An apparently routine win for Denver on the road in New Orleans, a routine triple-double from Jokić — the 172nd of his career — and an extraordinary performance by Watson marked a game that ultimately lacked suspense in terms of the final score, but one in which one of the league’s weakest teams still put up a respectable fight against the favorite. In the end, 118:125!
Jokić’s main task ahead of the playoffs and the title fight is to get all 10 players in the rotation going, and this game was a perfect opportunity for that. Peyton Watson (32 pts, 12 reb, 3 ast) and Cam Johnson (14 pts, 5 ast, 3 reb) played exactly the way Denver needs them to in order to hang another ring.
An increasingly confident Jamal Murray added 16 points and 8 assists, along with another Jokić “trilogy” (28 pts, 10-of-18 shooting, 12 ast, 11 reb), all of which was enough for Denver to secure an expected victory.
For the home team, young Derrick Quin shined — the “Black version of Jokić” — finishing the game with 30 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists. Zion Williamson added 14 (6 reb, 5 ast), and Trey Murphy stood out with 23 points and 5 steals.
Denver returned to second place in the West with an 11–3 record, while the Pelicans remain stuck at the bottom at 2–13.
The Nuggets’ next game is the day after tomorrow in Houston, where we will see a duel between two of the NBA’s best current centers — the Turk Şengün and the Serb Jokić.
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