NBA highlights on Jan. 19: Nuggets end Celtics' home winning streak

The Denver Nuggets defeated the Boston Celtics 102-100 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, on Friday, giving the opponents their first home loss in the 2023-24 campaign.

The Nuggets, as the reigning NBA champions, and the Celtics, as the regular season leader, have almost completely opposite styles of playing. The Nuggets rely heavily on the star duo of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray to run their offense, both in scoring and in playmaking. By contrast, the Celtics have five players, including Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, to shoulder major offensive duties.

This difference between the two sides was why Friday's game unfolded the way it did. Jokic and Murray combined to shoot 29-for-43 from the field to drop 69 points, 20 rebounds and 14 assists. Jokic missed a triple-double by one assist. He was in full-power mode from the first quarter, continuously scoring 15 over the heads of both Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford. Then he added another 11 points in the third period.

One of the biggest reasons that Jokic was so dominant on the offensive end was that the Celtics didn't double-team much, especially when he was playing with the Nuggets' starting lineup. The Celtics would rather stand by his excellent efficiency in individual attack than have him get his teammates involved in offense.

Though Jokic still delivered nine assists, most of his teammates didn't contribute much offensively, except Murray. He had to sit on the bench after six minutes in the first quarter because of foul trouble. However, when Murray came back in the second period, he was like a tiger out of the cage, going 6-for-9 in field goals (FGs) to get 15 points in this quarter alone. Then, in the close competition in the fourth period, Murray again contributed 11 points for his side to outscore the opponents 21-18.

Compared with Jokic and Murray, Tatum and Brown were nothing but disappointing as their team's core pair. The two combined to miss 27 of their 42 FG attempts, including shooting 2-for-17 behind the arc. Tatum only had 22 points and Brown got no more than 13. Nonetheless, the Celtics still remained the leading side most of the time on Friday night because Porzingis and Derrick White combined to score 45 points for the team.

Friday's loss was somewhat reminiscent of the Celtics' games in the past three seasons. When most of the team had a superb touch outside the 3-point line, their offense looked both well-distributed and unstoppable. However, when they couldn't rain 3-pointers and had to go to Tatum or Brown for clutch plays, neither was reliable enough to stand out.

For example, Porzingis got 15 points in the first quarter but failed to produce any highlight in the rest of the game because he was often stopped by small defenders with strong lower bodies in the high post. White scored 15 points in the third period, but he did the best in catch-and-shooting, penetrating from the weak side, not launching attacks from the front when the defenders were ready for him.

The weaknesses of Tatum and Brown were exposed at these moments. Tatum couldn't feed the ball to Porzingis in his sweet spots to finish the attack quickly. When he had to keep pulling up in front of experienced defenders, he needed great touch to make shots, but he didn't have it in Friday's game. Brown again made no contribution but made various mistakes on the court. The Celtics trailed 108-98 when there were 2:27 left in the final period. Brown was fouled and then missed both of his free throws. When the two teams combined to shoot 17-for-42 in the quarter, every point matters.

Other games on Friday (away teams come first):

Phoenix Suns 123-109 New Orleans Pelicans

The Suns extended their winning streak to four games with a big win over the Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. It took Devin Booker only three quarters to go 18-for-28 in FGs to drop 52 points for the Suns. He got 25 and 20 points in the first and third periods, respectively, making a perfect example of how a great isolation scorer dominates the floor for his side to win.

Jusuf Nurkic was the only one of the Suns' starting players that didn't reach double-digit points, but he grabbed 15 rebounds and delivered nine assists, which didn't include his screen assists for Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.

Indiana Pacers 115-118 Portland Trail Blazers

Pascal Siakam made his debut as a Pacer by scoring 21 points and six rebounds at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, on Friday. Meanwhile, the team's ace point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, came back from injury and dropped a double-double of 21 points and 17 assists with no turnover. Myles Turner benefited a lot from his return and contributed 29 points and 12 rebounds.

Unfortunately, the Pacers didn't leave Rip City with a win. Their poor offense couldn't stop Jerami Grant and Malcolm Brogdon from combining to get 67 points at 50 percent from the field. The Trail Blazers scored 66 points in the paint and went to the free throw line 35 times. The Pacers fell out of the top six in the Eastern Conference after this loss.

San Antonio Spurs 120-124 Charlotte Hornets

Philadelphia 76ers 124-109 Orlando Magic

Atlanta Hawks 109-108 Miami Heat

Brooklyn Nets 130-112 Los Angeles Lakers