Jokic has his 34th triple-double, Nuggets beat the Grizzlies 136-119 for 10th straight win

DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic had 14 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists for his 34th triple-double of the season, and Denver beat the Memphis Grizzlies 136-119 on Wednesday night for the Nuggets’ 10th straight win.

Denver (52-28) increased its hold on the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference with its first double-digit winning streak since getting 15 in a row Feb. 23-March 23, 2013. The Nuggets lead the reeling Los Angeles Lakers by 1 1/2 games and finish the regular season with games against the top two teams in the conference.

Jamal Murray scored 26 points and Jonas Valanciunas had 14 points in his 1,000th career game.

The wins during the streak haven’t been easy. Memphis needed to rally from double-digit deficits in the fourth quarter twice, winning both in overtime.

Jokic, who leads the NBA in rebounding and assists, already clinched a triple-double average for the second straight season. His assist on Cameron Johnson’s layup midway through the third gave him the 198th triple-double of his career. He didn't play in the fourth quarter.

Cedric Coward had 27 points, for the Grizzlies (25-55), who have lost six in a row and 18 of 20. Memphis was 19 of 50 from deep two nights after tying an NBA record with 29 made 3-pointers.

The Grizzlies were on another scorching pace when the made 13 of 27 3-pointers in the first half to lead 72-68 but cooled off in the third quarter after going ahead by eight.

Denver outscored Memphis 31-13 in the final 7:51 of the period to take control. The Grizzlies got within nine early in the fourth but the Nuggets opened up a 21-point lead and cruised.

Grizzlies: At Utah on Friday night.

Nuggets: Host Oklahoma City on Friday night.

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Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić pulls in a loose ball in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Nuggets forward Cameron Johnson, left, drives to the rim as Memphis Grizzlies guard Lucas Williamson in the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon, left, pulls in a loose ball as Memphis Grizzlies guard Cedric Coward defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Memphis Grizzlies forward Taylor Hendricks, center, struggles to pull in a loose ball as Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, left, and guard Christian Braun defend in the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Memphis Grizzlies forward Taylor Hendricks, front, drives to the rim as Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

HOUSTON (AP) — Lunar love knows no bounds.

Now hurtling home from the moon, the Artemis II astronauts took a poignant page from Apollo 8 earlier this week, proposing deeply personal names for a pair of lunar craters.

Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew asked permission to name one small, fresh crater after their capsule called Integrity and another after his late wife, Carroll. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen made the request right before Monday's lunar fly-around. Wiseman was too emotional to talk.

Carroll Wiseman, a neonatal nurse, died of cancer in 2020.

“Just for me personally, that was kind of the pinnacle moment of the mission for me,” Wiseman said from space Wednesday night.

During Apollo 8 in 1968, astronaut Jim Lovell bestowed his wife’s name upon a prominent lunar peak: Mount Marilyn. It was humanity's first trip to the moon and she anxiously awaited his return back home in Houston.

The three Americans and one Canadian of Artemis II are the first lunar visitors since Apollo 17 closed out that grand epoch in 1972, and their crater-naming request temporarily left ground controllers speechless.

“It was definitely a very emotional moment. I don’t think most of us knew it was coming,” NASA lunar scientist Ryan Watkins told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There was not a single dry eye.”

Mission Control’s lead scientist Kelsey Young worked with the Artemis II astronauts before launch, quietly helping them choose the two bright, relatively young craters, which they quickly spied once they were close enough to the moon through zoom lenses as well as their naked eyes.

Wiseman said his crewmates came up with the idea and approached him about it while they were in quarantine a few days before liftoff. His response: “Absolutely, I would love that, I think that's just the best. And I said, 'But I can't give the speech, I can't give the talk,'" he recalled during a crew news conference, saying he was too overwhelmed.

Proposed Carroll Crater is at the moon's left limb on the boundary of the moon’s near and far sides, and occasionally visible from Earth. It's rather shallow and approximately 3 miles (5 kilometers) across, according to Watkins. The slightly bigger Integrity crater is completely on the lunar far side.

Their request came shortly after they broke Apollo 13’s distance record for deep-space travelers. All four astronauts wept as they embraced in a group hug.

“We lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie,” Hansen radioed, his voice breaking. “It’s a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call it Carroll.”

Mission Control fell silent for nearly a minute before replying: “Integrity and Carroll crater, loud and clear.”

The emotion-drenched scene was vastly different from the 1960s and 1970s Apollo moonshots in more ways than one. NASA's Apollo all-male test pilots were for the most part all business and tear-free.

“This is no fault of Apollo,” Watkins said. “I think we're seeing just a more human aspect."

Once back on Earth later this week, the crew will submit the two proposed names to the International Astronomical Union.

Nearly a half century passed between Apollo 8 and the union's sign-off of Mount Marilyn in 2017.

The IAU's Ramasamy Venugopal promised a decision on Carroll and Integrity in about a month, the norm “for straightforward requests.”

There already are 81 astronaut-named lunar features on the group's approved list, including Apollo 16's Baby Ray and Gator, and Apollo 17's Lara named for the lead female character in the 1965 film “Doctor Zhivago.”

Some Apollo-era nicknames didn't make the cut.

Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last astronaut to walk on the moon, dubbed a split boulder “Tracy’s Rock,” after his young daughter in 1972.

And in 1969, Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad nicknamed his touchdown spot “Pete’s Parking Lot.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew, clockwise from left, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover, pause for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home on Wednesday, April 7, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this image of a portion of the Moon coming into view along the terminator, the boundary between lunar day and night, during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this image of Orion spacecraft pictured from one of the cameras mounted on its solar array wings on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This image from video provided by NASA shows the Artemis II crew, from left, Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch, pilot Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen as they answer media questions during a video conference Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (NASA via AP)