The Denver Nuggets have feasted on teams on the second night of back-to-back games, and they will get a chance to add to that dominance when they host the Orlando Magic on Thursday night.
This will be the 11th time this season that Denver has played on consecutive nights, and so far it has gone well. The Nuggets are 9-1 in those games, the only loss coming against Houston on Jan. 15, when Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon didn’t play.
Denver is coming off a 144-119 win over New Orleans on Wednesday night. The Nuggets have four straight wins, with the last two coming against the Pelicans and featuring big games from Michael Porter Jr.
Porter set a season high in points with 36 in Monday’s win and then topped it with 39 on Wednesday, which tied a career high. Porter has hit 12 of his last 21 attempts from 3-point range and has been a force while trade rumors have swirled around him.
Coach Michael Malone said this week that the team is not trading Porter.
“We know what Michael gives us from the offensive end — the shooting, the efficiency,” Malone said. “Two games in a row he put up amazing numbers, and doing so at a very efficient manner to go with 12 boards (on Wednesday). It’s great to see him playing at a high level as we approach the All-Star break.”
Porter is third on the team in scoring at an average of 18.7 points a game. Jamal Murray is second at 20.2, and Jokic is tops in scoring (29.7), rebounds (12.8) and assists (10.3).
Thursday’s contest will be the second and final game between Denver and Magic this season. The Nuggets won the first matchup 113-100 in Orlando on Jan. 19, when the Magic didn’t have guard Jalen Suggs due to a back strain. Suggs missed the 130-111 win at Sacramento on Wednesday night with a quad contusion.
Franz Wagner also didn’t play on Jan. 19 but led Orlando with 31 points in the win over the Kings. He leads the Magic at 25.1 points a game, followed by Paolo Banchero at 22.6 and Suggs at 16.2.
Wednesday’s win snapped a four-game skid for the Magic and gave them their first win on their season-long six-game road trip, which will finish Thursday night.
Orlando is 6-15 since it last won two in a row on Dec. 21-23 but has not been discouraged.
“The spirit can be better,” Banchero said recently. “That’s part of the reason why I think we’ve lost some of these games. But [as] I said, it’s on us to take initiative and fix it. No one outside the locker room is going to fix it. We have to depend on each other and look out for each other in these moments.”
Thursday will be the first time Kentavious-Caldwell Pope will play in Denver since signing a free-agent deal with the Magic. Pope helped the Nuggets win the 2023 NBA title and played two seasons with them before leaving for Orlando last summer.
–Field Level Media
