DENVER (AP) — Jamal Murray scored a season-high 34 points, Nikola Jokic recorded his eleventh triple double of the season and the Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 122-109 on Monday night in a game where LeBron James sat out as a consequence of a sore left ankle.
Jokic finished with 14 points — on 5 of 5 shooting — grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 16 assists to assist the Nuggets win their eleventh straight home game. It’s their longest home streak since capturing 12 in a row in 2018.
Denver stays tied with Memphis for the highest spot within the Western Conference.
Russell Westbrook finished with 25 and Thomas Bryant added 17 together with 10 boards for the Lakers, who saw their five-game winning streak halted.
James was ruled out hours before tipoff, joining injured forward Anthony Davis ( (right foot) on the bench. Patrick Beverley didn’t play after halftime as a consequence of a hip injury.
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The Lakers entered the sport without Troy Brown Jr. (strained left quadriceps), Austin Reaves (strained hamstring strain) and Lonnie Walker IV (knee tendinitis).
Leading by as many as 20 points within the fourth quarter, the Nuggets saw the Lakers make a mini-run. But Murray calmed things down with a 3-pointer.
Murray’s scoring spree was one other big step as the purpose guard rounds back into form from a torn ACL that caused him to miss all of last season.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone challenged his team to maintain their intensity high against a banged-up Lakers squad.
“You could have to fight human nature when a team is out LeBron … and all of those guys,” Malone said. “You may’t calm down.”
Lakers: G Kendrick Nunn had 15 points. … G Dennis Schroder was called for a technical within the third quarter.
Nuggets: F Zeke Nnaji turned 22 on Monday. … The Nuggets were called for 2 delay of game technical fouls. … Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 16 points and Bruce Brown 15. … It was Jokic’s 87th profession triple-double.
The Lakers are starting the ramp-up process for Davis after they return home.
“There are different benchmarks built throughout the means of the upcoming weeks and if he meets those marks and checks off those boxes, then he’ll be back on the court,” coach Darvin Ham said. “Am I willing to place a timetable on it? No.”
James was named Western Conference player of the week Monday. He averaged 35 points, 8.7 rebounds and seven.7 assists over his last three games.
The 38-year-old James is 35 points away from joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as members of the NBA’s 38,000-point club.
Lakers: Start a five-game homestand Thursday against Dallas.
Nuggets: Host Phoenix on Wednesday.
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