The Brooklyn Nets visited the Denver Nuggets on Sunday for the first time this season and 122-120. Brooklyn leads the regular-season series 1-0.
For the Nets, Mikal Bridges had 25 points and three rebounds while Nic Claxton had 20 points and six rebounds. Dorian Finney-Smith had 15 points and Spencer Dinwiddie had 15 points.
For the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic had 35 points, 20 rebounds, and 11 assists while Michael Porter Jr. had 23 points and four assists. Jamal Murray had 16 points before leaving the game with knee soreness and Aaron Gordon had 13 points.
In the first half, both teams played to a draw in the first quarter. However, Denver was attacking the glass early by getting as many offensive rebounds as Brooklyn had total rebounds. The Nets started the second quarter off wonderfully while Nikola Jokic was on the bench and built as much as a 10-point lead. However, once Jokic came back into the game, he guided the Nuggets to a 30-12 run over the final seven minutes of the second quarter that was capped off with a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Jamal Murray.
In the second half, Brooklyn started the half with a dominant third quarter as everything was working on both ends of the floor for them. The Nets found a way of limiting how the Nuggets were attacking their defense and were able to take full advantage of being smaller and quicker than Denver. This game came down to the final moments thanks to some sloppy play and some dominant play by Jokic.
Here’s how NBA Twitter reacted to the Nets narrowly beating the Nuggets: