After leading the whole game, a second half collapse meant that the Denver Nuggets simply had to watch as their lead slipped away and the Orlando Magic came away with a single point victory Friday night. 

Denver came out of the gate strong with 31 points in each of the first three quarters, but still found themselves outscored handily in the second half until Orlando's comeback was complete. 

The outstanding bright spot of Denver's game was, once again, Nikola Jokic, who recorded his second straight triple-double with a 34 point, 21 rebound and 12 assist performance. Still, considering the loss and the way that the Nuggets played to suffer it, Jokic didn't have much to be happy about after the game. 

Denver had plenty of chances to hold onto their lead and secure the victory, but a total defensive collapse allowed the Magic to surge back without much resistance. 

"Two completely different halves," Jokic said (via Nuggets). "We didn't play any defense in the second half... We had looks, we had shots, but we couldn't make it. We had opportunity, but they [Orlando] won the game."

Jokic didn't describe any overwhelming change from the Magic's side of things that flipped the game on it's head, but rather, it was a lack of effort from the Nuggets as the game wound on that ended up deciding things and permitting the Orlando victory. 

"They were just attacking, they were just going by us. They weren't even overpowering us," Jokic said.

Orlando's comeback was led by the Herculean efforts of Anthony Black, who finished the game with a career-high 38 points, along with six rebounds and five assists. 17 of those points came in the second half to help the Magic get ahead and the way he worked around the Denver defense ramped the pressure that the Nuggets had to contend with as their lead slipped away. 

"Not just the second half. He [Black] shot the ball really well. That gave him confidence, probably, and he was really effective the whole game," Jokic said. "He actually had good stuff on contested shots on the defensive end. He did a really good job tonight."

The Nuggets did have a chance to take the game back in the final seconds. Jokic had the ball following a Denver timeout and kicked it out the Jamal Murray to shoot a buzzer-beating three pointer to win the game that didn't land. 

"The plan was to get the ball in a certain area. 95% of the time the plan A doesn't work, so you go to plan B and that is to try and get the ball and try to get an open look, whatever that open look is, it's a layup or a shot," Jokic said of the last-second play.