The Denver Nuggets won their fifth game in a row tonight, defeating the Orlando Magic 112-90 in blowout fashion.
After the NBA Trade Deadline buzzer sounded earlier today without the Nuggets making any moves, they put together a very impressive effort, holding Orlando to 37% from the field and 17% from three-point range. Yes, the Nuggets and Magic were both on the second night of a back-to-back, but one team handled it way better than the other. The Nuggets locked in on both ends of the floor after a slow start offensively and run the Magic off the floor.
Michael Porter Jr., once again, led the way for the Nuggets with 30 points and seven rebounds. He shot 11-of-16 from the field and 5-of-8 from three, dominating against a very strong Magic defense that features big, strong, and smart athletes on the perimeter. Porter didn’t care, cutting to the rim consistently for layups and dunks while hitting impressive shots off screens, in transition, or in rhythm on a stepback jumper.
It was Porter’s third straight performance of 30 points, the first time he’s done that in his career. His efficiency in each game has been tremendous, but it’s the volume and opportunity that he’s really capitalized on of late. He has created space for himself to score, and the Nuggets are finding him over and over again.
“I tried to find it in different way, trying to read how they were going to play me and adjust from there,” Porter shared postgame. “I was able to get some really easy cuts by the way they were trying to guard me off of screens. AG threw some really good passes.”
“Got some in transition and got some in random actions where I was setting screens for Joker in transition and just trying to be more random so they didn’t have time to set up.”
Porter’s seeing a really big bucket right now, and it’s been cool to watch the evolution of his scoring over this season, but really over this latest stretch. He’s seeing the floor well, making good reads, and attacking in a very definitive way.
Nikola Jokic, of course, had another triple-double with 28 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists. It was Jokic’s 24th triple-double of the season in his 46th game. If Jokic keeps up this pace and plays the same pace of games he’s played so far this season, Jokic will finish with about 38 triple-doubles, four off of Russell Westbrook’s historic triple-double record.
And yet, 28 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds is such a normalized game for Jokic these days. It’s effectively what he averages, which confuses people into believing it’s not that special…but it is.
Just another day in Nuggets paradise watching the best player in the NBA.
Trade Deadline over, so this is the team
Denver was shorthanded tonight without Jamal Murray, Russell Westbrook, and Peyton Watson. They found a way to win, digging deep with some guys one might not expect.
Julian Strawther started the first game of his career. He didn’t play well, and Malone was quick to come to his defense postgame. Strawther expects to hit shots, so when it’s not happening, he can get down on himself. Malone made sure to let him know that he was still impacting the game positively, competing hard.
Malone also had very complimentary words about Zeke Nnaji postgame.
“Think about what Zeke’s done [guarding lately]: Miles Bridges, Zion, Zion, and Paolo, and he’s done a helluva job,” Malone declared on Nnaji’s defensive impact. “I am just so impressed with the job that Zeke is doing right now and happy for him.”
It’s interesting to hear Malone take his tone with both of those guys. He’s a good coach, and he’s also a good players’ coach historically. It’s why the Nuggets have done a good job with player development. Malone mostly empowers players. He’s had a very tight leash on Nnaji for much of the season, but Zeke is earning back some credit slowly but surely. Strawther is trying to do the same and attempting to become a more complete player before the playoffs.
With the trade deadline coming and going, the Nuggets were one of four teams that didn’t make any moves. The biggest reason why Denver didn’t make any changes was because they didn’t have the resources to do so.
[Zeke Nnaji] was one of the pieces that obviously we were looking at [trading] going out there,” general manager Calvin Booth shared in a pregame media availability. “Because if you look at our salary sheets, there’s only so many contracts outside of our main guys…so it’s pretty easy to figure out what guys were going to go out if we did a trade.”Guys like Nnaji (and Strawther to an extent) are always climbing uphill trying to earn a place in the rotation, and then it’s another climb uphill to justify being in the playoff rotation. Denver’s going to have to make do with what they have now, and Malone is going to have to really coach those guys, get them read for the big moments (probably more so Strawther than Nnaji but who knows?).
Malone, for what it’s worth, shared pregame he was confident in this current team.
“Obviously, far from being where we want to be, but guys throughout the season, different guys have stepped up and shown what they’re capable of. Our greatest challenge, moving forward with four games to go prior to the break and coming out of the break, is trying to get healthy.”
Malone continued: “Now that the deadline’s over, I can take a deep breath and just focus on the task at hand, which is trying to close out these games prior to the break.”
The Nuggets are going to take these next few months one step at a time. If they prepare themselves well, they still have a chance to win the championship, even as currently constructed.
“Right now, that’s over,” Christian Braun declared on trade deadline anxieties. “We have what we have, and we all know we can win with what we have. We’ve shown it, and we’re going to continue to show up and get better every day.”
Final Rotations
