A game that wasn’t on the schedule two weeks ago could maybe, just maybe, be one of the most impressive results of the Nuggets’ season.

After being eliminated from the NBA Cup in the group stage, they had to be scheduled for two make-up games in December. One of those was the 120-98 win over the Clippers on Friday night at Ball Arena.

The original 2024-25 NBA calendar featured three matchups between the Nuggets and Clippers – two of them at altitude. The first two meetings were already defeats for Denver, meaning Los Angeles had won a hypothetical tiebreaker in the standings. Until this new development. Now the Nuggets (13-10) have a chance to escape the season series with a 2-2 tie, despite having a slight home-field advantage in the four meetings.

“The league gave us a gift,” coach Michael Malone admitted before the game. “It’s up to us whether we want to use this gift.”

Denver pulled it off with a dominant second half. Jamal Murray led the team with 20 points after missing the last two games with a hamstring injury. Michael Porter Jr. scored 12 of 17 points in the final eight minutes of the third quarter as Denver built a 14-point lead. And Nikola Jokic didn’t have to play in the fourth period, thanks to shots on goal from Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther and defense from Russell Westbrook. The MVP center had 16 points, seven rebounds and two assists after his 104-point win in a row.

He played almost 30 minutes.

James Harden and Norman Powell, who shut out Denver in the last two meetings, combined for 31 points on 28 shots. Denver forced 19 turnovers to compensate for 21 giveaways on the offensive end.

The Nuggets played their only home game in 19 days and posted consecutive wins for the first time in more than a month. They are 8-0 this season when leading after the first quarter.

They also won the first half for only the sixth time in 23 games this season, but the way they did it was as strange as they could have imagined. They committed 14 turnovers, gave Los Angeles 18 points, shot 3 of 15 from long range and had zero double-digit scorers at halftime. They gave up an 18-0 run midway through the second quarter, went 4 minutes, 54 seconds without a point and 5:32 without a field goal.

Even stranger, the majority of this losing streak occurred when Jokic was on the ground. He attempted only four shots in the half, and one of them was determined by his computer programming. On an out-of-bounds play with 31 seconds left, he caught the ball at the top and immediately released it, defusing the situation on two possessions. He made the three-pointer, then the Clippers coughed up to allow Christian Braun an easy dunk. Mission accomplished. The 5-0 equalizer was enough to give us a 48:47 lead.