Wizards overcome Jokic's 56 points, snap 16-game skid

Nikola Jokic's career-high 56 points wasn't enough as the Denver Nuggets fell to the league-worst Washington Wizards, 122-113.

The Wizards went winless in November and entered Saturday's contest on a franchise-record 16-game losing streak.

Jordan Poole led the way for Washington with 39 points, eight assists, and five boards in 40 minutes of action.

The Wizards made 16 triples - including nine from Poole - and limited the Nuggets to 5-of-24 shooting from deep.

"We have a lot of issues, mainly on the defensive end of the floor," Nuggets head coach Mike Malone told reporters postgame, including Noah Trister of The Associated Press.

"I'm doing a really poor job with this team," Malone added. "For us to be 11-10 at this point and losing to a team that last five games is averaging a hundred points a game and they put up 122 on us - I'm embarrassed by that."

Meanwhile, Jokic did everything he could in the absence of fellow starters Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon.

The three-time MVP shot 22-of-38 from the field and made 9-of-13 attempts from the charity stripe to go along with 16 rebounds and eight assists.

David Thompson's 73-point effort against the Detroit Pistons in 1978 is the only higher single-game output in Nuggets history.

Jokic joined Luka Doncic and Elgin Baylor as the only players in NBA history to tally at least 56 points, 15 boards, and eight assists in a regular-season game, according to The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov.

Still, Jokic took some of the blame for Saturday's result, despite a historic individual performance.

"I think today and the last couple games were really bad for us," Jokic said. "We are really going in the wrong direction. I think it's everybody's fault."