Their spirit was ready, but the depleted Nuggets couldn’t quite keep up with the defending NBA champion Celtics on Tuesday night at Ball Arena.

Playing without center Nikola Jokic, who was a scratch before the game due to a non-COVID illness, Denver pushed Boston to its limits. When Christian Braun shot a three-pointer to tie the game at 93:93, he pumped his fist and the crowd went wild.

But the Celtics showed their best down the stretch and made the big shots while the Nuggets ran out of runs – and perhaps gas – at their home stadium. Boston outscored the Nuggets 25-13 in the final 7 1/2 minutes for a 118-106 win.

The Nuggets turned the ball over 16 times, leading to 25 Boston points.

“The turnovers and the points allowed on turnovers and the extra (points) they got off the glass hurt us,” Nuggets coach Mike Malone said. “Our guys did well and did a really good job, but we beat each other too many times tonight and that’s hard to overcome against the defending champions.”

Tuesday marked the first time this season that the 2023 champion Nuggets faced the ’24 champion Celtics, who improved to 27-10.

Point guard Jamal Murray described the loss with the word “frustrated.”

“It was tough because our defense was pretty good and our offense was pretty good,” said point guard Jamal Murray, who scored 19 points but was 8 of 17 shooting and just 1 of 5 on 3-pointers.

The Nuggets (20-25) had six players score in double figures, led by Russell Westbrook with 26 points, but it wasn’t enough to counter strong Boston, led by Jayson Tatum with 29 points.

The Celtics usually float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. They averaged 50.2 3-point attempts per game this season, the most in NBA history and six more than any other team in the 2024-25 season. But they came out and beat the Nuggets from the inside out, a la Joe Frazier.

The Jokic-less Nuggets trailed 37-25 after the first quarter, largely because the Celtics outscored them inside and outscored the Nuggets 18-2 in the game. This made the many loud Boston fans present happy.

Early on, Denver had no answer for Boston center Kristaps Porzingis, who scored 15 points and grabbed four rebounds in the quarter. Porzingis finished the game with 25 points and 11 rebounds.

But the Nuggets, who shared the ball well and outran the Celtics, came back with flying colors and outscored the Celtics 32-20 in the second period. When Peyton Watson hit a 3-pointer off an assist from Dario Saric to tie the game at 57-00, the Nuggets received a standing ovation.

Saric replaced Jokic in the starting lineup and played his first game since November 23, 2024. He also started in all three games Jokic missed in November when Jokic was sidelined due to the birth of his second child. Saric went scoreless with one rebound and four assists in 16 minutes.

Without the three-time MVP, the Nuggets had to fill a Grand Canyon-sized void. Jokic is averaging 31.5 points, 13 rebounds and 9.7 assists while shooting a league-leading 47.3% from the 3-point line. Denver’s net rating is 25.8 points per 100 possessions better with him on the court than with him on the bench this season, and he has already recorded 14 triple-doubles.

“He wasn’t feeling good yesterday and that just got worse today, which is unfortunate,” Malone said during his pregame press conference when Jokic was listed as questionable. “First of all, we have a game tonight. And secondly, it’s his Christmas holidays. … He’s trying to fight through it, and if he can’t go, we’ll rely on someone else.”

Boston played without former University of Colorado star Derrick White, who is also battling an illness. White leads all Boston starters this season and missed only his second game.

Originally published: January 7, 2025 at 10:39 pm MST