After four months of staring up at other Western Conference teams, Denver is finally alone at the top of the standings.

Michael Porter Jr. scored 25 points, Aaron Gordon added 16, and the reigning NBA champion Nuggets regained sole ownership of first place in the West standings with a 100-88 victory over the struggling Miami Heat in a finals rematch Wednesday night.

“If we can get the No. 1 seed, we’ll take it,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “And we’re not going to back down from it. You know, having home-court advantage throughout the playoffs worked very well for us last year.”

Jamal Murray scored 14 points, and Nikola Jokic added 12 points, 14 rebounds, and six assists for the Nuggets (46-20), who are now a half-game clear of Oklahoma City (45-20) and a full game ahead of Minnesota (45-21) in the West.

Denver has an NBA-best 10-1 record since the All-Star break, and the Nuggets are 32-9 when its starting five — Porter Jr., Gordon, Murray, Jokic, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — are in the lineup. Since mid-November, the Nuggets had not finished a day alone at the top of the Western Conference.

“When they want to turn on the jets, they’ve been able to leave teams in the dust,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Miami’s Bam Adebayo finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Jimmy Butler scored 15, Terry Rozier had 14, and Duncan Robinson had 11 for the Heat (35-30), who are currently 2 1/2 games behind Orlando, which defeated Brooklyn on Wednesday, in the Southeast Division battle.

The Heat have lost four straight games and are still ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference. They will play again Wednesday without Tyler Herro (foot) and Kevin Love (heel).

Denver is 12-1 in its previous 13 meetings with the Heat, including the NBA Finals last season, and has won seven straight games on Miami’s home court.

Denver’s Reggie Jackson sank three jumpers on three possessions late in the fourth quarter, giving the Nuggets a 10-point lead with 3:38 remaining. That was more than enough; Denver restricted Miami to four points in the last 4:34, outscoring the Heat 28-17 in the fourth.

“They were playing off me, trying to guard the best player in the world — Jokic,” Jackson was quoted as saying.

Spoelstra continued: “They had their burst, and that was basically the game.”

Denver launched a 15-0 run in the first quarter to establish a double-digit advantage, which grew to 13 points in the first stanza. The Nuggets led for all but 2:48 of the first half, but the Heat never fell behind by more than eight in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, Miami recovered the lead, although briefly. Former Nuggets centre Thomas Bryant scored for a four-point lead late in the third, matching Miami’s largest lead of the night, but Denver answered with a 10-2 run and held on the rest of the way.

“Something we always talk about is that your fourth quarter has to be your best quarter,” Malone went on to say. “It’s closing time.”