The defending National Basketball Association (NBA) champion Denver Nuggets continued their dominance in the 2023-2024 season. Behind a 35-point performance from Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets defeated the Golden State Warriors 108-105 in a regular-season Western Conference home game on Monday (Jan. 9) at Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. Denver, which swept its six games at home, improved to 8-1, the best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference. Jokic, the Most Valuable Player of last season’s championship game, grabbed 13 rebounds in the win despite being forced to play more than 36 minutes .Jokic didn’t get a break in the third quarter due to a lackluster performance from Denver’s bench. Golden State’s bench, including Moses Moody (10 points), was all over the court and the Warriors ended the third quarter with a 78-76 lead.
Denver regained the lead with 4:22 left in the fourth quarter when Jokic scored to make it 99-97. Jokic delivered exquisite assists to teammates at every turn to keep Golden State close. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics to extend their winning streak to six games. Philadelphia was led by Joel Embiid (27 points, 10 rebounds) and Tyreese Maxey (25 points, 9 rebounds) to beat Boston 106-103 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, which improved to 6-1, remained in first place in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia’s only loss came in the first game of the season against the Milwaukee Bucks .Philadelphia and Boston met in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals, where Philadelphia took a 3-2 series lead before dropping Games 6 and 7 to fall short in the finals .Since then, head coach Doc Rivers has been fired, and the team’s signature player, James Harden, demanded a trade and was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.
There were many changes in Philadelphia, but one constant was center Embiid .A close game tipped in Philadelphia’s favor when Embiid scored 13 points in the third quarter alone. Leading 81-71 heading into the fourth quarter, Philadelphia held off a late Boston rally to win by three points. Boston was led by Kristaps Porzingis (29 points) but has lost two straight in recent games .The Los Angeles Clippers, who were even considered favorites to win the title with the addition of Harden, lost 93-100 on the road to the Brooklyn Nets .Paul George scored 24 points and Kawhi Leonard added 17 to lead the Clippers’ offense, but Harden didn’t have an explosive game, scoring just 12 points. The Clippers have lost all four of 스포츠토토존 their road games this season.