Jamal Murray scored 22 points, Aaron Gordon tied his season high with 21 and the host Denver Nuggets beat the Dallas Mavericks 130-104 on Monday night.
.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25173073/usa_today_22135895.jpg)
Reggie Jackson had 18 points, Zeke Nnaji scored 14 and Julian Strawther contributed 12 for Denver.
Nikola Jokic finished with eight points on 3-for-8 shooting to go along with nine rebounds and seven assists. It is the third time this season he has failed to score in double figures, but he was ejected before halftime in each of the other two games where he didn’t score at least 10 points.
Luka Doncic scored 28 of his 38 points in the first half and added 11 rebounds and eight assists in the game for Dallas. Doncic continued his torrid December and is averaging 36.6 points, 11.6 assists and 9.3 rebounds this month.
Dante Exum added 11 points for the Mavericks.
Doncic had only six points in the first quarter but couldn’t miss in the second. He went 8-for-9 from the field in the period, going 6-for-7 from beyond the arc en route to 22 points.
The Nuggets were able to win the quarter despite Dallas opening the frame with a 9-2 run to get within 30-29. Nine of the 10 Denver players who saw the floor in the quarter scored, and the only one who didn’t was Jokic, who did not attempt a shot or free throw. Still, Denver led 68-59 at halftime.
Murray scored Denver’s first seven points of the third quarter to push the advantage to 75-63. Two free throws by Doncic and a layup by Grant Williams cut the Mavericks’ deficit to 77-70, but Murray drained a trey to spark a run that got the Nuggets’ lead back to 12 with 5:34 remaining until the fourth.
Subsequently, the Nuggets capitalized on the Mavericks’ nearly four-minute scoring drought. Late in the third quarter, Denver led 94-71 thanks to baskets from Michael Porter Jr. off an offensive rebound, a layup by Christian Braun, and three-pointers from Gordon and Peyton Watson.
Before the fourth quarter, the Nuggets led 98–80 thanks to Jackson’s fadeaway jumper.
With a layup to start the last 12 minutes, Strawther made a pull-up 3-pointer, and Watson added another triple to start a 13-4 run that put the game out of reach in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.