Denver battles back for victory

Jamal Murray reached back and launched one of his proverbial arrows into the crowd.

For the first time all year, it landed among Denver’s adoring fans.

Murray’s clutch 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter all but sealed a riveting, contentious battle against the Magic, whose trade of Aaron Gordon to the Nuggets last week was still fresh. After sleepwalking through the first half, the Nuggets turned on the throttles and blasted the Magic in the second half.

The Nuggets’ 119-109 win extended their winning streak to five, improved their record to 3118 and treated the first round of fans at Ball Arena to a raucously entertaining game.

Gordon, in his first matchup against the only NBA team he’d ever known, hung a team-high 24 points, including a handful of reverse jams for emphasis. Most of those feeds came from Nikola Jokic, who served up 16 assists in addition to 17 points. The fans serenaded Jokic with nearly that many “M-V-P” chants throughout the night.

Michael Porter Jr. added 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Murray poured in 22. As if the starters weren’t dangerous enough, the return of Monte Morris from a quad strain offered a giant boost to Denver’s second unit. As part of their run, the Nuggets hung 72 points on the Magic in the second half.

The Nuggets played with a renewed energy to start the third quarter after a lackluster opening half. Unsurprisingly, it started on defense.

The Nuggets ran off Orlando’s five turnovers, threw down electric transition dunks and played with a cohesion that wasn’t there to start the game. Instead of pleading for whistles, Jokic carved apart Orlando’s defense with eight assists in the quarter alone. He set up Porter for an alley-oop lob, then one possession later led Murray for a breakaway dunk.

What was once an 18-point deficit became just one heading into the fourth quarter after the Nuggets pounded Orlando 38-21. The emotional night, which included JaVale McGee’s latest debut with the Nuggets, was spurred by stirring tribute videos to both Gary Harris and R.J. Hampton. The latter relished playing in front of his old teammates, made obvious by several demonstrative finishes.