DENVER – The Denver Nuggets, with all their National Basketball Association (NBA) championship-winning experience from last season, knew exactly how to stop opponents from bouncing back.
On Tuesday, Nikola Jokic scored 32 points as the Nuggets preserved their unbeaten home record to send the “aggressive” Los Angeles Clippers spinning to a sixth straight defeat in the NBA’s in-season tournament.
A roller-coaster Western Conference Group B battle in Denver saw the NBA champions overturn a seven-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter to close out a 111-108 victory.
“They’d lost five in a row, so we knew they were going to play really aggressive,” said Jokic, who also had 16 rebounds and nine assists.
“But we were undefeated at home this season and we wanted to keep it like that.”
The Serb was given scoring support from Aaron Gordon with 20 points, while Reggie Jackson added 18.
The defeat was another bitter blow for the Clippers, who have now lost six games in a row since clinching the blockbuster signing of James Harden in October.
Los Angeles looked to be poised to snap their six-game losing streak after a magnificent performance from Paul George, who finished with 35 points while Harden added 21.
Yet the battle-hardened savvy of Denver proved the difference down the stretch, with the Nuggets outscoring the Clippers 19-9 in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to snatch victory.
Harden, meanwhile, called for patience as he gets back to his best.
“I kept reiterating, I didn’t have a training camp or a pre-season, so kind of learning on the fly,” he said.
“Also getting myself into James Harden shape. Tonight was definitely another step in the right direction and I have just got to keep improving.”
In San Francisco, a fiery clash between the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves ended in a 104-101 victory for the visitors, who overturned a 12-point third-quarter deficit to snatch victory.
The result was overshadowed by a spectacular melee in the first quarter which saw Golden State stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green ejected along with Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels.
Thompson was given his marching orders after a tangle with McDaniels in centre court that ended with the Warriors player’s shirt ripped.
Green was ejected for his part in the scuffle when he dragged away Wolves’ French star Rudy Gobert in a headlock.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was incensed by the decision to toss Thompson and insisted that Green had merely been defending a teammate.
“There is no way Klay should have been thrown out of the game,” he said. “He’s running up the floor and the guy grabs his jersey and is pulling on him, so Klay pulls back... that was ridiculous.”
On Green’s dismissal, Kerr added: “Guys on the bench were telling us Rudy had Klay, that’s why Draymond went at Rudy. That’s all I know – it was a bizarre way to start the game, a minute and a half in.”
In Philadelphia, Tyrese Haliburton scored 33 points as the Indiana Pacers ended the 76ers’ eight-game winning streak with a 132-126 victory.
Haliburton drained seven three-pointers and finished with 15 assists, seven rebounds and no turnovers in a virtuoso display against the pace-setting Sixers.
Joel Embiid finished with 39 points, 12 rebounds and six assists for Philadelphia but was unable to stop the Pacers from making it two wins out of two in the Eastern Conference Group A game.
In other games on Tuesday, LeBron James returned from injury to score 16 points as the Los Angeles Lakers blew out the Memphis Grizzlies 134-107 to extend their winning streak to three games.
In Oklahoma City, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs struggled once more in a 123-87 thrashing by the Thunder. No. 1 draft pick Wembanyama finished with just eight points as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stole the show for Oklahoma City with 28 points.
AFP, REUTERS
