Kyrie Irving scores 43 but Michael Porter hits Nuggets game-winner

In a game of dueling masterpieces from Nikola Jokic and Kyrie Irving, neither of them delivered the decisive blow.

Michael Porter Jr. attacked a close-out and buried 14-foot floater with 6.5 seconds left, and the Nuggets held on for a thrilling 122-120 win over the Mavericks to complete a perfect five-game homestand on Sunday.

“What a weapon to have late in the game,” coach Michael Malone said. “Close game. One-possession game. Where a guy who hasn’t touched it or shot it in a while ends up making probably the biggest shot of the night.”

Jokic went for 37 points, 18 rebounds and 15 assists, making him the first player in NBA history to record that stat line. It was only the 11th 35-15-15 game in regular-season history, and his second. Irving scored 43 points on 17-of-22 shooting from the field. The only two 3-pointers he missed were his last two. Peyton Watson contested one of them to force an air-ball and give Denver (7-3) a chance to break the tie. And Christian Braun contested the next as time expired.

Jokic tipped in his own miss with 49 seconds left to tie the game and set up for Denver’s fifth win this season to come down to the last possession of regulation.

“There’s games when he’s getting triple-doubles, but it’s not, like, close triple-doubles,” Porter said. “It’s not like it’s 22, 10 and 11. I mean, 37, 18 and 15 is pretty crazy.”

Watson continued to thrive in Aaron Gordon’s place among the starters, making all four 3-point attempts en route to 16 points. Julian Strawther’s 12 points off the bench came at much-needed moments when the second unit needed offense. Jamal Murray scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half. Porter scored 13 of his 17 in the first quarter.

“Mike got going early, and obviously I’ve gotta do a better job of keeping him going,” Malone said. “He’s been playing at such a high level across the board. … That’s on me to keep Michael Porter hot and make sure we’re feeding him and giving him looks.”

“But it happens to different players throughout the game in general,” Porter said when asked about his 34 minutes of game time without scoring before the game-winner. “When I’m getting going, other guys may not touch it as much. When other guys get going, I might not touch it as much. So it’s not something I’m not used to. I got going in the first quarter and didn’t see the ball much after that, but I just tried to stay ready throughout the second half, just in case I had to hit a big shot down the stretch. I tried to stay in the mindset of being ready to score.”

For a moment, it seemed the Nuggets’ healthy balance of offense behind Jokic wouldn’t be enough to outshine one supernova of a game from Irving. He lit up Denver’s second unit for three quick long-range jumpers in the fourth quarter, flipping the Mavericks’ three-point deficit to a three-point lead. Nobody could keep him from getting to his spots — not Braun and certainly not the supporting cast Denver tried to swarm Irving with.

“One of the greatest ball-handling guards ever and one of the greatest finishing guards ever,” Malone said. “… I felt that there were some shots that we could (say), ‘Hey, that’s a really tough shot.’ But then there were also — we’re supposed to take him off that 3-point line, and we had guys that were backing up, inviting that shot. Those are the ones you have to take away. It gets to a certain point where we have to send a body to him to get the ball out of his hands. And I still think we could have done a much better job of doing that and relying on the fly-around (help rotations) behind that. I thought (against) OKC, we did a really good job of that. Tonight I thought it was good, but it’s gonna have to be better.”

On the other hand, Luka Doncic was held to 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting. New Maverick Klay Thompson only scored 10 points.

The Nuggets more or less survived a stretch of more than six minutes with Jokic on the bench and Doncic on the floor at the beginning of the second quarter. It was rough at first. Russell Westbrook committed two turnovers leading to easy buckets, and Zeke Nnaji missed a pair of free throws. But the window was extended by a lack of dead balls after Jokic went to the scorer’s table, and Denver stole back five consecutive points from Watson and Strawther.