Jamal Murray (42 points) leads Nuggets’ rally past lowly Wizards
Jamal Murray scored seven of his game-high 42 points in the final 2:12, and the host Denver Nuggets rallied to beat the Washington Wizards 121-115 on Saturday night.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored a season-high 30 points, Peyton Watson added 21 points and Aaron Gordon nearly recorded a triple-double with 11 assists, 10 rebounds and eight points for Denver. The Nuggets have won four straight and six of their last seven games.
Kyshawn George scored 29 points, Alex Sarr and Khris Middleton finished with 16 apiece, Marvin Bagely III scored 14 and Bub Carrington and Justin Champagnie contributed 13 apiece for Washington. The Wizards have dropped six in a row.
Hardaway hit a pair of free throws to open the fourth quarter to cut Washington's lead to 86-85, but the Wizards stretched the advantage to 96-89 on George's step-back 3-pointer. Hardaway drained two consecutive from deep before Middleton was fouled on a layup and hit the free throw and Sarr split a pair of foul shots to make it 102-97 midway through the period.
Murray hit a fadeaway and Hardaway cashed in on a three-point play to tie it at 102. After Sarr's offensive foul, Murray hit his fourth 3-pointer of the night to give the Nuggets a 105-102 lead.
Washington didn't fold, tying it on a steal and layup by George with 3:57 remaining. He hit two free throws after a Hardaway dunk to keep the game tied. Gordon and Murray made 3-pointers around a Middleton deep bucket to put Denver in front 113-110. George missed on the other end and Murray hit a 19-footer with 1:25 left.
Murray's two free throws gave the Nuggets a 117-110 lead with 59 seconds left.
The Nuggets led for most of the first half, but the Wizards rallied in the last six minutes of the second quarter to take a 63-62 advantage into intermission.
Washington carried the momentum into the third quarter, and Bagley's layup with 2:11 left in the period made it 86-78 in the Wizards' favor. Zeke Nnaji made a driving layup and Hardaway hit a 3-pointer from the top to get the Nuggets within 86-83 heading into the fourth.