NBA: Nuggets sealed the last playoff place as Bucks beat the Celtics

(Basketball news) Denver Nuggets sealed the last playoff place as they beat the Memphis Grizzlies 122-109. For the Nuggets, Jokic became the first player in NBA history with 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 assists in a season as he finished the night with 35 points, 16 rebounds, six assists and five steals and Aaron Gordon added 22 points. For the Grizzlies, Desmond Bane had 14 points as both Dillon Brooks and Zaire Williams finished with 12 points each. With this result, the Denver Nuggets clinched a fourth consecutive playoff berth as their current record stands at 48-33 and clinched the last playoff berth in 6th in the Western Conference standings.

“Dude is really great at basketball,'' teammate Bones Hyland said

''The MVP isn't even a competition,'' Nuggets coach Michael Malone declared afterward. ''There's other great players. I'm not saying they're not great players. But what Nikola Jokic has done this year – with this team – everything we've had to go through, is just incredible.

''I think we've been playing good basketball, even the other night against Utah. Tonight, we just didn't have it,'' Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said.

''We threw a lot at him,'' Jenkins said. ''He's the MVP for a reason. He's nearly impossible to guard. He's going to beat you from inside, outside, playmaking. He played at a really high level tonight.''

''My first thought was Steve Nash in that playoff series and they couldn't stop the bleeding,'' Malone said. ''And I'm saying, `Of all games, Nikola gets a very non-malicious elbow, an inadvertent elbow to the head and he's bleeding.'

''Like, get a staple gun out here,'' Malone said. ''And it finally stopped and Nikola put on another MVP performance.''

The Milwaukee Bucks sealed second place in the Eastern Conference standings as they beat the in-form Boston Celtics 127-121. For the Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday each scored 29 points as Khris Middleton had 22 points, nine assists and eight rebounds and Bobby Portis scored 17 points and Brook Lopez had 15. For the Celtics, Jaylen Brown had a triple double with 22 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds as Marcus Smart shot 7 of 12 on 3-point attempts and scored 29 points, while Daniel Theis had 22 points and Derrick White added 19 points. With this result, The Bucks (50-30) moved a half-game ahead of the Celtics (50-31) and a full game ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers (49-31), who lost their recent match as Miami Heat sealed top spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

''It would be a lot easier if we don't wait until the last quarter or last couple of minutes to get stops, but it happens,'' said Milwaukee's Khris Middleton ''No matter how the game's going, I just love the way we keep competing.''

''We've seen that growth from (Brown) this year,'' Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. ''With certain guys out, he had the ball more and had to make those plays.''

''I guess I just got lucky, really,'' Holiday said. ''I left it short and it came back to me

''Surgery can be season-ending, so you don't want to do that,'' Hill said after the Bucks' Thursday morning shootaround. ''You want to figure out how I can manage to get back out with the guys. It feels a lot better now. I'm just trying to give it everything I have.''

Also read: NBA: Mavericks secured a playoff berth as Clippers beat the Suns

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