Nuggets Beat the Grizzlies 123-118 Behind Jamal Murray's 30 and Nikola Jokic's Near Triple-Double
Denver led wire-to-wire in Memphis — and still nearly lost it. An 18-point lead shrank to two in the final minute before the Nuggets closed out their fifth win in seven games.
MEMPHIS — The Denver Nuggets never trailed in Memphis on Wednesday night, and for most of it they never looked threatened. Then an 18-point first-half lead shrank to two points in the final minute, and the wire-to-wire win had to be closed out the hard way: Denver 123, Memphis 118.
Jamal Murray led the Nuggets with 30 points and eight assists, and Nikola Jokic was a pair of assists from a triple-double — 27 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. Cameron Johnson added 23 points for Denver, which won for the fifth time in seven games.
Memphis, which opened the season 6-0, has now dropped four straight at home and four of its past five overall. The Grizzlies' comeback was powered from several directions at once: Ty Jerome and Jaylen Wells scored 22 points each, and Cedric Coward (15 points, 11 rebounds) and Cameron Boozer (13 points, 11 boards) both recorded double-doubles.
The shape of the game is the story as much as the score. A team that leads wire-to-wire and still has to survive a two-point game in the final minute has two truths in its box score — control, and a warning. Denver takes the win and the better record of form; Memphis takes a fourth straight home loss and the knowledge that its late run came one possession short.
