Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Denver star Nikola Jokic scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Nuggets held off Indiana’s second-half surge to triumph 114-102 on Saturday in the NBA’s Mexico City game. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic added eight assists, coming up just shy of a triple-double. Cameron Johnson added 18 points and Jamal Murray chipped in 16 for the Nuggets, who saw a 27-point lead sliced to seven midway through the fourth quarter but held on for the victory before a sellout crowd of more than 20,000 at Mexico City’s Arena CDMX.
Indiana’s Pascal Siakam led all scorers with 23 points. The league headed south of the border for its 16th regular-season contest in Mexico. Along with 19 pre-season games, the country has hosted the most NBA games outside of the United States and Canada.
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The Pacers, again playing without injured Tyrese Haliburton, jumped to a quick 5-0 lead and were up 7-4 when the Nuggets produced a 10-0 scoring run to seize a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Denver pushed the advantage to as many as 27 on the way to a 64-41 halftime edge. The Pacers hit back with a 37-point third quarter and pulled within 102-95 on a Jarace Walker running basket with 7:27 remaining. The Nuggets responded with a quick basket from Spencer Jones and a thunderous Aaron Gordon dunk as they kept the Pacers at bay.
The game was one of seven on Saturday’s slate, which also featured the Cleveland Cavaliers hosting the defending champion New York Knicks. It’s the second heavyweight clash in as many nights in Cleveland, where the Cavs beat LeBron James and the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia 76ers on Friday. It’s a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference finals, in which the Knicks swept the Cavs on the way to their first NBA title since 1973.
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