Wizards put Nuggets under their spell

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game National Basketball Association (NBA) losing streak.

Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021.

The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time since 30 October.

Poole made a career-high nine of Washington’s 16 three-pointers while the Nuggets connected on just five of their 24 attempts from beyond the arc.

Justin Champagnie scored 23 points and Jonas Valanciunas added 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Wizards, who were without a string of key players including Kyle Kuzma, Malcolm Brogdon and Saddiq Bey.

Washington seized control early against a Nuggets team without five regulars, including Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray and Dario Saric who were all ruled out hours before the game.

They out-scored the Nuggets 36-29 in the first quarter and led 69-57 at halftime.

Jokic went for broke in the third in a bid to turn things around, connecting on nine of an astonishing 20 shot attempts and scoring 23 points as the Nuggets whittled the deficit to six points going into the final period.

The Wizards pushed their lead back to 13 early in the fourth with Jokic getting some rest on the bench, and Denver couldn’t get the deficit below five points the rest of the way.