The Denver Nuggets have won four of their last five games after a 121-111 victory over Orlando at Ball Arena on Monday night. Nikola Jokic finished with 26 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists, registering his 45th double-double of the season.
Both Jeff Green and Will Barton scored 17 points each while Bryn Forbes added 16 points off the bench. Denver had a 52-42 rebounding advantage but struggled with turnovers once again. Orlando forced 23 leading to 29 points.
“A win is a win,” Michael Malone said. “We’re definitely going to take it. Not our best basketball by any stretch of the imagination. The 23 turnovers to 29 points and some of them were just so careless. Just a complete lack of any value in the basketball.”
After the game Malone spoke with his players about his understanding of this being a really difficult part of the season for them right now. It’s right before a much needed All-Star break and they’re coming off a difficult back-to-back after playing in both Boston and Toronto. Players are tired and beat up but Malone continues to encourage them to find a way to push through.
“We have to find a way to be better,” Malone said. “I was losing my mind in the first half with our turnovers, taking multiple timeouts, jumping guys at halftime. It was just one of those nights but thankfully in the end we were able to get the win and that’s really all that matters.”
The Nuggets bench scored 37 points behind Forbes’ 16. As of late the second unit has really been clicking and figuring out ways to hold things down while Jokic gets his rest.
“I thought JaMychal [Green] and DeMarcus [Cousins] played really well together off of each other,” Malone said. “If you’re a shooter like Bryn Forbes you have to love playing with JaMychal and DeMarcus. Those are two physical bigs who are not afraid to set screens and that’s all you want as a shooter. You just want some separation and those two guys are able to create separation for that.”
In his 13 games with Denver, Forbes is shooting 41% from the field and 39% from beyond the arc and averaging nine points. He has already had one 26-point game with the team as well and said he’s finally starting to get comfortable with the second unit. In particular he mentioned how grateful he was for teammates like Cousins and Green.
“I’m very grateful for those two,” Forbes said. “Big bodies that want to hit people and get me open. So I think a lot of shots go to them. A lot of made shots they should get a lot of the credit because they’re doing a lot of the work to get me open and other guys open.”
Cousins agreed that he should get some of the credit and chuckled while saying it. Possibly half joking but half meant it. He also said he has made it a point in the second unit to make things easier on the guards and that he takes pride in setting screens to get his teammates open.
“That’s something I’ve really been pushing with the second group,” Cousins said. “We try to make everything easier for the guards. For some reason this new generation of basketball has kind of gone away from setting good screens and getting guys open. It’s obviously a more guard pushed league and with guards they’re setting screens and slipping out just to put imbalance toward the defense but Bryn’s a great shooter.”
Denver’s bench held things down to open the second quarter and took a 8-0 run to go up 40-18. Orlando responded with a 7-0 run after calling a timeout. Franz Wagner went 3 for 3 from the field and knocked down two 3-pointers for 10 points in the quarter. The Magic ended up winning the quarter 26-24 but the Nuggets still had a 53-40 lead at the half.
Orlando ended up cutting its 22-point deficit to just nine after Wendell Carter Jr. scored six consecutive points. He finished the quarter with 14 points and helped the Magic take a 20-12 advantage in the paint. Denver responded with a 15-4 run to put the lead back up to 20.
The fourth quarter was not the Nuggets best effort as they gave up 41 points. The Magic went on an 8-0 run midway through the quarter to get within 11 points. Jalen Suggs had 10 points and went 6 of 6 from the charity stripe. With a combined effort from Cousins and Forbes off the bench for six points each and Gordon, Jokic and Hyland scoring a combined 15 points Denver managed to stay afloat and hang onto the 121-11 win.
Wagner put up 26 points on 8-16 shooting while Carter Jr. shot 12-22 for 25 points. Suggs added 16 and Harris scored 15 off the bench.
The Nuggets have a game in Golden State against the Warriors this Wednesday and then are off for the All-Star break until Feb. 24, a much needed nine-day break. Denver is 32-25 on the season and still sit in sixth in the Western Conference standings.
