DETROIT — When the Nuggets play two days in a row, their motor seems to only intensify.
Bringing this most unusual trait to the Motor City on Friday, they hammered the hottest team in the NBA, ending the Pistons’ eight-game win streak with a convincing 134-119 victory.
Jamal Murray led Denver with 31 points, including five 3-pointers. Nikola Jokic got to the free-throw line for 11 attempts en route to 23 points, 17 rebounds and 15 assists. Christian Braun was the beneficiary of many of his passes, making 10 of 14 shots in a 23-point performance.
And Michael Porter Jr. bounced back from his 5-for-22 showing Thursday in Milwaukee by dropping 28 points and nine boards. He went 6 for 7 from the perimeter.
“Mike had a not-great shooting night. It’s not like we were worried about him,” Murray said. “We know what he’s capable of. I think everybody in the world understands what he’s capable of. So stuff like that, we don’t look into too much.”
Murray has now made 38 of his last 65 shots from the 3-point line, going back eight games. He’s up to 40.4% this season. Porter is 41.2%. They combine for 12.3 of the team’s 31.5 attempts per game.
“As I said after the game in Milwaukee last night, Michael’s too good of a shooter. … He’s not going to continue to have those struggles,” coach Michael Malone said.
The Nuggets (39-21) improved to 11-1 on the second game of back-to-backs this season. They’ll finish their four-game road trip through the Eastern Conference with a Sunday matinee (11 a.m.) in Boston.
First, they pulled away from Detroit with a decisive 15-0 run in the middle of the third quarter, spanning four minutes of excellent two-way basketball. Denver held Pistons star guard Cade Cunningham to 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting on the night.
Aaron Gordon didn’t play due to a left ankle sprain, the severity of which remained unclear as of Friday. Michael Malone expects more clarity by Sunday, when the Nuggets finish their road trip in Boston.
“I think he had a moment last night (in Milwaukee). … Give him a lot of credit for fighting through and getting through that game, but he definitely wasn’t moving the way we’ve become accustomed to seeing him move,” Malone said. “So I think he must have rolled it.”
Gordon has now missed 24 games this season, most of them from a calf strain. With him and Peyton Watson both sidelined, Zeke Nnaji started and made an immediate impact. He had three blocks, two assists and two trips to the foul line in the first six minutes, though he was also pushing through ankle pain after hitting the deck in an early sequence.
Malone got ejected in Detroit the last time he was in town. He was on pace to outdo himself Friday. He picked up a technical foul 49 seconds into the game for confronting an official about Detroit’s physicality while the Nuggets were in the middle of their second possession. They fell behind 5-0 before they started to embrace the pressure. Murray, face-guarded by Ausar Thompson, blew by for a layup. Nnaji wrestled for an offensive rebound and kicked to Braun for a spot-up three. Denver went up 30-12.
“The beginning of that game was really chippy,” Malone said. “And I think it was great. It kind of helped wake us up. We responded. I really like how we responded to it.”
Even after a Malik Beasley heat check revived the Pistons, it felt like Malone’s technical was making a difference. The Pistons were the team struggling with composure, even on their home court. Ron Holland II picked up a transition foul for tangling himself with Russell Westbrook, briefly causing players from both teams to meet at the scene of the crime and discuss.
“The Pistons got us going,” Murray said, playing coy when asked what specifically was said that might’ve given him extra motivation. “So it was easy for us to, not retaliate, but bring the energy.”
With a few seconds left in the first half, Isaiah Stewart sprinted the length of the court in frustration after picking up his fourth foul. He was punished for the performative act with a technical. Coach JB Bickerstaff seemingly had to hold him back. Jalen Duren got a tech from the bench the next quarter.
Nnaji finished with three blocks. He admirably tried for a fourth, too, refusing to make a business decision when Cunningham had an open lane for a dunk. Alas, Nnaji ended up on a poster that time, but in respectable fashion.
“I know I had three blocks. My ankle was a little messed up, but if I was healthy, that was not gonna happen,” he said. “I’m OK with it. All good shot-blockers get caught a few times.”
