Murray Scores 45 As Nuggets Hold Off Jazz

(MENAFN- Jordan Times) LOS ANGELES, United States - Jamal Murray scored 45 points as the Denver Nuggets held off the struggling Utah Jazz to snatch a 128-125 victory on Tuesday.

Nuggets point guard Murray drained eight three-pointers and shot 13-of-19 from the field in a back-and-forth duel that saw the lead change hands no fewer than 22 times.

Murray's virtuoso per-formance was backed by

22 points from Nikola Jokic, who also pulled down 12 rebounds, on a night when all of Denver's starters reached double figures.

The win lifted Denver to 38-24 in the Western Con-ference standings, while Utah fell to 18-43 and remain one place off the

bottom.

Elsewhere Monday, Giannis Antetokounmpo returned from a five-week injury absence but could not prevent the Milwau-kee Bucks slumping to a hefty 108-81 defeat to the Boston Celtics.

Antetokounmpo, mak-ing his first appearance since suffering a right calf strain in late January, fin-ished with 19 points and 11 rebounds in a losing effort against the out-classed Bucks.

Boston meanwhile kept up their pursuit of the De-troit Pistons at the top of the Eastern Conference with a potent all-round offensive effort.

All five starters fin-ished in double digits for the Celtics, while Payton Pritchard pro-duced an eye-catching

25-point cameo off the bench that included five three-pointers.

The Celtics drained 20-of-50 from outside the arc, with Derrick White and Sam Hauser bagging four three-pointers apiece.

Boston improved to 41-20 with the victory as the Bucks fell to 26-34. The Celtics are second in the East, five games behind leaders Detroit (45-14).

The Bucks' third straight loss leaves them in 11th place in the East, just outside the play-in places.

In other games on Monday, Trae Young man-aged the unusual feat of getting ejected for new club Washington before playing a game for the franchise.

Young has been injured since his trade to the Wizards from Atlanta on Jan-uary 7, but is due to make his debut later this week.

On Monday however he was ejected after walk-ing onto the court during the third quarter of the Wizards' 123-118 defeat to the Houston Rockets to complain after team-mate Jamir Watkins was shoved to the hardcourt by Houston's Tari Eason.

“Don't expect me to get ejected too many more times D.C...but I'm defi-nitely bringing that en-ergy & competitiveness when I'm back for my brothers!” Young wrote on Twitter following the incident.

On the court, Washing-ton were well beaten by Houston, who improved to 38-22 and remain in third place in the Western

Conference.

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