New victory for Phoenix, and they are already 12 in a row. The Arizona team took advantage of the absence of Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets by a resounding 126-97, allowing them to remain the fittest team in the league and continue in the lead of the Warriors in the standings. In addition, this is already the fourth largest winning streak in the history of the franchise, whose record is in the 17 that they chained in the 2006-07 season.
The Suns left the match practically sentenced from very early, as their first quarter touched perfection on an offensive level. With 48 points in the first 12 minutes, Monty Williams’ team ruthlessly overwhelmed Denver with triples, dunks and all kinds of baskets that shot the difference between the two teams to 20 points and they got the game very face to face. Despite the fact that the Nuggets managed to lower the difference below 10 points in the second half, this only served to reactivate the locals, who once again clearly dominated the clash and came to command by 30 in the fourth quarter.
“The way we moved the ball in the first quarter, reading where the gaps were and shooting well, it was fantastic to watch,” Williams said.
These great differences meant that the coach did not have to give his best men too many minutes, which allowed the secondary squad to shine. This was the case for Cameron Johnson, who with 22 points scored the best score of his career thanks to his good 9/15 shooting from the field. He was followed in this section by DeAndre Ayton and Devin Booker, who did not need more than 27 minutes to finish with 21 and 17 points respectively, while Jae Crowder finished with 15 in his locker.
For the Nuggets, who couldn’t count on Jokic for the second night in a row due to wrist problems, the top scorer was Jeff Green with 19 points, followed by 16 for Aaron Gordon, who also grabbed 10 rebounds. The forward, however, ended the game sent off after receiving two techniques for protesting a foul in attack, a somewhat surprising decision because his complaints did not seem too angry and the player did not seem to do anything worthy of having to put heading to changing rooms.
(Cover photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)