Jamal Murray scored 17 of his 39 points during a dominant third quarter as the Denver Nuggets cooled off the red-hot Houston Rockets with a 116-111 victory on Sunday.

The Nuggets halted Houston's season-high nine-game winning streak and stopped a two-game skid despite three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić missing a third straight game with a left ankle injury. Murray helped overcome the star center's absence by putting together a superb second half in which he tallied 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting.

DeAndre Jordan filled in well for Jokic by registering 11 points and 15 rebounds in a spot start, and the Nuggets also received 17 points and nine rebounds from Michael Porter Jr. and 13 points and eight assists from Aaron Gordon.

Houston, which had its lead over Denver for second place in the Western Conference cut to one game, got 30 points from Jalen Green and a 17-point, 10-rebound effort from Alperen Sengun. The Rockets shot just 32.4 per cent from 3-point range, however, with Green going 3 for 12 and Fred VanVleet missing seven of his eight attempts.

Dillon Brooks was the lone Houston player to succeed from the perimeter, as he went 5 of 8 from beyond the arc while scoring 21 points.

The two West contenders were tied 57-57 at half-time before the Nuggets took control by outscoring Houston by a 39-22 margin in the third quarter.

Denver began the second half on a 10-2 run, then scored eight straight points later in the period to stretch its advantage. Murray began the spurt with a 3-pointer and Jordan finished it with a three-point play that put the Nuggets up 86-73 with 2:39 left in the quarter.

The Nuggets led by as many as 19 points thereafter, though Houston closed the gap behind an 11-3 run capped by Green's three-point play that trimmed Denver's lead to 103-97 with seven minutes to go.

Houston later pulled within 110-107 on Sengun's layup with 21.9 seconds remaining, but the Rockets then missed three of five free-throw attempts as the Nuggets sealed the outcome by going 6 for 6 from the foul line in the final stages.

Thunder extend winning streak by ending Clippers' run

Alex Caruso hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:54 remaining as the Oklahoma City Thunder won a matchup between two of the Western Conference's hottest teams by coming through with a narrow 103-101 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Thunder earned their sixth consecutive victory to improve their NBA-best record to 59-12 by edging past a surging Clippers team that came into Sunday's showdown having won five straight games.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points and eight rebounds to help the Thunder prevail on a night they were without two other key starters, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, due to injuries. Aaron Wiggins provided a lift as well with 19 points off the bench.

Kawhi Leonard finished with 25 points for Los Angeles, the last of which came on a free throw with 0.6 seconds left that cut the Thunder's lead to 103-101. Leonard then deliberately missed the second attempt, but the Clippers couldn't get a final shot off before time expired.

Los Angeles did battle back from a seven-point deficit early in the fourth quarter to take a 99-97 edge on Leonard's tie-breaking jumper with 2:19 left to play. The lead was short-lived, however, as Caruso knocked down a 23-foot attempt on the ensuing possession.

After both teams made 1 of 2 free throws, the Clippers missed two shots in the final seconds before Gigeous-Alexander gave Oklahoma City some breathing room by hitting two foul shots with 3.1 seconds left for a 103-100 lead.

The Clippers shot 52.2 per cent in the first quarter to build a 34-24 advantage after one period, but were under 29 per cent in the second as the Thunder came back. Oklahoma City outscored Los Angeles by a 33-17 margin for the period, with Gilgeous-Alexander delivering 11 of those points, to go into half-time up 57-51.

A 9-0 Los Angeles run midway through the third quarter tied the game at 70-70, but the Thunder countered with an 11-5 spurt to move back ahead. Their lead grew to seven points early in the fourth quarter after Wiggins hit a 3-pointer with just under 10 minutes left.

Wiggins' 42 points puts Heat's 10-game skid to an end

Andrew Wiggins' season-high 42 points enabled the Miami Heat to end their longest losing streak in 17 years with a 122-105 win over the Charlotte Hornets.

The Heat put an end to a 10-game skid, their longest since losing 11 in a row from Jan. 29-Feb. 23, 2008, behind torrid shooting performances from Wiggins and Tyler Herro.

Wiggins went 16 of 21 from the field and 6 of 8 from 3-point range to record the highest scoring game by a Miami player this season and his highest point total since netting a career-high 47 for the Minnesota Timberwolves in November 2016.

Herro added 29 points while making 11 of 19 field goal attempts.

Nick Smith Jr. paced Charlotte with 19 points, while LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges each posted double-doubles in the loss. Ball finished with 18 points and 11 assists and Bridges had 17 points and 13 rebounds.

The Heat looked on the way towards another defeat early on as Charlotte opened up a 41-29 lead less than three minutes into the second quarter. Miami outscored the Hornets by a 22-2 margin over the final seven-plus minutes of the first half, however, to enter the break owning a 57-47 advantage.

Wiggins recorded nine points during the pivotal run and amassed 17 over the first two quarters before continuing his dominant play following the intermission.

He put up 15 more points in the third quarter as Miami outscored Charlotte 39-28 for the period to extend its lead to 96-75 entering the fourth. The Heat remained in front by double digits throughout the final 12 minutes.