Nikola Jokic comes up clutch with 20th career triple-double as the Denver Nuggets top the Miami Heat

Carlan Gay

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Nikola Jokic comes up clutch with 20th career triple-double as the Denver Nuggets top the Miami Heat image

One night after losing a tough game to the Houston Rockets, the Denver Nuggets got a tough road win in Miami defeating the Heat 103-99.

Nikola Jokic finished the game with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his fourth triple-double of the season and 20th of his career.

Jokic sealed the win for the Nuggets late in the game after taking a pass from Jamal Murray and finished a tough layup with 2.4 seconds left on the clock.


The Heat couldn’t respond on the other end and the Nuggets walked away with their 27th win of the season.

“End of games, we’ve been really good this year, closing out close games and Jamal and Nikola are a big part of what we do.” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone told the media after the win.

“It’s funny. The play before that, Jamal finds Nikola and I’m thinking, ‘Why isn’t he shooting the ball?’ and he gets called for the travel. We go right back to it, Jamal makes a really beautiful pocket pass and Nikola…made a really tough shot.”

Murray finished with 18 points, six assists and two highlight-reel dunks in the victory. Murray punched one home over former Raptor James Johnson and later on add Hassan Whiteside to the list with a right-handed smash.



 

Canadian Trey Lyles came off the bench and poured in 15 points in 15 minutes — he also scored his 2000 point in the process.


The Heat got a balanced scoring attack with seven players reaching double digits scoring led by Dion Waiters who had 15 points off the bench.

The Nuggets will now turn their attention to the Los Angeles Clippers as they hit the halfway point of a five-game in seven night stretch on Thursday.

Miami will host the Boston Celtics on the same night.

Carlan Gay

Carlan Gay Photo

Carlan Gay is an assistant managing editor at The Sporting News with a focus on the NFL, NBA, College & global sports. Carlan is also a play-by-play announcer for FIBA calling games on the international level since 2017.

You can follow Carlan on Twitter at @TheCarlanGay.