Nikola Jokic, Torrey Craig come on strong late as Nuggets clinch home-court advantage

A lot was on the line in the Nuggets’ second-to-last home game of the regular season. In the first part of a weekend doubleheader against the Portland Trail Blazers, they were seeking to lock up home-court advantage in the playoffs, win the Northwest Division for the first time since 2010 and, most significantly, put on a good show for Marlins Man, who took in the Rockies’ home opener before wandering over to Pepsi Center.

Well? Check, check and check.

Nikola Jokic dominated in the fourth quarter, Paul Millsap had one of his most efficient outings of the season, and Denver took care of business against injury depleted Portland 119-110.

The Trail Blazers were missing C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic. Despite those holes, they still held a three-point lead going into the fourth quarter. That’s when Jokic took over. He scored Denver’s first seven points of the quarter. He scored 10 in the final 12 minutes of play overall. He finished with 22 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists, narrowly missing out on his 13th triple-double.

Jokic wasn’t alone in leading the comeback effort. Monte Morris (eight points), Malik Beasley (nine points) and Torrey Craig (18 points) all played crucial roles down the stretch on a night when Denver’s starting backcourt, Gary Harris and Will Barton, could never get going. Craig had two big offensive rebounds he converted into putbacks in the final three minutes. He also hit a dagger 3 with 12.5 seconds to go that pushed the lead to seven.

Early on, Millsap paced the Nuggets. He hit his first eight shot of the game en route to a 25-point night. Jamal Murray, who contributed 23 points go along with four rebounds and six assists, had a strong outing as well.

The Nuggets didn’t shoot the ball particularly well — going 7 for 27 from 3 as a team — but got it done anyway. They held Damian Lillard in check. The superstar point guard needed 14 shots to score 13 points.

Now the Nuggets are guaranteed home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They also will finish no lower than third in the Western Conference.