Peyton Watson scored 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, both career highs, Nikola Jokic had 28 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds, and the visiting Denver Nuggets beat the New Orleans Pelicans 125-118 on Wednesday night.
Zion Williamson had 14 points in 29 minutes in his return to the New Orleans lineup. He missed the previous eight games with a left hamstring injury.
The triple-double was the ninth of the season for Jokic, who also had a season-high nine turnovers before fouling out with 2:44 left. Watson, who made a career-high five 3-pointers, recorded the first double-double of his four-year career.
Jamal Murray scored 16 points, Jonas Valanciunas and Cameron Johnson added 14 points each and Bruce Brown had 12 points for the Nuggets, who were without Aaron Gordon (bilateral hamstring injury management).
Zeke Nnaji got his first start of the season in place of Gordon, the team’s third-leading scorer at 20.3 points a game.
Rookie Derik Queen finished with a season-high 30 points, Trey Murphy III scored 23 points and Jeremiah Fears added 16 points for the Pelicans, who have dropped seven straight.
New Orleans remained winless in three games since James Borrego was named interim head coach on Saturday.
The Nuggets took a 97-83 advantage into the fourth quarter and led by as many as 19 before the Pelicans used a 17-4 run to get within six in the final minute. Murray hit two free throws, Queen missed a 3-pointer and Denver closed it out.
New Orleans led by 13 in the first quarter but the Nuggets rallied to take a 62-58 lead at halftime and stretched it to 71-60 early in the third.
Murphy scored the next four points but Johnson hit a layup off a feed from Jokic and Watson nailed a corner 3-pointer. Murphy drained two from deep to cut the deficit to 78-70 but Watson and Murray hit 3-pointers during a 10-4 run that gave Denver an 88-74 lead.
Brown made a floater and then dunked off a steal to give Jokic his 10th assist and his 14th career triple-double against the Pelicans.
