This time, Lob City magic won’t work for the Nuggets.

It had been nine days since the Nuggets beаt the Clippers in Los Angeles without Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, or Aaron Gordon. On Wednesday, they lost 111–102 with all three of them on the court.

Denver (14-8) plays the Rockets at home on Friday in another rescheduled game for teams that didn’t make it out of the in-season playoffs.

A Jokic low point

If Nikola Jokic’s rest minutes aren’t going well for the Nuggets and the game is closer than they’d like, the two-time MVP usually comes back in and things get better.Not now. Jokic missed more shots in one game than any other game in his NBA career. He finished the game 9-for-32 from the field, including nine straight misses in the second quarter, which was also his worst run of the season.His night went downhill after a good start in the perimeter, which is an area where he has had trouble this season. He made his first two 3-point shots of the game, which seemed to get him back on track (he was at a career-low 30.1% from beyond the line before the game).Jokic still got his ninth triple-double of 2023–24 by getting his 10th assist late in the game, but this was probably his worst game in years, or at least his least productive one.

Porter’s early rhythms

The way Denver changes its lines will have an effect on this—the bench unit plays for the first few minutes of the second quarter—but Michael Porter Jr. tends to get off to a good start scoring-wise and then slow down when he comes back into the game. The most recent game: he scored 11 points in the first quarter and then barely touched the ball during a scoreless second quarter.This time, he kept up his steady shooting whenever he had the chance. He ended the game with 18 points, nine boards, and 7-of-8 shooting. But for a heat-check scorer like him who is at his best when he’s in a rhythm, his suԀԀen drops from a lot of points to nothing in one half have been noticed a few times this season.Last Friday in Phoenix, he made five of six shots in the first quarter and scored 10 points. In the second quarter, he only made one shot and didn’t score. Five days before, in the first quarter against the Spurs, he had a line of 12–2–2. In the second, he only scored three points and didn’t get any more rebounds. He scored 10 points in the first quarter of another great game against Golden State and only two in the second, making only one of four shots.Porter might not be being used enough in Denver’s offense other times, or he might be going cold after a break. But no matter what, that should keep up with Porter once he gets going. Not by chance, the Nuggets went from having a 15-point lead to being behind by nine points in the second quarter!