ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — — The NBA returned to the Persian Gulf on Friday for the third consecutive 12 months, and the preseason schedule for the 2023-24 season opened with the Boston Celtics beating the Denver Nuggets 107-103 in a matchup of the 2 most up-to-date championship golf equipment.
The Celtics and Nuggets will end their two-game set in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Denver sat its starters within the second half and Boston sat 4 of its 5 starters after halftime, with Luke Kornet the exception. The groups mixed to make use of 36 gamers — 18 apiece.
Payton Pritchard had a game-high 21 factors for Boston, which was 20 of 61 from 3-point vary. The Celtics’ trio of Olympic gold medalists from this summer season’s Paris Video games — Jayson Tatum, Jrue Vacation and Derrick White — mixed to attain 25 factors and Jaylen Brown had eight for Boston.
Reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic scored 14 for Denver. Russell Westbrook had 12 in his first outing with the Nuggets, whereas Michael Porter Jr. scored 12 and Jamal Murray — who was in road garments on the bench by the tip of the sport — had three factors in quarter-hour.
The NBA signed a take care of tourism officers in Abu Dhabi in 2021 to ship groups there for preseason journeys; the sequence began with Milwaukee and Atlanta in 2022, and Dallas and Minnesota went final 12 months.
USA Basketball has performed in Abu Dhabi in every of the final two summers in addition to a part of its tuneups for the 2023 Basketball World Cup within the Philippines and the Paris Video games.
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