Everyone lined up for their opportunity to miss a slam dunk on Wednesday night.

Peyton Watson goes for gold on a quick break. Michael Porter Jr. tries to rebound a Nikola Jokic miss. Reggie Jackson declines the layup option on a drive. The greatest of all was DeAaron Fox smashing a doink off the back of the rim and all the way to midcourt.
It was that kind of game at Ball Arena, the last before the All-Star break, and the undermanned Nuggets fell short in a 102-98 loss to the tired Kings.

Denver (36-19) will enter the break on a three-game losing streak after a 93-89 lead was erased by an 11-0 Sacramento outburst in the final three minutes. Aaron Gordon’s late 3-pointer reduced the score to 102-98, but when Watson swiped the inbound pass, Gordon missed the next shot in a desperation effort at a Tracy McGrady moment. Jokic missed two more three-pointers on offensive rebounds before time ran out.

This season, the Kings have won three straight games versus the reigning champs. In the first two games, the Nuggets completed road back-to-backs. This time it was Sacramento’s turn.

However, the Nuggets were without starters Jamal Murray and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who were both precautionary holdouts to get a jump start on a week without games. Jackson and Justin Holiday started, and five minutes into the game, Collin Gillespie was at the scorer’s table, ready to check in as Denver’s sixth man.

Gordon was the only Nugget who was causing shots to fall via sheer force of will. He finished with a tough 25 points and 15 rebounds, shooting 8 of 15 from the field and 8 of 8 from the line.
Nikola Jokic (15) of the Denver Nuggets and Domantas Sabonis (10) of the Sacramento Kings clash during the second quarter at Ball Arena in Denver on Wednesday, February 14, 2024. (Photo by Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post.)Jokic had his worst shooting performance in over a month (6 of 17, 15 points) and was saved from dismissal by an intervening Michael Malone in the third quarter. Michael Porter Jr. scored 19 points on 17 attempts. Jackson was a big help as a facilitator (nine assists), but an unproductive scorer.

The Nuggets opened up a 35-20 lead in the second quarter thanks to a welcome dose of two-way tenacity from their bench. Zeke Nnaji made the most of his minutes as backup centre, scoring once as a roller and again with a brilliant post move. He entered the All-Star break with eight points and two rebounds.
On a night of wild runs and rhythms, the Kings scored ten consecutive points to go within 35-30, only to spend 3:20 without scoring again. During that time, the Nuggets limited their opponents to 0-for-6 shooting and two turnovers. Sacramento had coughed 11 times by halftime.