Jamal Murray’s season-high 41 paces Nuggets in third straight win

Nikola Jokic has made so many fairly passes that by the tip of Saturday night time, he didn’t must look.

He swung a no-look dime to Aaron Gordon halfway by the fourth quarter to notch his NBA-leading 18th triple-double, and the Nuggets gained, once more, this time knocking off the visiting Hawks, 128-108 for his or her third win in a row. Denver improved to 37-16 on the season and 18-0 in video games the place Jokic registers a triple-double.

However regardless of one other environment friendly triple-double, Jokic’s counterpart, Jamal Murray, turned Ball Area into his personal private apply court docket. Murray reeled off a season-high 41 factors, capping his outlandish exhibiting with an emphatic dunk off a Nuggets steal.

“An aggressive Jamal, a assured Jamal, is a scary Jamal,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone mentioned.

Murray drained seven 3-pointers, bobbing his head and beckoning to the gang because the quantity rose increased and better. It was Murray’s third consecutive recreation with a minimum of 30 factors.

Michael Porter Jr. added 23 factors, and the Nuggets bought a snug win with a back-to-back scheduled for Minnesota on Sunday.

Jokic ended the night time with 14 factors, 18 rebounds and 10 assists in 34 minutes of labor. As a workforce, Denver dished 32 assists to simply 13 turnovers.

With out Trae Younger, Dejounte Murray paced the Hawks with 28 factors. Denver’s 15 3-pointers had been overwhelming.

As soon as once more, Nuggets guard Bones Hyland didn’t get within the recreation. He was lively and engaged on the workforce’s bench, although his title continued to be talked about in commerce rumors forward of Thursday’s deadline.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope rolled his proper ankle early within the contest after touchdown on a defender’s foot. Although he momentarily returned to the sport, Caldwell-Pope was in road garments for the second half.

The Nuggets did their greatest to run away with the sport within the third quarter. Murray stalked pictures like he was searching and tallied 30 earlier than the third quarter was over. On one sequence, Jokic corralled a defensive rebound and located Porter sprinting the ground in transition for a simple basket. And between Bruce Brown and Christian Braun, each injected a measure of tenacious protection that flustered the Hawks. Brown appeared to get his arms in quite a few passing lanes, whereas Braun was the beneficiary of a monster transition dunk.

Although Atlanta chipped away on the lead, Denver maintained a 97-86 edge going into the ultimate quarter.

With out Hyland, Brown has turn out to be a useful element of the workforce’s roster development.

“How versatile he’s, enjoying the backup one, enjoying with Jamal at occasions, the protection he supplies,” mentioned Malone when he was requested about Brown earlier than the sport.

Except for Brown, Malone additionally raved concerning the workforce’s elder statesmen, crediting them for establishing a tradition of accountability contained in the locker room.

“We’ve unbelievable veterans,” Malone mentioned, referring to Ish Smith, Jeff Inexperienced, DeAndre Jordan and Caldwell-Pope. Their buy-in, no matter whether or not they’re enjoying on a given night time, has been integral to Denver’s tightknit locker.

The Nuggets performed unselfish, pass-happy basketball within the first half en path to a 70-52 lead on the break. With 19 assists to simply two turnovers, the Nuggets, as a workforce, had the ball on a string and constantly bypassed beauty for nice ones.

Murray was on fireplace, ending the primary half with 22 factors, 4 3-pointers and 6 assists. Porter scored 16, doing his injury from the mid-range and the 3-point line. Per ordinary, Jokic didn’t want the ball in his arms to dominate. He ended the half with eight factors, six assists and 11 rebounds.

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