The Nuggets guard talked about his team’s defensive efforts in guarding one of Houston’s high-octane scorers
A month has come and gone in the 2025-26 NBA season and the Denver Nuggets have only lost three games.
In an NBA cup clash last night, Denver secured a down-to-the-wire 112-109 victory over the Houston Rockets to move to 12-3 on the season.
After a loss to the Chicago Bulls that snapped their seven-game winning streak, the Nuggets bounced back in every sense of the term, winning against the New Orleans Pelicans on Nov. 19 and now the Rockets on Nov. 21.
Following the game, Nuggets guard Jamal Murray detailed how his team was able to eliminate Rockets center Alperen Şengün’s effectiveness on the offensive end down the stretch.
“I think we were just super aggressive with [Şengün] and showing him two bodies,” Murray said in a postgame interview. “And then at the same time, ganging up on the rebounds so he can’t just get up and just put it back. So it was a team effort. It wasn’t just one guy guarding him, but everybody did a good job just paying attention to him and his rolls and his ISOs and on the glass.”
It was Nikola Jokić who ultimately had the better game out of the two centers, coming just one assist shy (34 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists) of yet another triple-double this season. The three-time MVP has already tallied nine triple-doubles on the young campaign.
Other Nuggets to step up in Denver’s win were Jamal Murray (26 points), and off the bench, Tim Hardaway Jr. (12 points) and Bruce Brown (11 points). Jokić, Murray, Hardaway Jr. and Brown were Denver’s only double-figure scorers for the contest.
And their efforts were needed, as forward Aaron Gordon played just three minutes before exiting the game with a right hamstring strain.
“We know what we’re about,” Murray said. “We’ve been doing it for a long time. So we’re just next man up mentality.”
The Nuggets will look to continue their winning ways tonight on night two of a back-to-back against the Sacramento Kings. Tip-off is set for 10 p.m. EST.
It is unclear whether or not Gordon will play against the Kings, but if he doesn’t, especially given the recency of his injury and the quick turnaround nature of a back-to-back, there is a good chance a player like Zeke Nnaji could enter the starting lineup.
Nnaji started alongside Jokić, Murray, Cameron Johnson and Peyton Watson the last time Gordon was out of the lineup, which was against the Pelicans earlier in the week.