The Denver Nuggets were looking to get back to winning on Monday night with the Dallas Mavericks in town. The Mavs were dealing with numerous injuries while the Nuggets got back to full health. Denver learned their lesson from their previous game against the Oklahoma City Thunder and got a big lead early to keep Dallas in their rear view mirror. Luka Doncic had a big night but it wasn’t enough to overcome the efforts of Denver’s point guard tandem in Jamal Murray and Reggie Jackson. The Nuggets made it a bit of a laugher when it’s all said and done and win.

Nikola Jokic directed the offense early for the Nuggets to counteract Doncic’s efforts on the other end. Otherwise the Nugget’s didn’t have a ton of offense but the Mavs also weren’t having much success either. Denver pushed the pace to build a lead and after an alley-oop pass to Aaron Gordon from Jokic the Mavs took a timeout trailing by six. The Nuggets started to struggle with their shot after that, despite getting multiple opportunities they ended up with more than one empty possession. Luckily for Denver the Mavs struggled just as much and that let the Nuggets build a small lead. The bench had a solid close to the first quarter with Jackson doing the majority of the damage. Denver ended the first leading 28-20.


The Mavericks knocked down threes to open the second quarter and they quickly trimmed the Nuggets lead to a single point. Denver’s bench responded and kept Dallas at bay. Zeke Nnaji got minutes and made the most of them. Dallas meanwhile depended almost exclusively on Luka to deliver on offense and that’s just what he did. There was a lot of positive things from Denver’s bench that could have led to a big lead but Luka remained unconscious which kept the Nuggets within striking distance for Dallas. The starters checked back in and were a bit rusty to start but found their rhythm eventually and grew the lead. Gordon started to punish the Mavericks smaller defenders which offset the Mavericks scoring barrage in a high scoring second quarter. Murray carried the offense for the Nuggets down the stretch while Doncic continued to score at will. The Nuggets closed the half still up 68-59.


The teams went back and forth to open the second half. Denver still stayed on the verge of blowing the game open but just didn’t have enough consistency to get the job done. Murray was the primary offense for the Nuggets as he eclipsed the twenty point mark with still more than half the third quarter to go. Denver kept pushing the lead behind their starters as the Mavs started to cool off with half the quarter gone. When Denver’s bench checked in the lead was up to seventeen and the Nuggets had the opportunity to put the Mavs away early. Dallas was able to stop the bleeding with the bench in but they also didn’t close the gap. Jackson continued to be the leader of Denver’s reserve unit which was enough to keep the Nuggets offense afloat. At the end of the third quarter Denver led 98-80.


Jackson continued to lead the offense to open the fourth and that paid just enough dividends to not let the Mavs close the gap. Denver’s reserve unit was playing strong and it looked like the starters weren’t going to be needed in the fourth quarter. Nnaji had a strong night and was consistent through the fourth quarter. With almost half the fourth gone the Nuggets still led by more than twenty points and it was quickly becoming garbage time. Dallas’ reserve unit seemed even less interested in playing than their starting unit which let Nnaji dominate by putting in the extra effort and suddenly Dallas was trailing by thirty. Denver lost a bit of interest right at the end of the game but still end up winning in a blowout. The final score sees the Nuggets with a 130-104 win.