The defending champion Denver Nuggets continued their dominance in the 2023-2024 season.
Behind a 35-point performance from Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets defeated the Golden State Warriors 108-105 in their regular-season Western Conference home opener on Monday (Jan. 9) at the 카지노사이트 Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets, who swept their six home games, improved to 8-1, the best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference.
Jokic, the Most Valuable Player of last season’s championship game, grabbed 13 rebounds in the win despite being forced to play more than 36 minutes.
Jokic didn’t get a break in the third quarter due to a lackluster performance from Denver’s bench. Golden State’s bench, including Moses Moody (10 points), was all over the court and the Warriors ended the third quarter with a 78-76 lead.
Denver regained the lead with 4:22 left in the fourth quarter when Jokic scored to make it 99-97. Jokic delivered exquisite assists to teammates at every turn to keep Golden State in the game.
The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics to extend their winning streak to six games. Philadelphia was led by Joel Embiid (27 points, 10 rebounds) and Tyreese Maxey (25 points, 9 rebounds) to beat Boston 106-103 at the Wells Fargo Center in Pennsylvania.
At 6-1, Philadelphia remained in first place in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia’s only loss came in the first game of the season against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Philadelphia and Boston met in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals, where Philadelphia took a 3-2 series lead before dropping Games 6 and 7 to fall short of advancing to the finals.
Since then, head coach Doc Rivers has been fired, and the team’s signature player, James Harden, demanded a trade and was shipped to the Los Angeles Clippers.
There were many changes in Philadelphia, but one constant was center Embiid. A close game tilted in Philadelphia’s favor when Embiid scored 13 points in the third quarter alone.
Leading 81-71 entering the fourth quarter, Philadelphia held off a late Boston rally to win by three points. Boston was led by Kristaps Porzingis (29 points) but has lost two straight in recent games.
The Los Angeles Clippers, who were even considered favorites to win the title with the addition of Harden, lost 93-100 on the road to the Brooklyn Nets. Paul George scored 24 points and Kawhi Leonard added 17 to lead the Clippers’ offense, but Harden didn’t have an explosive game, scoring just 12 points. The Clippers have lost all four of their road games this season.
Milwaukee defeated the Detroit Pistons 120-118 despite having star power forward Yannis Adetokunbo ejected for a technical foul. After picking up one technical foul in the second quarter, Adetokunbo left the court after picking up a second technical foul for taunting an opposing defender after a dunk with nine minutes left in the third quarter.
Up to that point, Adetokunbo had scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds. After Adetokunbo’s ejection, Milwaukee ended the third quarter trailing 90-95. Milwaukee made a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, getting back-to-back baskets from Damian Lillard and Brook Lopez to make it 119-115 with 42 seconds left.
Lopez then blocked a driving hook shot by Cade Cunningham with 12 seconds left to preserve the win at 119-118.