Denver is not Denver without Nikola Jokic, and New Orleans did not miss its chance in Colorado on Thursday: in the fight for a place in the top 6 in the West, synonymous with direct qualification for the play-offs , the Pelicans took on the floor of the leader a precious success (107-88) in the wake of Brandon Ingram, author of his third triple-double of the season (31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists).
Nine days from the end of the regular season, they are now 7th, one victory over the Warriors (6th) and two from the Clippers (5th), which they will host on Sunday before struggling Sacramento (3rd), Memphis (2nd) and Minnesota (8th) in a most exciting home stretch.
The Terribly Awkward Nuggets
With a successful start and a good long-distance address (13/27, 48.1%), Willie Green’s men raced in the lead for almost the entire match, scoring up to 21 points in advance. Brilliant, Ingram notably found valuable relays in CJ McCollum (23 points at 6/8 3-point, 3 assists, 2 steals) and Jonas Valanciunas (15 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists).
Conversely, the Nuggets sometimes seemed clueless without their Serbian playmaker (preserved due to calf pain), locked in a stereotypical isolation game (21 assists once morest 29.3 on average) and terribly clumsy (4/28 from three points, 14.3%), like Michael Porter Jr. (10 points from 5/15, 0/7 from afar) and to a lesser extent Jamal Murray (21 points at 6/15, 4/10 from afar).
With three more wins than the Grizzlies, second, Denver still keeps a comfortable lead at the top of the Eastern Conference, where the suspense remains total in the race for the play-offs: only three wins separate the 6th, Golden State, from the 11th , Dallas. As a reminder, the teams ranked from 7th to 10th place will play a play-in.
