On Friday night, the Denver Nuggets ended a nine-game losing streak against Houston with a 136-122 victory the Rockets.
With the win, Denver’s record moves to 36-15, which moves them back into first place in the Western Conference. The Nuggets are now tied record wise with the Golden State Warriors, but hold the top spot by virtue of tiebreaker. Friday’s game also marked the Nuggets fifth-straight win and their 23rd victory at home this season.
After being named to his first All-Star Game the day before, Nikola Jokic got the Nuggets started offensively with a nice move in the lane that led to an easy lay up. That was the start of what was an extremely fast paced game from the beginning as Denver jumped out to an early 14-12 lead with 6:58 to play in the first quarter.
Even with Jokic rolling early, the Nuggets had no recipe of how to slow down James Harden as he opened with 10 of Houston’s first 20 points. Even as Harden was scoring at will, Denver did not let it affect them as they only trailed by two-points with 3:50 remaining in the opening period. Harden would finish the first quarter with 15 points as Houston held a 43-35 lead after one quarter of play.
The Rockets played lights out in the first quarter as they shot 72 percent from the field and made eight three-pointers. Denver countered with just three triples as that was the biggest difference in the game after 12 minutes of play. In the second quarter though, Denver’s bench unit provided a much needed spark, specifically Torrey Craig. With the Nuggets making a bit of a push to open the quarter, Craig threw down an absurd put-back dunk that put all the momentum back on Denver’s side.
😬 SHEESH 😬 https://t.co/MvJAUFEMnl
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) February 2, 2019
Malik Beasley followed with a monster dunk a few possessions later as the Rockets lead was down to one-point with 6:53 left before half. The Nuggets ended up going on a 34-16 run to open the second quarter, which allowed them to jump out to a 69-59 lead with 4:01 remaining in the period. It was a breath taking second quarter performance by Denver as Beasley and Monte Morris were doing everything they could to will the Nuggets to victory.
Behind Beasley and Morris’ big second quarter, the Nuggets took an 83-71 lead into the halftime locker room. At the half, Beasley led Denver offensively with 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 from behind the three-point line. Morris chipped in 12 first half points off the bench, while Torrey Craig poured in 11 points. Jokic also had a solid stat line at the break as he had 14 points, seven rebounds, and four assists to put him on triple-double watch going into half number two.
The Nuggets ended up outscoring Houston 48-28 in the second quarter, which allowed them to take an 11-point lead into halftime. In the first half, Denver shot 67 percent (31-46) from the field and a scorching 9-of-17 from beyond the arc. After 15 points in the opening quarter, Harden had just 18 at the break as the Nuggets held Houston to just two three-pointers in the second quarter.
Denver carried their momentum into quarter number three as Beasley and Jokic both hit three-pointers in the mist of an 8-2 Nuggets run to start the period. It only took Beasley a minute and a half into the third quarter to collect his career-high in points (25) as the Nuggets were truly firing on all cylinders offensively. Because of that, Denver held a 98-84 lead with 5:19 to play in the third quarter as the Nuggets finally seemed to be pulling away from Houston.
The Nuggets only grew on that lead to close the quarter as Denver led 113-95 going into the final 12 minutes of play. Through three quarters, Beasley led the way with 27 points, while Jokic was not far behind with 23 points of his own. Those two were not the only Nuggets having huge games though as Craig had 18 points and Morris added 17 through three quarters of play.
It was truly turning out to be a special night at the Pepsi Center as the Nuggets could do no wrong on the offensive end of the floor. Whether it was rim-rattling dunks by Beasley or Craig, or swift-shooting floaters in the lane by Jokic, the Rockets just had no answer of how to stop the Nuggets defensively.
Malik is very good at the whole 'jumping and viciously throwing the ball through the hoop' thing.
If only there was some sort of situation where people competed at doing this sort of thing.. 🤷♂️ https://t.co/cCjKgzX2oA
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) February 2, 2019
Denver truly looked like a team on a mission Friday night as they seemed fed up with Houston having won nine-straight games against them. The energy and passion the Nuggets were playing with was on full display in the fourth quarter as Denver continued to make winnings plays. Because of that, the Nuggets held a 123-107 lead with 6:19 remaining in the game as Denver all but secured the victory at this point.
Harden and the Rockets attempted a mini-run before Denver shut the door on that with four-straights points from Jokic. Playing in his first game as an All-Star, Jokic ended Houston’s comeback chances and received MVP chants from Nuggets fans in the process. In the end, Denver controlled the final five minutes of play to capture a 136-122 victory over the Rockets.
Stat leaders for Denver were Beasley, who led the way offensively with a career-high 35 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the field, 5-of-9 from distance. Jokic also finished with a tremendous stat line finishing with another double-double of 31 points and 13 rebounds to go along with is nine assists. Other Nuggets’ who finished in double-figures were Craig — who had a career-high 22 points — Morris (18), Mason Plumlee (10), and Paul Millsap (10) as it really was a team effort that led Denver to victory.
The Nuggets now have a quick turnaround as they are back in action tomorrow night in Minnesota to face the Timberwolves.