In a battle between elite backcourts, the Denver Nuggets’ Jamal Murray and Gary Harris were out-dueled by the Houston Rockets’ Chris Paul and James Harden.
Denver fell 109-99 at Pepsi Center Tuesday night, dropping its fourth-straight game and third consecutive at home as its record slipped to 9-5 on the season.
The Nuggets held Harden, the NBA’s reining MVP to a measly three points on 1-for-5 shooting, including 0 of 3 from 3-point range as the Nuggets took a slim 55-54 lead into the half and kept him below his 27.9 points-per-game average coming into contest. However, the 6-5 Arizona State product was much more active in the second half when he scored 19 points to finish with 22 to go along with a game-high 11 assists. Paul scored 21, handed our four assists and grabbed five rebounds.
Houston (6-7), Western Conference finalists in 2017-18, gained all the separation it’d need in the third, building a 10-point lead, heading into the fourth. The Nuggets cut the Rockets lead down to four on three different occasions in the fourth but never got any closer.
“Not making shots. Not putting pressure on them and when you’re taking the ball out of the net every possession, you allow them to set their defense,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, listing what ailed his team.
Rockets Clint Capella led all scorers with 24 points and snatched nine rebounds. James Ennis III (16) and PJ Tucker (12) also finished in double-figures in scoring for Houston as did Eric Gordon who chipped in with 11 points off the bench.
“He’s an MVP. He’s a great player. He’s hard to guard 1-on-1,” Malone said of Harden. “We have to do a better job next time of giving him different looks, and running different defenders at him because 1-on-1, we didn’t have one guy that could guard him.”
Murray (15) and Harris (15) combined for 30 points on combined 13-for-26 shooting.
Denver backup point guard Monte Morris led the Nuggets in scoring with 19 points, connecting on 7 of his 11 field-goal attempts while dishing out six assists.
Nuggets big man Nikola Jokić recorded a double-double, going for 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven rebounds and Paul Millsap scored 13 in the loss.
The Nuggets host the Atlanta Hawks Thursday at 7 p.m. MT. That game will be broadcasted live on Altitude TV and streamed on AltitudeNOW.