With one second left in Saturday night’s third quarter, the Nuggets trailed the mighty Magic by just six points. With 10:01 left in the fourth, Denver was down 14.
What happened? It wasn’t magic. It was just the Magic.
“They did what they do every night,” Denver’s Kenyon Martin said. “They aren’t 33-8 for no reason.”
What they do is 3-pointers, and in Orlando’s 106-88 win at Pepsi Center, the Magic made 11 of them, including three in that two-minute span that buried the Nuggets, who had trouble even making 2-pointers.
The Nuggets (27-14) shot just 36.5 percent and couldn’t contain Orlando’s arsenal.
“I think they’re unique. They shoot more contested 3s than most coaches would allow,” Denver coach George Karl said. “(Hedo) Turkoglu (five 3s) will just look at your feet and just pull one. (Rashard) Lewis (three 3s) is clever in how he gets open and has a quick release. (Jameer) Nelson (one 3) has added a great jump shot and the Lee kid (Courtney, two 3s), for a rookie, is playing extremely confident and involved.”
The Nuggets played valiantly, leading 48-47 at the half and battling for much of the third. But Turkoglu scored three of his game-high 31 points at the buzzer, giving Orlando a 79-70 cushion entering the fourth.
“I think they’re playing about as well as anyone in basketball,” Karl said of the Magic, which beat the Lakers in Los Angeles on Friday and arrived at its Denver hotel at 4:45 a.m. Saturday.
It was the Nuggets that looked sleepless, playing poorly for the first time since Carmelo Anthony broke his shooting hand (They are 3-2, but had a good showing in the Detroit loss).
J.R. Smith, starting for Anthony, shot just 2-for-13 from the field, including a meaningless clanked 3-pointer at the final buzzer. Nene battled foul trouble from the get-go, finishing with just four points. Really, the only bright spot was reserve Linas Kleiza.
Kleiza played two of his worst games against Detroit and Dallas, but followed them with two of his best games. After shooting a combined 1-for-12 in the first two games, he went 8-for-11 against the Suns, and Saturday scored a season-high 26 points on 9-for-13 shooting.
As for Nene, the big man drew the biggest assignment — Magic center Dwight Howard. Early on, they were called for a double foul as tempers flared in the forest. Nene drew his second foul with the 8:04 left in the first, and with 10:39 left in the fourth — and Denver down just three — he earned his fourth.
A frustrated Karl said: “There’s two sets of rules, a set of rules for Howard and a set of rules for Nene. His fourth foul was incredibly powerful. Come on. All you had to do was call a three-seconds call because Howard was just challenging the whistle to blow — that’s what he went in the paint to do, to get in a wrestling match. He’s in there for three or four seconds and he gets the whistle. That has tremendous power in our makeup. And Howard plays the whole second half with three fouls.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
