NBA highlights on Mar. 21: Warriors, Nuggets continue to lead the West

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The 2018-19 NBA regular season saw six games on Thursday. The Denver Nuggets claimed a victory at the Capital One Arena by defeating the Washington Wizards 113-108. However, they are still half a win away from No.1 in the Western Conference because the Golden State Warriors beat the visiting Indiana Pacers 112-89 at the Oracle Arena. Moreover, The Charlotte Hornets at home took down the Minnesota Timberwolves 113-106, keeping hope for the playoffs alive while their opponent officially said goodbye to those after their loss.

It's not an easy for the Nuggets

Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets shoots in the game they win against the Washington Wizards 113-108 at the Capital One Arena, March 21. /VCG Photo

Denver again showed the league how to play basketball as a team sport by having eight players score double-digit points. Five of them had 15: Paul Milsap, Gray Harris, Jamal Murray, Torrey Craig and Nikola Jokic who also delivered 11 assists. As the team's ninth member who also played on the court, Mason Plumlee though only got four points, he grabbed 11 rebounds.

Washington had five double-figure scoring players, too. Bradley Bill dropped 25 points and eight assists while Thomas Bryant had 22 points and eight rebounds. Bobby Portis got 18 points and eight rebounds. Tomas Satoransky put down 16 points and 10 assists. Troy Brown scored 13 points.

Bradley Beal #3 of the Wizards dunks in the game against the Nuggets, March 21. /VCG Photo

Though the two teams were in totally different circumstances -the Wizards ranked No.11 in the Eastern Conference and had basically no chance for the playoffs while the Nuggets were pressing on GSW in the West - the capital team played quite well. Though they trailed 61-53 after the first half, the Wizards launched a 26-5 in seven minutes in the third quarter to turn the tide and lead by 10 points (85-75).

Denver bounced back after an immediate timeout called by head coach Mike Malone and responded with a 10-0 run to tie the score 85-85 before the fourth quarter. Then in Q4, they seized the initiative with another 15-5 run which brought the Nuggets a safe 10-point lead (100-90). Though the Wizards did not give, they were never able to come back again.

Pacers fight for two quarters

Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors handles the ball in the game they win against the Indiana Pacers 112-89 at the Oracle Arena, March 21. /VCG Photo

DeMarcus Cousins had Golden State's highest scoring with a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds while Klay Thompson got 18 points. Both Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant put down 15 points. Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala claimed respectively 10 and 11 points.

Thaddeus Young was Indiana's only starting player who scored double-digit points (18) in Thursday's game. Tyreke Evans, Doug McDermott and Aaron Holiday from the bench contributed separately 20, 11 and 13 points.

Domantas Sabonis #11 of the Pacers defends DeMarcus Counsins #0 of the Warriors in the game, March 21. /VCG Photo

Without Victor Oladipo, the only thing the Pacers could do was to focus on defense and that's what they did at the Oracle Arena. Thanks to their efforts, the Warriors saw their field goal rate limited to 38.1 percent in the first quarter and they missed nine of their 10 three-pointers. However, Indiana did worse in offense with an FG rate of 24 percent and 11.1 percent for 3-pt. Both teams only scored 19 points in Q1.

However, defense alone could not win the game, not with the terrible offense of the Pacers. GSW began to find holes in Indiana's fortress from the middle of the second quarter and smashed the opponent's defense in the third quarter by leading 35-19 in Q3, making the game a foregone conclusion. After this victory, the defending champion managed to continue their lead over the Nuggets in the West.

This season is almost over for Timberwolves

Karl-Anthony Twons #32 of the Minnesota Timberwovles is under defense in the game they lose to the Charlotte Hornets 113-106 at the Spectrum Center, March 21. /VCG Photo

Kemba Walker again shot down the most 31 points for Charlotte. Both Miles Bridges and Jeremy Lamb had double-double: Bridges got 11 points+12 rebounds and Lamb had 13 points+10 rebounds. Marvin Williams, Malik Monk and Willy Hernangomez scored respectively 13, 14 and 10 points for the team.

Karl-Anthony Towns dropped a double-double of 21 points and 16 rebounds for Minnesota while Andrew Wiggins got 20 points. The other three from their first-lineup - Dario Saric, Tyus Jones and Josh Okogie - scored 15, 14 and 10 points. Gorgui Dieng scored 10 points off the bench.

Towns #32 of the Timberwolves dunks in the game against the Hornets, March 21. /VCG Photo

Before Thursday's game, Shams Charania from The Athletic broke the news that the Timberwolves shut down the rest of their season for Derrick Rose, Robert Covington and Jeff Teague because of injuries. Though Towns reached 7,001 points in his career scoring, surpassing Kevin Love's 6,989 in franchise history and becoming the fifth youngest player to get 7,000 points in NBA history (after LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo, Anthony and Dwight Howard), it did not delay the confirmation of Minnesota in saying goodbye to the playoffs this season.

The Timberwolves had bigger things to worry about than another disappointing season. The team were paying two maximum contracts but one of them belonged to Wiggins who again spent most of his time on the court staying healthy at the age of 24. Rose played the second-best season of his career but how much will it cost for the team to keep him? Should they continue letting Ryan Saunders coach the team? Teague probably won't opt out of his contract in the summer so they'll need to pay him 19 million U.S. dollars. What about Taj Gibson?

It's safe to say that so far there has been no sign of Minnesota rising next season.

Other games on Thursday included: (away teams come first)

Utah Jazz 114-117 Atlanta Hawks

Detroit Pistons 118-98 Phoenix Suns

Dallas Mavericks 100-116 Sacramento Kings