Jokic powers Nuggets past Grizzlies
Nikola Jokic scored a season-high 31 points, and added 10 rebounds and 10 assists for his seventh triple-double of the season, leading the host Denver Nuggets to a 119-110 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night.
Jokic, who has 35 career triple-doubles, has 11 double-doubles in the last 12 games, helping Denver win eight of its last nine. Will Barton had 20 points and Jamal Murray and Mason Plumlee each scored 15 for the Nuggets.
Denver never trailed and led by as many as 23 points in the first half when its two 7-footers, Jokic and Plumlee, sat with three fouls each. The Grizzlies made a run and closed within 50-39 at the end of the first half.
Jaren Jackson Jr. led Memphis with 20 points, De'Anthony Melton had 17 off the bench and Ja Morant scored 16.
Memphis closed within 52-49 early in the third quarter, the closest it had been since early in the first. Denver went on a 16-4 run later in the period and took a 14-point lead into the fourth.
ELSEWHERE
Celtics: Boston guard Marcus Smart returned to action against Toronto on Saturday night after missing the previous eight games with an eye infection that spread to both eyes.
Boston coach Brad Stevens said before the game that “he won’t play as many minutes.”
Smart, 25, hadn’t played since Dec. 6.
Thunder: Oklahoma City guard Dennis Schroder was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Saturday for intentionally making contact with a game official.
Upset after a turnover he thought should have been a foul call on Cody Zeller late in the third quarter of the Thunder’s 104-102 overtime victory in Charlotte on Friday night, Schroder approached referee CJ Washington at midcourt when play was stopped and grabbed at the official’s wrist to demonstrate what Zeller had done to him.
Washington immediately gave Schroder a technical foul.
Charlotte guard Terry Rozier also was fined $25,000 for throwing the game ball into the stands at the end of regulation. He was assessed a technical foul.