On Friday evening, Paul Millsap and the Denver Nuggets took on his former team, the Atlanta Hawks. Millsap contributed to Denver's close win over the Hawks with 16 points while Nikola Jovic and Gary Harris helped lead the way as well. Here's the latest Hawks vs. Nuggets game recap including top performances, game stats, a standings update, and what's next on the slate for these two NBA squads.

NBA game recap

The Denver Nuggets opened up the first quarter with a 26-23 pace but Atlanta outscored them 29-27 in the second. In the third quarter, the Nuggets had a 22-19 pace and finished with a 30-29 close to take a five-point win in Atlanta.

Leading the way were Gary Harris and Nikola Jokic. Each of these Denver Nuggets players scored 18 points for the night. In particular, Jokic had 18 points along with 15 rebounds and five assists. Harris shot 7-for-13 for the game and had 2-of-5 three-pointers go down. All-Star Paul Millsap shot 6-for-12 in the game and had 16 points to go with six rebounds. Emmanuel Mudiay scored 16 points off the bench along with four rebounds and four assists, while Will Barton had 18 points to go with six rebounds.

On the losing side, the Atlanta Hawks got 20 points from Dennis Schroder on 7-for-16 shooting. Taurean Prince had 19 points, while Duane Dedmon scored 13 points and grabbed 10 boards. Marco Belinelli came off the bench to shoot 5-for-8 and had 15 points in the loss.

Friday's game was the team's home opener, so they'll need to try again in their next home contest to get the home area fans a win.

The Nuggets were able to knock down shots at a rate of 46.2 percent for the game and 20 percent overall. Their opponents hit at a rate of 41.6 percent from the floor with a 42.4 percent three-point rate.

For the rebounding battle, Denver took that 46-43. The two teams combined for 23 turnovers between them for the contest.

Standings & what's next

This win improves the Denver Nuggets' record to 2-3 overall and 1-2 on the road. They were originally considered among top contenders in the Western Conference ahead of this NBA season and still have the time to get on track.

Denver will be on the road for a game on Sunday against the Brooklyn Nets at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.

The Atlanta Hawks fall to 1-5 for their early season and 0-1 at home. They'll try to pick up their second win for the season on Sunday as they host "The Greek Freak" and the Milwaukee Bucks with game time at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
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