{"id":539507,"date":"2026-03-23T00:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T00:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/539507\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T00:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T00:36:07","slug":"nuggets-128-112-trail-blazers-mar-22-2026-game-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/539507\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets 128-112 Trail Blazers (Mar 22, 2026) Game Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER — \u2014 Nikola Jokic<\/a> recorded his 35th triple-double of the season and both he and Jamal Murray<\/a> scored 22 points Sunday when the Denver Nuggets<\/a> celebrated the return of Peyton Watson<\/a> by cooling off the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> 128-112.<\/p>\n

Jokic had 22 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists. Cam Johnson added 19 points as the Nuggets stopped Portland’s three-game winning streak, all on the road. <\/p>\n

Deni Avdija<\/a> led the Trail Blazers with 23 points and Donovan Clingan<\/a> added 18 for Portland, which never led in the last of a five-game trip.<\/p>\n

Watson, who hadn’t played since Feb. 4 due to a hamstring injury, scored 14 points in just under 20 minutes. He was one of seven Nuggets to score in double figures.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-8 guard was averaging almost 15 points when he got hurt six weeks ago, and coach David Adelman said before tip-off that the minutes of his \u201chigh-level wing defender\u201d and precision passer will be restricted as he works his way back into the rotation.<\/p>\n

Both teams were torrid to start the matinee with each shooting 7 for 10 from 3-point range in the first six-plus minutes and both the Blazers and Nuggets hitting better than 70% of their shots.<\/p>\n

Murray and Johnson both hit four 3-pointers for Denver before halftime, and Clingan did the same for Portland, which trailed 75-69 at the break.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets began to pull away when Jokic, Aaron Gordon<\/a> (15 points) and Johnson all swished 3s during an 11-0 run that gave Denver an 88-74 lead midway through the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Jokic turned the ball over five times \u2014 half the number he had in a loss at Memphis on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Up next <\/p>\n

Trail Blazers: Return home to host the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Nuggets: Visit the Phoenix Suns<\/a> on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER — \u2014 Nikola Jokic recorded his 35th triple-double of the season and both he and Jamal Murray…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-539507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}