NIKOLA JOKIC’S TRIPLE-DOUBLE LIFTS NUGGETS’ WIN VS CELTICS
DENVER – Sometimes, Nikola Jokic’s triple-double is as meaningful as it is magical.
That was certainly the case Thursday night when Jokic recorded his 20th triple-double of the season and the Denver Nuggets withstood a furious fourth-quarter surge by Boston to beat the Celtics 115-109.
That gave the reigning NBA champs a sweep of their season series with the Eastern Conference leaders.
Jokic had 32 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists, several of them on alley-oops to Aaron Gordon, who had 16 points on seven dunks and a running hook.
Jamal Murray added 19 points and eight assists as the Nuggets improved to 7-1 since the All-Star break.
It was Jokic’s 30th career 30-point triple-double.
“He’s just an incredible basketball player,” Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis said. “Some things I learned from him today, actually. He’s just so smart, so crafty, so many things you don’t see that he does on the floor that help that team win. It’s incredible. Whenever you overhelp just a little bit, he’ll find Gordon, he’ll find all these guys. It speaks to how valuable he is for them.”
Asked what exactly he had learned, Porzingis said, “A couple of tricks he does, I’ll leave it at that.”
Maybe some of that sorcery Porzingis was referencing had to do with the Jokic-Gordon alley-oop game that’s becoming as big a part of Denver’s crunch-time arsenal as the Jokic-Murray pick-and-roll.
Gordon’s best dunk came off a missed layup by Jokic with two minutes remaining. Gordon corralled the rebound with his right hand and windmilled it through the basket for a 109-103 lead.
“It was a bad miss,” Jokic said, “but a great dunk.”
The two teamed up for a game-sealing alley-oop with 20 seconds left after Jayson Tatum’s 3-pointer for the lead with 40 seconds remaining rimmed out.
Jaylen Brown scored a season-high 41 points and had 14 rebounds for the Celtics, who hadn’t lost consecutive games since early November. But Brown was just 7 of 14 from the foul line.