Nuggets beat Hawks 128-108, tie Boston for NBA’s best record

DENVER (AP)— Jamal Murray scored a season-high 41 points, Nikola Jokic had his18th triple-double of the season and the Denver Nuggets won theirthird straight game, beating the Atlanta Hawks 128-108 on Saturdaynight.

Jokicfinished with 14 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists and recordedthe 94th regular-season triple-double of his career. Michael PorterJr. added 23 points for the Nuggets, who are 19-1 in their last 20home games and moved into a tie with the Boston Celtics for thebest record in the NBA at 37-16.

With theNuggets’ success, Murray said Denver has to be ready to deal withthe best effort from opposing teams on a nightly basis.

“We can’tunderestimate any team. We’ve got to come prepared. We’ve got atarget on our backs,” Murray said. “We’ve seen that, even today.They stuck in it for a while. We just had to lock in and we didthat.”

DejounteMurray scored 28 points to lead the Hawks. De’Andre Hunter added 20points.

“This is atough place to come back when you dig such a deep hole like as didin the first half,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan told the AtlantaJournal Constitution.

“I thoughtthey did a good job of making us earn everything that we got,”McMillan said. “We were making tough shots and I didn’t think wehad the ball movement, but I thought it was due to their defense.They just made us work for everything on the offensive end thefloor.”

Trailing by18 points at the break, the Hawks narrowed the deficit to 97-86 bythe start of the fourth quarter on a tip-in by Onyeka Okongwu inthe final minute of the third. Atlanta defenders had blocked theNuggets’ last three field goal attempts in the third period.

Hunter’sjumper with 5:49 remaining got the Hawks within 109-101. But theNuggets, with Murray leading the way, responded with a 15-2 runthat pushed their lead to 124-103 with 2:23 remaining. The Hawksnever threatened again. Murray had 11 of his points in the lateflurry, which Jokic helped get started with an alley-oop pass toAaron Gordon for a layup for his 10th assist of the game. “It wassuch a weird game,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “If you lookat quarters one and three, we played no defense. Quarters two andfour, I thought our defense was really good. Most importantly, thefourth quarter, 22 points allowed, a lot of good things for us andthat allowed us to pull away.”

Murray had22 of his points in the first half, including a 3-pointer off afeed from Jokic following an Atlanta turnover in the waning secondsof the second quarter. That helped the Nuggets take a 70-52halftime lead.

TIP-INS

Hawks: GTrae Young was held out of the game because of a non-COVID-19illness.

Nuggets:Murray’s career-high is 50 points, at Cleveland ON Feb. 19, 2021. FAaron Gordon was back in the starting lineup after missing theprevious game with a left ankle sprain. … G KentaviousCaldwell-Pope left the game in the second quarter with a rightankle sprain. He did not return.

UPNEXT

Hawks:Visit New Orleans on Tuesday to cap a five-game trip.

Nuggets:Head to Minnesota on Sunday night for the second in a back-to-backset.