Peyton Watson scored 30 points and Jamal Murray added 22 points, eight rebounds and a career-high 17 assists to lead the visiting Denver Nuggets to a 114-110 victory over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night.
Watson made 6 of his 7 3-point attempts, including a 3-pointer that put Denver up 106-93 with 2:24 to play. Watson has scored at least 20 points in each of his last five games. The Nuggets outscored the Celtics 35-28 in the fourth quarter.
Boston trailed 113-110 after Payton Pritchard made three free throws with 6.5 seconds left, but the Celtics didn’t have another offensive possession after that.
Denver’s Nikola Jokic missed his fifth straight game with a knee injury. The Nuggets have a 3-2 record without him. Jokic is Denver’s leader in scoring (29.6), rebounding (12.2) and assists (11.0).
The victory improved Denver’s road record to 15-7. No team has more road victories this season.
Boston received a game-high 33 points along with seven rebounds and four assists from Jaylen Brown, who also committed seven turnovers. Neemias Queta had six points and a career-high 20 rebounds for the Celtics. Ten of Queta’s 20 rebounds came at the offensive end.
The loss ended Boston’s four-game winning streak.
Boston led 35-31 after one quarter and extended its lead to 41-34 early in the second, but Denver went on a 10-0 run to go up 44-41. It was 58-58 at halftime.
A 12-0 run put the Celtics in front 72-63 with 4:25 left in the third. Denver went scoreless for a stretch of 6:33, but the scoring drought ended when Murray hit a 3-pointer with 4:11 remaining in the third. A 13-2 spurt gave the Nuggets a 76-74 advantage, but Boston had an 82-79 lead after three quarters.
Denver had a 101-90 lead after two Zeke Nnaji free throws with four minutes left capped a 14-0 run.
