Nikola Jokic moved to No. 3 in career triple-doubles with 27 points, 20 rebounds and 11 assists on Wednesday at Cleveland, but his Denver Nuggets couldn’t withstand the host Cavaliers’ 3-point barrage and lost 126-114 on Thursday night.
Jokic’s 139th career triple-double broke a tie with Magic Johnson on the all-time list. It was also his second triple-double with 20-plus points and 20-plus rebounds this season.
The Cleveland quartet of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Caris LeVert and Evan Mobley, however, responded by combining to make 17 treys and rack up 93 points.
Led by Mitchell’s 28 points and 6-of-10 shooting from long range, Cleveland’s perimeter shooting gave the Cavaliers a nearly wire-to-wire victory. The advantage swelled to as many as 18 points on multiple occasions in the second half before Denver battled to cut the deficit to single digits late in the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run.
LeVert, who scored 21 points off the bench, helped counteract the Denver burst by nailing the last of his five 3-pointers on six attempts. After the Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr. scored two of his 24 points on the ensuing possession, Mitchell came back down and sank another 3-pointer off of one of LeVert’s six assists.
The back-to-back triples snuffed out any hope of a Denver rally and reflected the story of the night.
While Cleveland shot 22-for-48 (45.8 percent) from beyond the arc, with five Cavaliers making multiple 3-pointers, the Nuggets went just 6-for-24 (25 percent) from deep.
Mobley shot 3-for-5 from 3-point range and 7-for-11 from the floor overall en route to 20 points. He also tallied nine rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Garland added 24 points and four assists. He shot 3-for-10 from outside. Jarrett Allen chipped in eight points, six assists and 15 rebounds.
Aaron Gordon scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Denver. Jamal Murray added 19 points, and both Russell Westbrook and Christian Braun recorded 10 points.
–Field Level Media
