Orlando was front and center for Nikola Jokic's latest magic show

Thirteen nuggets for the number of assists Nikola Jokic finished with in the Nuggets’ 124-118 win over the Magic.

1. There’s no selection committee to judge the Nuggets’ resume at the end of the regular season and determine whether or not Denver gets to play postseason basketball this year. There’s no one sitting in a conference room drinking lousy coffee picking apart the Nuggets’ win profile and knocking them for victories throughout the season that weren’t especially impressive. A win is a win in the NBA, and they all matter the same.

The Nuggets’ two narrow victories before Wednesday night’s win over Orlando, against Portland and Toronto, weren’t pretty but they were both wins. The same goes for Denver’s latest one, which like its wins over the Trail Blazers and Raptors was a tightly-contested game that was decided in the final few minutes. The Nuggets made their fair share of mistakes in two fourth quarters on this road trip already and also did so late in this game.

2. Denver gave up too many wide-open threes Wednesday night, and Orlando made the Nuggets pay, shooting 20-49 (40.8 percent from three). The Magic’s last three of the night came on their final possession of regulation. Terrence Ross found himself wide open with seven seconds remaining down three after Malik Beasley and Torrey Craig miscommunicated on what was supposed to be a switch. He promptly drilled the triple.

In overtime, Jamal Murray stepped out of bounds, first with his left foot and then with his right, with Denver clinging to a three-point lead. The official standing just a few feet away didn’t see either.
3. Call it luck. Call it good fortune. Call it a little of both. Denver has karma on its side right now. Above all, the Nuggets won a third-straight game where the score was tied with under one minute remaining in regulation. It was a sloppy victory and Denver likely wouldn’t have come out on the right side of the scoreboard if it played at this level versus Portland or Toronto.

“I thought that this was one of our worst performances of the year,” Malone said on Altitude TV’s broadcast.

But a win is a win, especially on the road.

4. The Magic were the eighth team Denver has defeated on the road this season. The Nuggets are now 8-4 away from Pepsi Center, good for the second-best road record in the league.

Let’s go to the calendar. The Nuggets’ eighth road win this year comes on Dec. 5. Last season, Denver didn’t win its eighth game on the road until Feb. 10.

The improvement away from Pepsi Center speaks to a maturing team that knows it has to be better than the 15-26 mark it was outside of Denver last year.

5. That maturation is especially evident in first quarters, where on the road it’s imperative to come out with energy and an aggressive mindset.

Denver raced out to a 22-10 lead over Orlando. The Nuggets only led 31-28 after one quarter, but the hot start gave Denver some wiggle room that it needed over the remaining three quarters. Getting off to slow starts doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore with this team. The Nuggets have won their last six quarters. Four of those have come on the road.

6. Fueling Denver’s start against Orlando was Jamal Murray, who scored eight points in the first quarter and finished the night with a game-high 31.

But Murray, who’s the Nuggets’ leading scorer on the season averaging 17.9 points per game, went cold late. He missed six-straight shots in the second half and into overtime before nailing Denver’s most important field goal of the night, a 23-foot three-point jumper right in front of Orlando’s bench to put Denver up 119-114 with 1:19 remaining in the extra period. Murray also scored seven of Denver’s 12 points in overtime.

7. Murray and Nikola Jokic are in a good rhythm right now. They’re playing well off one another, and Murray is taking care of the ball. Denver’s starting point guard only committed one turnover in 46 minutes. Murray also finished with four rebounds and eight assists.

8. The Nuggets’ backup point guard wasn’t too shabby either. Monte Morris rebounded from one of his worst outings of the season against Toronto to tally 13 points on a clean 6-7 shooting and three assists in 20 minutes.

Morris led a Denver bench that finished in the negatives overall (a minus-six to be exact), but the Nuggets’ second unit that features Morris, Murray, Malik Beasley, Trey Lyles and Mason Plumlee outscored the Magic 26-19 during its end of the third beginning of the fourth quarter stint. That run set Denver up for the deciding final few minutes.

“We’re the deepest team in the league,” Millsap said.

9. Denver is. Even the numbers say so.

10. The Nuggets’ offense is firing on all cylinders as of late. Denver ran up 112 points on Orlando through regulation and registered an impressive 121.8 Offensive Rating Wednesday, a quality mark against a Magic team who have been a top-15 defense this season.

A good indicator of a healthy Nuggets offense is the number of assists they finish with. Denver handed out 34 assists against Orlando and is averaging 30.4 assists over its last 10 games. The Nuggets climbed to eighth in the league in offense after their latest win. and Denver is just 0.4 points per 100 possessions from fifth overall in offensive efficiency.

11. A key reason why the Nuggets are posting impressive offensive numbers as of late is that Denver is finally hitting its threes with consistency. The Nuggets nailed 11 of their 19 three-point attempts against the Magic. Juancho Hernangomez continued his red-hot shooting from distance and sunk two of his four three-pointers. Millsap was 2-2 from distance. Morris hit his only triple of the night while Murray and Beasley each went 2-3 from beyond the arc.

As a team, Denver is fourth-best three-point shooting team in the league over its last 10 games. The Nuggets need to keep Murray (32 percent) hot from beyond the arc and get Jokic going. The big man is shooting just 31.3 percent from three-point range this season. He was 1-3 from distance versus the Magic.

12. Jokic’s outside shot hasn’t fallen with regularity this year, but he’s still making his presence felt on offense. Denver’s star center is dropping dimes like Case Keen…er…Patrick Mahomes on a Sunday afternoon.

Jokic haded out 13 assists in Orlando 48 hours after tallying 15 against the Raptors. He pulled out all his tricks too. Jokic often found himself operating with his back to the basket, putting him in perfect position to find Murray on this nifty pass to begin the third quarter. Jokic is averaging 7.8 assists per game, well within range to challenge Wilt Chamberlain’s single-season record for assists per game by a center with 8.6, which he set in 1967-68.

Jokic pushed the ball in transition too, finding Lyles on the break here.

13. His best assist of the night came on a no-look cross-court pass where Jokic found Hernangomez wide open in the opposite corner. Watch closely how Jokic waits until Evan Fournier takes one step too many towards a cutting Millsap before firing the ball on a rope to the other side of the floor. Fournier can’t get back to Hernangomez in time.

Magic Jokic is back for good.