Beijing time on February 15, today, the Denver Nuggets at home to meet the Orlando Magic, this is a dialogue between the sixth in the West and the second-to-last in the East, from the strength point of view, the Nuggets to be above the opponent, coupled with the magic group leaderless, this season into a state of chaos, it can be said that there is no desire and no demand. In the first quarter of the game, the Nuggets began to "celebrate the Lantern Festival", under the leadership of Jokic, they established a 15-point advantage, the first quarter of the game, the Nuggets 29-14; into the second quarter, the Magic's offensive state has picked up.
Wendell Carter, Wagner blossomed a little, but the Nuggets side firmly controlled the rhythm of the game, Barton, Jeff Green and others have scored in succession, halftime, the Nuggets 53-40 still maintain a double-digit advantage; Easy side again, the Magic's offense still did not have much improvement, the end of the third quarter, the Nuggets led the opponent 85-70 by 15 points. In the final quarter, Cousins scored 2 points under the basket, Sacs quickly attacked the basket to stop the bleeding, and soon after, Forbes caused the opponent to make a three-point shooting foul, and the Nuggets extended the point difference to 20 points.
However, the Magic were not planning to surrender, Skafield arced three separate flowers, and then the Magic again played a 5-0 small climax, with a 12-point difference, and the Nuggets requested a timeout. The timeout came back, With Hyland outlining a three-point rain, Harris responding with a three-pointer in the bottom corner and Wagner on a rebound. At this time, Gordon walked through Yang with three points and a hundred steps, and Jokic stabilized the hearts of the army from mid-range, but Wagner did not hesitate to let go, turned around and broke through to cause Jokic to foul, scored 2 points, and the two sides played very well.
In the decisive moment, Jokic assisted Barton to score 2 points, Harris quickly attacked 2 points to fight back, and soon, Saggers had 2 points under the basket, and then Wagner grabbed the offensive rebound and forced a foul to go to the free throw line, with a point difference of only 9 points. At the critical moment, Gordon shook off his opponent, turned around and accelerated the one-handed split to take another 2 points, but Carter hit three points again, and the game still had suspense. In the final 65 seconds, Jokic received a pass from Gordon, a three-point hammer, and in the end, the Magic were unable to return to the sky, losing to the Nuggets 111-121.
After this game, the Nuggets won two consecutive games, with a record of 32 wins and 25 losses, continuing to rank sixth in the West, and the Magic suffered three consecutive losses, with a record of 13 wins and 46 losses, ranking second from the bottom in the East. In this game, Jokic played 35 minutes, 10 of 26, 2 of 9 three-pointers, 26 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists, shooting a little lower, but the overall performance was still very good; Barton played 33 minutes, 6 of 11, had 17 points and 7 rebounds, Gordon was 4 of 6, contributing 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, and the key one dunk and one pass helped the team seal the victory.
Jeff Green played 27 minutes, 6 of 12, with 17 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, Hyland 4 of 7, 14 points and 5 rebounds, Forbes came off the bench for 20 minutes, 5 of 7, scored 16 points, Cousins 3 of 6, had 9 points and 5 rebounds; Magic, Wendell Carter had 12 of 22, 25 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists, Wagner 8 of 16, 26 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, Sagas had 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals, Harris 15 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals. The Nuggets can still play like this after losing two big players, and the strength is evident.
After the return of Murray and Porter and Morris, the Nuggets still have the ability to compete for the title, and this season, Jokic may be the MVP, it is worth mentioning, this is Jokic's 44th double-double this season, setting a new league record.