Orlando Magic Grades: Denver Nuggets 112, Orlando Magic 87

The Denver Nuggets worked the Orlando Magic in a post-Thanksgiving showdown. The Magic were never able to find their rhythm as they fell behind.

It felt like the Orlando Magic were constantly scrambling. Trying to keep track of the Denver Nuggets’ cutters and ball handlers as Nikola Jokic passed out dimes from the high post to find open shooters. The Magic were trying to keep up. Their defenders rotated to try to cover and collapse the paint or to reach out to those shooters.

Often they were too late. Or sometimes too many. And Denver just fired the ball to the open man. Or, worse, they would fire the ball at the hoop and let Nikola Jokic or Mason Plumlee collect the rebound. By the end of the game, the Nuggets were just running circles around a tired and scrambled Magic team in a 112-87 win at the Pepsi Center on Friday.

It is not quite back tot he drawing board for the Magic. But this was reminiscent of their first eight games rather than the last 10 when the team seemed more tied together on both ends.

The Magic seemed a step slow and a bit off on both ends as they tried to recover and chase the Nuggets seemingly from the very beginning of the game.

Denver did a good job making sure Orlando’s offense never found a rhythm. The Magic shot 40.5 percent from the floor and just 8 for 32 from beyond the arc. Orlando got just nine points on 3-for-15 shooting from Evan Fournier and D.J. Augustin combined. That is no formula for success.

Denver did a good job hedging on screens and forcing Orlando ball handlers to take an extra beat away from the basket. It disrupted a lot of the rhythm for the team and discouraged the ball movement that helped the Magic build leads at home the last week. Orlando still had 24 assists on 32 field goal makes, but the team obviously needed a whole lot more of the latter.

The Nuggets dominated the offensive glass. Even their mistakes turned into points. Denver had 12 offensive rebounds turned into 23 second-chance points. Essentially every Nuggets offensive rebound turned into points. And Orlando did not do a good job limiting interior passing, giving up 64 points in the paint.

It was a formula that led to the Magic getting beat in almost every hustle statistic. And Orlando gave up a scoreline to match.

The Orlando Magic next head to Los Angeles as they face the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday afternoon.