DENVER \u2014 Back-to-backs, the Nuggets bid you wary adieu, for now.<\/p>\n
In their league-leading ninth back-to-back of the first 45% of the season, Denver fell short of a road-home sweep with a 122-120 loss to the Magic on Friday night at Ball Arena. Jamal Murray\u2019s attempt at a game-tying jumper rimmed out as time expired, not quite recreating the magic Nikola Jokic conjured the previous night.<\/p>\n
Denver\u2019s plan for the last possession was to get the ball to Jokic in the pocket, coach Michael Malone said. But the Magic switched on the screen as Murray and Jokic tried to initiate their two-man game, and Murray was bumped backward, throwing off the play and forcing him to improvise.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we lost this game in the third quarter,\u201d Malone said. \u201c\u2026 As I told our guys, whatever you\u2019re doing at halftime, it\u2019s not working. Individually and collectively. I\u2019m beating guys out of the locker room at halftime. Get out there and get ready to play, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jalen Suggs was 7 of 9 from beyond the arc for 27 points, while Paolo Banchero amassed 15 of his 32 points at the foul line. He made four free throws in the last 35 seconds to tie and win the game for the Magic, with a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope turnover sandwiched between the trips to the line.<\/p>\n
Denver (25-12) doesn\u2019t have to play another back-to-back until Feb. 8-9, and that pair of games will be played in the same time zone. This was a rare trip forward in time to play the second game 23 hours after the first.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the worst back-to-back,\u201d Malone said. \u201cI think they\u2019ve kind of outlawed this in most states. The pacific coast to Denver.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Nuggets erased an 18-point deficit in the last seven minutes to win the first leg, their own 18-point lead gradually dwindled in the second leg until they found themselves trailing 100-98 a minute into the fourth quarter, with an all-bench unit on the floor and in foul trouble. From there, Denver was fighting upstream against a pesky Magic defense.<\/p>\n
The Nuggets allowed 41 points in the third quarter after allowing 44 to the Warriors.<\/p>\n
Nikola Jokic followed up a career-defining moment Thursday with 29 points, eight assists and three steals. Michael Porter Jr. shot 4 for 6 outside in a 22-point outing, but he was on the bench for eight minutes between the third and fourth quarters while Orlando pulled ahead. After Peyton Watson was in Malone\u2019s closing lineup against the Warriors, the Nuggets were thinking ahead, needing Porter to close with Watson\u2019s tenuous foul situation.<\/p>\n
Riding high on the adrenaline rush of Jokic\u2019s 39-foot buzzer beater Thursday at Golden State, the Nuggets sought out long outlet passes and tried to out-run Orlando in transition every chance they got during the early minutes. The Magic had an extra day of rest, but it was also the fourth and final game of a winless road trip in which key players have been out. The list of inactives included Franz Wagner, Goga Bitadze, Wendell Carter Jr., Joe Ingles, Gary Harris, Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz.<\/p>\n
For the Nuggets, only Julian Strawther was unavailable, dealing with a knee contusion that Malone said shouldn\u2019t be a serious or long-term concern. Malone still deployed an all-bench lineup, however, substituting Justin Holiday in for Strawther. The 10-man rotation quickly became 11-deep when Watson picked up two early fouls and two-way player Braxton Key had to check in late in the first quarter. After eight total foul calls in the first eight minutes set the tone for how the game would be officiated, a Key sighting seemed inevitable \u2014 especially because Orlando leads the league in fouls drawn.<\/p>\n
Watson ended up getting called for his fourth foul with 6:38 remaining on a driving layup he (and the rest of Ball Arena) thought he blocked cleanly from behind. Zeke Nnaji had already picked up his fourth with 7:46 left, prompting Malone to sub his starters back in for the first time in the frame. The Nuggets didn\u2019t use their challenge after the Watson foul, instead waiting for an out-of-bounds call later in the fourth.<\/p>\n
_____<\/p>\n
\u00a92024 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at denverpost.com<\/a>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a> <\/p>\n KeyWords:: 8f1f3146-48d3-4a0e-b1d9-0ef00d9fbbb7 DENVER \u2014 Back-to-backs, the Nuggets bid you wary adieu, for now. In their league-leading ninth back-to-back of the first 45% of the season, Denver fell short of a road-home sweep with a 122-120 loss to the Magic on Friday night at Ball Arena. Jamal Murray\u2019s attempt at a game-tying jumper rimmed out as time expired, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79814,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79813\/revisions\/79814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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