Nikola Jokic had 32 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists for his 20th triple-double of the season, and the host Denver Nuggets overcame a big night by Jaylen Brown to beat the Boston Celtics 115-109 on Thursday night.
Denver swept the season series and has won seven of eight out of the All-Star break. Jamal Murray scored 19 points, Aaron Gordon contributed 16 points and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Peyton Watson had 11 points each for the Nuggets.
Brown had 41 points and 13 rebounds, both season-highs, but missed seven free throws. Kristaps Porzingis had 24 points and 12 rebounds, Jayson Tatum finished with 15 points and Jrue Holiday added 12 for Boston.
The Celtics have lost consecutive games for just the second time this season.
Denver led 62-54 at halftime but Boston scored the first eight points of the third. The teams traded buckets before Denver went on a 14-5 run to go ahead 82-73 and took a 90-80 lead into the fourth quarter.
Murray dunked for the first points of the final period. The Celtics scored the next five points but Denver answered with four straight to restore a double-digit lead.
Porzingis hit a jumper to make it 101-93 and had a chance to pull closer when Tatum stole the ball from Murray but the Nuggets stole it back and turned it into a dunk for Gordon with 5:13 remaining.
Brown’s three-point play and a technical on Jokic gave the Celtics a four-point trip to cut it to 105-98. Porzingis hit a 14-footer to trim the deficit to five and Gordon had a putback dunk to make it 109-102.
Holiday got Boston within two with a pair of 3-pointers, Tatum missed a 3-pointer that would have given the Celtics the lead with 45 seconds left and Jokic fed Gordon for another dunk to make it 113-109 with 19.8 seconds remaining.
Derrick White missed a 3-pointer and Denver held on.
Murray hit a 3-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer to put the Nuggets ahead 30-28, and they didn’t trail the rest of the night.
–Field Level Media
