(Basketball news) The Washington Wizards got an upset win over the Bucks as they beat them 118-95. For the Wizards, Rui Hachimura had 26 points while Kristaps Porzingis scored 22 as Daniel Gafford had 17 points for the Wizards (17-21), who weren’t at full strength either.

They played without leading scorer Bradley Beal, who is subsequently dealing with a left hamstring soreness. For the Bucks, Bobby Portis led Milwaukee with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Jevon Carter had 14 points and Grayson Allen added 13 points and eight assists. They were without Giannis who was given a rest after playing back to back games

”Your objective is to dominate whoever is in front of you,” Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma said. ”If guys aren’t playing, you’re supposed to beat those teams.”

”I was sticking with the flow of the game, having confidence and going up with the shots that I was taking,” Gafford said. ”I felt comfortable taking those shots.”

”We took advantage whenever we had the chance,” Gafford said of the size advantage. ”Whoever went to the basket, we got a bucket. They didn’t have too many shot blockers out there so we just attacked the basket.”

”I think his early foul trouble threw us off a little bit,” Budenholzer said.

The Denver Nuggets went on top of the Western Conference standings as beat the Boston Celtics 123-111. For the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic had 30 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists as he hit 10 of 13 shots from the field and all eight free throws in his second straight triple-double and ninth of the season. Bruce Brown added 21 points for the Nuggets, who shot 57% from the floor and made 17 of 30 3-pointers.

Denver won their 10th match in 12 games as they snapped a six-game losing streak against Boston and opened a one-game lead in the Western Conference. Jaylen Brown scored 30 points and Jayson Tatum shook off a slow start to add 25 for the Celtics, which shot just 9 of 33 from 3-point range in the opener of a four-game trip. The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Celtics, whose lead in the Eastern Conference

“He’s my MVP. He should be the league’s MVP three times in a row,” Brown said of Jokic. ”He’s doing everything for us. Without Jok, I don’t know where we’d be.”

”I didn’t know I did it until my teammates started blaming me,” Williams said. ”I’ve never done that before.”

”That has an effect on the game. That’s how injuries and stuff happen. Luckily that didn’t (happen), but that wasn’t good. That whole process was handled poorly, in my opinion, and that had an effect as well. But luckily nobody got hurt.”

Also read: NBA: Pelicans return to winning ways while Jazz win against Wizards