Nikola Jokic had 27 points and 14 rebounds, Michael Porter Jr. scored 20 points and the host Denver Nuggets routed the short-handed Utah Jazz 129-93 on Friday night.
Russell Westbrook had 17 points and Christian Braun contributed 16 for Denver (47-28), which increased its lead for the third seed in the Western Conference to two games over the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies.
Collin Sexton scored 20 points to lead Utah (16-59), Kyle Filipowski finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds and Keyonte George scored 18 points.
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was inactive due to tightness in his right hamstring and Utah was without their top two scorers, Lauri Markkanen (conditioning) and John Collins (left ankle sprain).
The Jazz stayed within eight midway through the second half before Denver started to pull away. Peyton Watson dunked off a feed from Jokic, slammed home Aaron Gordon’s missed 17-footer and then finished off his flurry of dunks with one off a steal by Jokic to help push Denver’s lead to 15 points.
Utah cut it to 75-63 on a 3-pointer from Svi Mykhailiuk but the Nuggets finished the quarter on an 11-2 run, with Nnaji rejecting a layup attempt by Isaiah Collier in the final seconds to give the Nuggets an 86-65 lead going into the fourth.
The Nuggets led by as much as 41 in the fourth quarter, outsourcing the Jazz 32-12 to open the final period en route to the victory.
Denver led by 15 in the first quarter but the scrappy Jazz closed the gap in the second quarter. They held the Nuggets to one field goal for more than four minutes and got within 39-37 with 4:55 left.
It was 54-47 after Sexton’s layup but Jokic hit a 59-foot heave at the buzzer to give Denver a 57-47 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
