The basketball was loose, a wild scramble ensued and big bodies hit the deck. Guard Bones Hyland finally came away with the ball and coolly drained a 29-foot 3-pointer. The crowd erupted.
Nuggets 44, Suns 30, early in the second quarter. The romp was on.
The final: Nuggets 126, Suns 97. Hyland sparked the victory with 21 points on 7 of 12 shooting, including 5 of 7 from behind the arc.
Nikola Jokic, stating his case on national TV for his third consecutive MVP, finished with 21 points on 10 of 15 shooting in 28 minutes. He added 18 rebounds and nine assists, coming up one key deft pass short of his 13th triple-double of the season.
But there was some potentially bad news. Star guard Jamal Murray came up limping after turning his left ankle early in the fourth quarter. Murry left the game and did not return. The team called it a left ankle sprain.
Denver won its 12th consecutive home game and the Western Conference leaders hold a 28-13 record at the season’s halfway point.
“We cannot get outworked tonight,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone cautioned before the game, keenly aware that the injury-riddled Suns could be dangerous.
Tuesday night, for example, Phoenix beat Golden State for a third time this season, 125-113, to snap a season-worst six-game skid. The Suns won despite playing without Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.
All three missed Wednesday night’s game, too. The Nuggets played with enough defensive intensity to burn out the weary Suns early. In the second quarter, the Nuggets forced two shot-clock violations.
Wednesday marked the second of four meetings between the teams this season and the first since Denver won in overtime on Christmas night. Jokic had a 41-point, 15-rebound, 15-assist triple-double in that game.
The Nuggets next play the Clippers on Friday night in Los Angeles.
