LOS ANGELES — On a night when Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray sat, the Denver Nuggets scored their most impressive win of the season to date.
Reggie Jackson scored 35 points, DeAndre Jordan had 21 points and 13 rebounds, and the Nuggets rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 113-104 on Monday night.
Former Clippers Jackson and Jordan combined for 20 points in the fourth, when the Nuggets trailed by 11 to start.
Jackson began and ended a 22-6 spurt with 3-pointers that put the Nuggets ahead 99-94. In between, he fed Jordan for two vicious dunks. It got so desperate for the Clippers late in the frame that they resorted to intentionally fouling Jordan, a notoriously poor free-throw shooter, to get defensive stops.
It was the Nuggets’ eighth straight win over the Clippers. That they did it with starters Jokic, Murray and Gordon sitting made it all the more sweet.
Jokic sat out the second game of a back-to-back because of low back pain. Murray has yet to return from a right hamstring strain and Gordon has a right heel strain.
Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 31 points and Ivica Zubac had 23 points and 14 rebounds. Paul George picked up his fourth and fifth fouls early in the fourth. He finished with six points on 2-of-13 shooting.
The Clippers were limited to four field goals in the fourth, when they went 8 of 12 from the free throw line. Russell Westbrook airballed a free throw with the Clippers trailing 102-98. James Harden had two turnovers in the final minutes and George shot an airball in the closing seconds.
The defending NBA champion Nuggets improved to 4-6 on the road.
The Clippers outscored Denver 32-19 in the third. Tied 72-all, Zubac scored six in a row to spark a 17-5 run that was capped by Westbrook’s four straight points and sent the Clippers into the fourth leading 88-77.
The Clippers’ reserves gave them an 11-point lead to open the second. Then Jackson took over, scoring 14 points in the quarter, including a free throw that sent the Nuggets into halftime leading 58-56.
Jackson and Jordan teamed for several scores in the game, reminding the home crowd of days gone by. Jordan converted Jackson’s alley-oop pass into a dunk and he scored on a reverse dunk off a feed from Jackson in the first half.
The Clippers’ Norman Powell hit a free throw in the second quarter that gave him 6,000 career points.
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