Aaron Gordon was the centerpiece of the Orlando Magic when the franchise drafted him fourth overall in 2014, but a decade later he doesn’t have the burden of carrying his new team.
The Denver Nuggets are Nikola Jokic’s team, despite the three-time MVP’s preference to be just a teammate. But Jokic has been arguably the best player in the NBA for the last few years and he is proving just as valuable this year.
Jokic missed Wednesday’s home loss to Houston but returned to help win at Miami on Friday night. Denver will aim to complete a two-game Florida sweep when it visits Orlando on Sunday night.
The Magic are in first place in the Southeast Division but are struggling lately. They have dropped two straight — by 29 to Milwaukee and 27 to Boston — and have not won two straight since Dec. 21-23. Since going 12-1 from Nov. 8 to Dec. 1, Orlando is 8-13.
“Whether you lose by 20 or lose by two, it still goes into the same column,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after the 121-94 loss to the Celtics on Friday night. “I think you have to take from each one of them what you can. What did you give up? What did you take away? What are you willing to live with?”
The Magic are dealing with their share of injuries. Guards Jalen Suggs (back) and Gary Harris (hamstring) missed Friday’s loss, leading rebounder Goga Bitadze is out with a concussion and Franz Wagner (oblique) is still a couple of weeks away from returning.
Paolo Banchero has only played nine games this season due to injury but is the leading scorer when he is in there at 26.9 points a game. Wagner is second at 24.4 and Suggs is scoring 16.4 points a game.
The Nuggets have injury issues, too. Jokic, who leads the team in scoring (30.4), rebounding (13.1) and assists (9.9), is battling a sprained right elbow but was still able to produce his 17th triple-double of the season against the Heat.
Denver has won five of its last six games and a big reason has been the elevated play lately of Jamal Murray, who is averaging 32.3 points over the last three games to bump his season scoring average to 20.1. Michael Porter Jr. is third on the Nuggets at 18.3.
Gordon returned from missing nine games with a right calf strain when the team swept two games in Dallas last week. He sat out Wednesday’s loss to the Rockets for management on the calf and has been coming off the bench the last three games while on a minutes restriction.
Russell Westbrook moved into the Nuggets’ starting lineup and has averaged 15.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 7.2 assists in 13 games, but coach Michael Malone has not decided if he wants to keep the veteran as a starter or return him to the sixth-man role.
“We’ll jump off that bridge when we get to it,” Malone said. “We’re going to take a really cautious approach with Aaron Gordon.”
–Field Level Media
