Denver (USA), May 5 (EFE) .- Serbian center Nikola Jokic scored 24 of his 32 points in a dominant first quarter in the Denver Nuggets’ 113-97 victory over the New York Knicks.
Jokic also finished with 12 rebounds to help lead the Nuggets to their 10th win in 12 games and the Denver team, which held a 31-point lead, again tied the rested Los Angeles Clippers for third place. in the Western Conference with a 44-22 record.
Point guard Austin Rivers scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter against his former team, power forward Michael Porter Jr. with 17 others and Argentine point guard, rookie Facundo Campazzo, reached 16 points.
Campazzo, who played 33 minutes, scored 5 of 12 shots from the field, including 2 of 7 triples, and 4-4 from the personnel line.
The former Real Madrid player also shone in the paint with nine rebounds -seven defensive-, distributed four assists and for the second consecutive game he recovered five balls, lost one, put two blocks and committed a personal foul.
The Nuggets distanced themselves early from the Knicks, who fouled three times in the first 22 seconds of the game and coach Tom Thibodeau received a 28-second technical foul. Things got worse from there.
Canadian forward RJ Barrett made his third foul with 5:32 minutes remaining in the first period, the Knicks making 4 of 24 shots from the field.
Jokic doubled New York’s total points on his own in the first (24-12).
Power forward Julius Randle had 14 points and eight rebounds and point guard Derrick Rose, forward Reggie Bullock and Barrett also had 14 points each.
The Knicks had won 12 of 13 games before the game against the Nuggets and lowered their mark to 39-27, which allows them to remain fourth in the Eastern Conference, half a game ahead of the Atlanta Hawks (37-30), who are fifth .
(c) EFE Agency