The Denver Nuggets beat the New York Knicks on the road 114-89 this Sunday and achieved the second consecutive victory, with an inspired Nikola Jokic, who contributed a double-double of 22 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
Along with Jokic, five other Nuggets players had double-digit numbers, including reserves, reserve point guard Monte Morris and guard PJ Dozier, who each scored 12 points.
While the starting guard Gary Harris reached 14 points and the Nuggets (5-5) achieved a positive record for the first time so far this season.
The Argentine guard, the rookie Facundo Campazzo returned to have minutes with the Nuggets, the coach Michael Malone gave him 14 and took advantage of them to contribute five points.
Campazzo made 2 of 5 shots from the field, including a triple on two attempts, and did not go to the personnel line.
He also played a leading role in the rest of the facets of the game by capturing two defensive rebounds, giving two assists, recovering two balls, losing one and committing two personal fouls.
The game did not have much history and the Nuggets were always in control, who did better defense and had a more effective attack, despite the fact that Malone gave minutes to all available players on the bench.
The Nuggets, who opened the season 1-4 after reaching the Western Conference finals last year, have now responded with four wins in five games.
The last two were easy. The Nuggets walked away from the Philadelphia 76ers, with only seven players available, in the third quarter and rested their starters in the fourth of a 103-115 victory on Saturday, and against the Knicks they did so much earlier, after half time.
Power forward Julius Randle had a double-double of 29 points, 10 rebounds and five assists as the Knicks leader, which, according to the team, made him the only player, besides Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson, to have at least 200 points, 115 rebounds and 70 assists in his team’s first 10 games in the same season.
But Randle had little help, with no one else above 12 points, and Denver led 21-28 after the first quarter, then made his first six shots of the second to open up a 22-40 lead on the power forward layup. JaMychal Green.
The lead expanded to 22 points at the end of the first half before halftime came with a 38-59 run in favor of the Denver team.
Jokic had eight points while playing the entire third quarter and the Nuggets held an advantage of as much as 30 in the quarter with everything already decided.
New Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said rookie Obi Toppin, limited to one game so far due to a right calf strain, is making steady progress.
French guard Frank Ntilikina (sprained right knee) will probably be out for a week.
Casualties that according to Thibodeau have conditioned that the team can maintain consistency in its game and can begin to perform at its best.
However, he said that the losses were no excuse for the team not having executed the attacking game well in the last two games they have lost.
