubles elsewhere, nonetheless.
Dallas guard Luka Doncic posted 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 a career-high 15 assists because the Pistons beat the New York Knicks 120-111.
Cunningham recorded his fifth triple-double of the season, third-most within the NBA this season behind Jokic’s 9 and the seven of LeBron James.
Jalen Brunson scored 31 factors and handed out 10 assists to tempo the Knicks, who noticed a four-game profitable streak finish.
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