The Denver Nuggets beat the Milwaukee Bucks 129-106 at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday, securing their fifth straight win.

Both sides have a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) as their leader, Nikola Jokic for the Nuggets and Giannis Antetokounmpo for the Bucks. Jokic is chasing his third MVP trophy in a row this season. He was leading the race during most of the time, but seemed to be surpassed by Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers recently, partly because of the Nuggets' previous four-game losing streak.

Jokic showed the league that it's still too early to conclude the MVP competition with his performance on Saturday night. Having shot 10-for-20 from the field, he scored a double-double of 31 points and 11 assists. He had 11 points and three assists in the first quarter to help the Nuggets share on a 50-50 basis. Then in the third period, he got 12 points and three assists, leading his team to rally a 34-19 run to come back to take the lead.

Despite the big win in the end, Jokic overcame a series of difficulties to achieve his performance on both offense and defense, The Bucks have Brook Lopez, who can match Jokic in both size and power, to protect the paint. Lopez, with his 3-point shooting ability, also forced Jokic to close out instead of dropping back to guard Antetokounmpo.

Jokic's offensive response was to punish Lopez decisively in then paint, where he made eight of his 12 attempts. He also went to the free throw line 11 times and made 10 shots there. Lopez was called three personal fouls in the first half and played less than 20 minutes in Saturday's game.

Jokic's teammates did a good job of setting him free on the offensive end by draining 14 triples at a 3-point rate of 46.7 percent. Five of them came from Jamal Murray, who also scored 18 of his 26 points in the first quarter. Michael Porter Jr., Bruce Brown and Peyton Watson also made at least two triples each at over 50 percent of field goal (FG) rate.

Antetokounmpo didn't receive such support from his teammates. Grayson Allen was the only Buck trustworthy from downtown. Lopez, Jrue Holiday, Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton combined to go 4-for-17 at the 3-point line. Their struggling shooting performances encouraged the Nuggets' defenders to close in harder and harder to contain Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo was outmatched by Jokic in individual performance as well. He was unstoppable in the first half of Saturday's game, shooting 11-for-14 from the field to drop 24 points for the Bucks. However, as the opponents threw more players around him when he drove into the paint in the third quarter, he missed five of his seven FG attempts to get only four points while committing three turnovers.

Jokic was trapped hard by the Bucks' defenders as well, but, unlike Antetokounmpo, he was still able to pass to teammates. Maybe not to generate direct assists, but at least to enable the Nuggets to start a new attack. By contrast, Antetokounmpo lacked the vision and the passing skills to dish to teammates when he was double-teamed. As a result, the Bucks missed 18 of their 25 attempts in the third quarter.

Other games on Saturday (away teams come first):

Indiana Pacers 130-143 Atlanta Hawks

Both the Hawks and the Pacers had eight players score in double digits in a defenseless game at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday. Dejounte Murray had a double-double of 20 points and 12 assists for the Hawks. Clint Capela benefited from his orchestrating to get 17 points and 17 rebounds.

The court-high 33 points came from the Pacers' backup forward Jordan Nwora who went 12-for-17 from the field and made four triples. This victory kept the Hawks eighth in the Eastern Conference and one game above the following Toronto Raptors. Though they are unlikely to catch up with the Miami Heat that are 2.5 games above, going to the play-in tournament as the eighth will at least give the Hawks two chances.

Philadelphia 76ers 105-125 Phoenix Suns

The Suns ended their three-game losing streak by beating the 76ers at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday. Their bench squad made key contributions by outscoring their 76ers counter part 53-17. Three of their backup players, T.J. Warren, Terrance Ross and Cameron Payne all scored double-digit points.

The 76ers played back-to-back on the road and lacked energy in Saturday's game. Embiid contributed a double-double of 28 points and 10 rebounds for the team, but also suffered three blocks. Tyrese Maxey, whose underperformance cost the 76ers Friday's game, bounced back to go 14-for-19 from the field to drop court-high 37 points, but it was still not enough for the team to win.

New Orleans Pelicans 131-110 Los Angeles Clippers

Trey Murphy III drained 10 triples for the Pelicans to pocket a key victory at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday night. He and Brandon Ingram combined to drop 64 points. Ingram also delivered 13 assists. Their team are in the most unfavorable situation for the Western Conference play-in tournament qualification competitions. They can't afford to lose any of their eight games left.

The Clippers were replaced by the Suns in the fourth position in the West after Saturday's loss and share the same record with the following Golden State Warriors. They will need Kawhi Leonard to avoid any performance like shooting 4-for-16 in FGs since he is their only reliable firepower source after Paul George's injury.

Brooklyn Nets 129-100 Miami Heat

Utah Jazz 113-121 Sacramento Kings