HOUSTON — The Nuggets’ grueling five-game road trip, and their in-season tournament hopes and dreams, spiraled toward a crash landing Friday night at Toyota Center.
After Nikola Jokic scored the first five points of the game, a 13-0 Rockets run snowballed into a 26-point Denver deficit and eventually a 105-86 loss, but not before the Nuggets made the Rockets nervous. Led by 38 points, 19 rebounds and eight assists from Jokic, the gap narrowed to single digits with nine minutes remaining but never got any closer than nine points.
The Nuggets’ second loss in Houston this month concluded a 1-4 road trip in which their only win came against a Detroit team that had dropped 11 in a row.