Former Denver Nugget fan favorite, Evan Fournier had a chance to tie the game for his new team as the clock hit triple zeros and the Nuggets escaped a furious rally by the Orlando Magic to win, 93-90 and tied their season high winning streak at three.
Fournier was making his first appearance in Denver after being traded in the offseason that would bring back current starting shooting guard, Arron Afflalo. The reunion of the guards took place just hours after Timofey Mozgov was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"It's never easy to trade a guy that does everything right, did everything we ask," Nuggets' General Manager Tim Connelly said. "We just thought the opportunity to get two future assets was too good to pass up." He later add that the Nuggets' front court depth also figured in the decision to move Mozgov.
Ty Lawson led the Nuggets in scoring with 23, Afflalo had 17 and Nate Robinson had a nice 13 points off the bench.
Jusuf Nurkic, now the presumed starter for the rest of the season had a solid 22 minutes, he had only eight points, but had two blocks and had a stretch of nice two man basketball in the middle of the second quarter that is worth noting. During that stretch he set two nice picks that led to two jumpers by Ty and one that led to an easy bunny hook for Nurkic.
Should note that this was Nurkic's first ever career start.
The Nuggets had many chances to blow the game wide open, but kept letting the Magic and their shooters work themselves back into the game. Andrew Nicholson had two late threes to help cut the Nuggets ten point lead down to the final margin.
The Nuggets head out on the road for a game in Sacramento on Friday night against the Kings on Friday night. Tip is at 8PM Mountain.
