The Denver Nuggets went to battle against the New York Knicks on Thursday night, winning 113-100 in a very physical affair.

Nikola Jokic led the way for the Nuggets with a 30-point triple-double, orchestrating everything for the Nuggets starting unit. Jokic put pressure on an undersized Knicks team with four guards in the starting lineup. Matching against against former teammate Isaiah Hartenstein, Jokic put up 30 points, 14 rebounds, and 11 assists and was absolutely dynamic, hitting floaters, turnaround jumpers and hook shots, and getting to the free throw line. With as physical as the game was played, there were times when Jokic may have picked up a technical for a no-call; he stayed the course though, and the Nuggets were an impressive +30 in his 39 minutes. Some of the passes Jokic made were absolutely next level.

 Unfortunately, the Nuggets were -17 in the nine minutes Jokic didn’t play, and that’s the story that allowed the game to get so close. The Knicks were battling and were very physical on the ball with Jamal Murray. The Nuggets starting point guard, staggering with the second unit, found ways to be successful with his own scoring with that group but struggled to keep others involved. Murray had 26 points on 9-of-20 from the field but had just four assists, the majority of which were to other starters. The Knicks sent two bodies to Murray with the bench unit, and the Nuggets needed to take better advantage of the attention Murray commanded.

To make matters worse for Murray, he rolled his left ankle in the final minute of the game, stepping on Donte DiVincenzo’s foot while driving in transition. There’s no update yet on Murray’s health, but it was a pretty good roll, and the Nuggets will of course be cautious.

Fortunately, Denver’s starters were so good that it didn’t end up mattering that much. Michael Porter Jr. was absolutely on fire, scoring 31 points on 13-of-16 from the field and 3-of-6 from three. Those three-pointers allowed Porter to set the franchise record for three-pointers made in a season with 193 to date.

Of course, it wasn’t Porter’s three-point shooting that drew the most attention, it was an insane self alley-oop dunk through the lane.

Porter’s in the best physical condition of his NBA career. He regularly plays high minute totals for Denver, is constantly moving and working on both ends of the floor, and is attacking the paint with more physicality than ever before. There’s a real leap happening here, and Porter’s level of comfortability scoring at all three levels is leveling up within Denver’s offense. It’s been a lot of fun to watch him grow and rediscover parts of his game.

Connecting Denver’s starting lineup were Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Aaron Gordon. Both veterans played their part with KCP taking on the Jalen Brunson assignment for almost the entire game. Brunson had 26 points and nine assists but did so on 23 shot attempts. Brunson also only got to the free throw line three times, a credit to KCP’s defensive discipline and ability to challenge him without fouling.

Gordon wasn’t as good defensively but made up for it with some great connectivity on the offensive end with eight assists. Gordon also shot 5-of-9 from the field and grabbed three offensive rebounds. There wasn’t a ton of space for him to operate around the rim with how much the Knicks were collapsing in the paint, but he did his part and helped others shine out there.

The Knicks were extremely impressive. They fought hard, even without OG Anunoby and Julius Randle. Adding those two “strong as an ox” forwards to the rotation will certainly help them match with teams that have overwhelming size in the future. I wonder whether they can get fully healthy this year, but if they do, they’re a challenger to every team in the Eastern Conference, including the Boston Celtics. Denver shot just 6-of-20 from three-point range and couldn’t get a ton of open looks against New York. They’re impressive.

The Nuggets had to work for everything, but they ultimately got it done. Denver’s 13-2 post All-Star Break and is keeping pace with the Oklahoma City Thunder at the top of the Western Conference. More importantly, the Nuggets are very close to clinching a top 4 seed in the West. They need a combined six wins + New Orleans Pelicans losses to make that happen, and Denver will almost certainly see that done with the next couple of weeks. By the final week or two of the season, the Nuggets will likely be able to rest as much as they need to rest, especially if they don’t care too much about being the top seed in the conference.

Final Rotations