HOST DENVER Nuggets defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 122 to 113 on Tuesday to earn their seventh straight victory thanks to Nikola Jokic, who finished with 36 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists for his NBA-leading 13th triple-double of the year.

The Nuggets, who have won 14 straight home games, were led by Michael Porter Jr., who scored 23, Jamal Murray, who scored 17, Bruce Brown, who had 12, and Aaron Gordon, who scored 11 points and had a season-high eight assists.

After the game, Jokic commented, “Playing against them is always intriguing and difficult.” “[Damian] Lillard is playing fantastic right now, and they have a tremendous squad and coach.

However, I believe that our second-half defense was exceptionally strong, which contributed to our victory.

Following his placement under health and safety protocol on Tuesday morning, Denver’s head coach Michael Malone did not participate in the game. Acting head coach was David Adelman, an assistant.

Malone is probably going to miss the Nuggets’ home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday as well.

The Trail Blazers, who have lost eight straight road games, were helped by Damian Lillard’s 44 points, which was his third 40-point performance in as many games. For Portland, which had won its previous two games, Jerami Grant scored 18 points, Anfernee Simons added 14 points, and Shaedon Sharpe finished with 13 points.

Lillard scored 30 points in the first half on an 8 for 12 field goal, a 6 for 9 3-point shooting, and an 8 for 8 foul shooting performance.

The Blazers were down 73 to 67 at the break despite his performance.

The Nuggets stretched their advantage to 11 points when Murray got hot at the opening of the third quarter, making a pair of 3-pointers. Portland responded with three consecutive layups, but Porter nailed two 3-pointers to increase the margin to 95 to 82.

To start the fourth quarter, Denver had a 101 to 89 lead.

With 7:51 remaining, Damian Lillard’s three free throws, a layup, and another three from the line helped the Blazers close the gap to 106 to 99 after Zeke Nnaji’s 3-pointer gave the Nuggets a 104 to 91 lead early in the final period.

Portland remained without a point for four minutes until Denver finished it off with a 13 to 0 run.

Meanwhile the 106 to 98 victory over the undermanned Brooklyn Nets was achieved by the home San Antonio Spurs thanks to a career-high 36 points from Keldon Johnson and 11 rebounds from him.

San Antonio ended a five-game losing streak with the help of Jeremy Sochan’s 16 points, all of which came in the opening half. Tre Jones scored an additional 13 points, and Jakob Poeltl contributed 12 points and 7 rebounds to the triumph.

T.J. Warren scored 19 points for the Nets, who were without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant due to injuries to their right knee (right calf soreness). Despite Ben Simmons’ triple-double of 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists, Brooklyn lost for the third time in a row.

Seth Curry of Brooklyn led all scorers with 16 points, followed by Nic Claxton (15 points, 11 rebounds), Cam Thomas (15 points, 4 assists), Edmond Sumner (13) and Seth Curry (16 points).

With 12.7 seconds left, Johnson scored twice from the charity stripe to secure the victory.

Brooklyn was quickly overtaken by the Spurs, who twice in the first quarter created a 14-point advantage. San Antonio led 27 to 15 at the end of the period thanks to a putback by Zach Collins.

With 7:31 remaining, Warren’s jumper capped a 10 to 0 run by the Nets in the second period that allowed them to tie the score. Brooklyn finally overcame the obstacle, gaining as much as five points on a jumper by Curry at 1:17 before San Antonio finished the half on a spurt, scoring the final five points to tie the score at 51 at the end of the first half.

Sochan had the most points in the first half with 16 while Warren, who came off the bench for the Nets, led the team with 14.