MIAMI – The Denver Nuggets are finally “back to where they belong” at the top of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Western Conference, after four months of looking up to other teams.
On March 13, Michael Porter Jr scored 25 points as the reigning NBA champions defeated the Miami Heat 100-88 on the road to improve to 46-20 and move above the Oklahoma City Thunder (45-20) in the West.
Denver led for most of the first half before the Heat edged ahead with a third-quarter rally, only for the Nuggets to regain their advantage and pull clear in the final frame at Kaseya Centre.
Nuggets star Nikola Jokic was restricted to 12 points after a disciplined Miami defensive effort, but that just allowed more space for Porter, who drained five three-pointers in a nine-of-16 shooting display. He said his performance owed everything to his teammates engineering time and space for him to shoot freely.
“Did you see the shots I was getting? They were wide open threes, so it’s really my teammates, all credit to them,” Porter told ESPN.
“We’ve got a good, well-balanced team, so when you take something away, there’s another option. That’s what it was tonight.”
Denver’s fourth straight victory saw them surge to the top of the West for the first time since November, suggesting Michael Malone’s men are hitting form at the right time as they chase the top seeding for the play-offs.
“It feels good,” Porter, who received scoring support from Aaron Gordon with 16 points and Jamal Murray with 14, added of reclaiming top spot.
“It feels like we’re back where we belong. We wanted the No.1 seed and we’ve been playing well since the All-Star break.
“But we’ve got to hold on to it though, there’s a lot of good teams in the West, so we’ve got to come into every game knowing that people are coming for our spot.”
Malone echoed this sentiment. He said: “If we can get (the No. 1 seed), sure, we’re going to take it.
“And we’re not going to shy away from that. You know, it was very effective for us last year, having home-court throughout the entirety of the play-offs.”
Bam Adebayo led Miami’s scorers with 17 points. The Heat’s fourth consecutive defeat leaves them eighth in the Eastern Conference with a 35-30 record.
Over at American Airlines Centre, Luka Doncic scored 21 points and Kyrie Irving 23 to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 109-99 win over the short-handed Golden State Warriors, who were missing the injured Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.
“We played well on the defensive end, and from the first tip of the basketball at the start of the game, we had physicality, that was the big difference tonight,” Irving said.
“We knew they were kind of struggling and they’ve had a few tough games, and we wanted to make it tough for them.”
The only sour note for Dallas was the departure of Doncic midway through the fourth quarter, ending the Slovenian star’s seven-game triple-double streak.
He exited with tightness in his left hamstring and did not return.
“He gave me the signal that his hammy was tight, so we took him out. We will have a better answer tomorrow,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said of his star guard.
The Sacramento Kings dominated the Los Angeles Lakers en route to a comfortable 120-107 win at Golden 1 Centre.
The Lakers’ Austin Reaves reeled off seven three-pointers to finish with a game-high 28 points, but Los Angeles were unable to stem the flow of Sacramento scoring. All five Kings starters finished in double figures, with 31-year-old forward Harrison Barnes leading the scoring with 23 points.
Over at the Smoothie King Centre, the Cleveland Cavaliers leapfrogged the Milwaukee Bucks into second place in the Eastern Conference with a 116-95 win over the New Orleans Pelicans, who went into the game on the back of a four-game winning streak.
Darius Garland led the Cavs scoring with 27 points, with Jarrett Allen adding 17 and Georges Niang 16. AFP
