Jamal Murray scored 20 points in his return from a hamstring injury and Michael Porter Jr. added 17 as the Denver Nuggets won consecutive games for the first time in a month with a 120-98 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Clippers on Friday won.

Nikola Jokic scored 16 points while Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson added 14 each as the Nuggets won against the Clippers for the first time in three tries. After scoring a combined 104 points in the previous two games without Murray, Jokic left the burden to others, matching his worst points total of the season.

It was the second of three games between the teams in Denver this season in a contest added to the schedule following the conclusion of NBA Cup group play.

Kevin Porter Jr. and Norman Powell each scored 16 points as the Clippers lost their third straight game of the season.

James Harden scored 15 points and Ivica Zubac added 13 points with 13 rebounds for Los Angeles, which welcomed Kawhi Leonard (knee) back to practice this week, but the star still isn’t ready to make his season debut.

The Clippers built a 55-50 lead early in the second half before the Nuggets regained the lead at 59-58 less than five minutes into the third quarter. From there, Denver went on a 14-2 run to take the lead 73-60.

The Nuggets took an 83-69 lead in the final quarter and got 12 points from Michael Porter in the third period while the team shot 57.9 percent from the field.

The Nuggets took the lead by 20 points for the first time at 98:78 after two free throws from Watson with 7:44 to go and headed towards victory from then on.

After a slow start, the Clippers went on an 18-0 run in the second quarter to take a 44-38 lead. The Nuggets regained the lead and led 48-47 at halftime behind nine points and five rebounds from Jokic and Gordon.

In his third game this season against his former team, Denver’s Russell Westbrook recorded five points and five assists in 24 minutes off the bench.

–Field level media