Nikola Jokic had 26 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds on Saturday night to help the visiting Denver Nuggets earn a 116-108 victory over the reeling New Orleans Pelicans.
Jamal Murray added 23 points and nine assists and Christian Braun scored 17 points for Denver, which won its fourth game in five outings. Cameron Johnson had 12 points and Aaron Gordon finished with 11 for the Nuggets, who won despite shooting just 25% (4-for-16) on 3-point attempts.
Zion Williamson’s 24 points led New Orleans, followed by Saddiq Bey’s 16. Jordan Poole had 14 and Jeremiah Fears and Jaron Pierre Jr. scored 13 apiece for the Pelicans, who lost their sixth straight game. Herbert Jones and Derik Queen scored 10 points apiece in the loss.
After holding a five-point halftime lead, Denver took its first double-digit advantage, 64-53, with 9:33 left in the third quarter on a pair of Gordon free throws.
Pierre scored five straight to pull the Pelicans within six and force a Nuggets timeout at the 4:32 mark of the third.
Poole made a layup and Karlo Matkovic drilled a 3-pointer to cut the Nuggets’ lead to 84-82 before two Jokic free throws sent Denver into the final quarter with a four-point cushion, 86-82.
The Nuggets scored the first nine points of the fourth and took a 95-82 advantage on Johnson’s basket with 9:11 remaining. The run was extended to 16-5 and the lead ballooned to 15 on DeMar DeRozan’s mid-range jumper.
Denver jumped out to an early 19-11 lead on a Jokic layup and led 29-23 entering the second quarter.
New Orleans pulled within two on Bey’s three-point play before Murray scored six straight to put the Nuggets up 44-36 with 4:53 before halftime.
After Murray made a layup to extend Denver’s lead to 49-40, Queen hit a turnaround jumper to start a 6-0 Pelicans spurt and trim the margin to three with 1:55 left in the first half.
Queen later found Pierre for a layup to cut the lead to one. Gordon finished the opening half with a 3-pointer to give the Nuggets a 56-51 halftime lead.
Jokic led all scorers with 12 first-half points, while Fears and Poole paced the Pelicans with nine apiece before halftime.
