Jokic, Nuggets beat Wizards
Nikola Jokic had 15 points and 11 assists, and the Denver Nuggets beat the fading Washington Wizards 113-108 on Thursday night in Wasington for their fifth straight victory.
Paul Millsap, Gary Harris, Jamal Murray and Torrey Craig also added 15 points for the Nuggets, who were playing for the first time since clinching their first playoff berth in six years with Monday’s win in Boston.
Eight players reached double figures for Denver, which began the night a halfgame behind Western Conference leader Golden State. The Warriors played later Thursday.
Bradley Beal scored 25 points and Tomas Satoransky had 16 points and 10 assists for Washington, which lost its third straight.
Thomas Bryant added 22 points in his first start in a month, but the 11th-place Wizards’ playoff hopes continued to fade. They’re now six games back of eighthplace Miami with nine remaining.
After both teams gave back doubledigit leads in the third quarter, the Nuggets again went up by 10 early in the fourth.
The Wizards tried to answer with a 10-4 run, capped by Beal’s strip of Jokic and dunk to cut it to 106-104 with 1:53 left.
Murray answered with a baseline layup and then Will Barton’s 3-pointer from the right wing stretched Denver’s lead back to seven.
It was still a threepoint game when Harris missed a pair of free throws with under 10 seconds remaining, only to snatch his own rebound, absorb Beal’s foul, and this time hit two from the line with just over 7 seconds left.
HORNETS 113, TIMBERWOLVES 106: Kemba Walker scored 31 points, rookie Miles Bridges had 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Charlotte handed Minnesota its fifth straight loss.
CELTICS’ SMART FINED: Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart was fined $50,000 by the NBA for forcefully shoving Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid to the floor. Smart has been fined for two prior incidents in 2018-19. Smart shoved Embiid from behind with 7:06 remaining in the third quarter of the 76ers’ 118-115 victory on Wednesday. He received a flagrant foul 2 and was ejected.