The Magic Insider

WATCH: Nikola Jokic Buzzer Beater Stuns Magic; Nuggets Grab 6th Straight Win

The Orlando Magic ended its five-game road trip on the wrong end of a Nikola Jokic buzzer-beater that gave the Denver Nuggets their 30th win of the season.

Jeremy Brener

WATCH: Nikola Jokic Buzzer Beater Stuns Magic; Nuggets Grab 6th Straight Win
WATCH: Nikola Jokic Buzzer Beater Stuns Magic; Nuggets Grab 6th Straight Win /

The Orlando Magic (16-28) is taking a quiet flight home after Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets (30-13) left the team speechless after a 119-116 loss at Ball Arena Sunday night.

With the game tied at 116 and the clock winding down, Jokic stepped back and hit the game-winning triple to put the Nuggets up three points with 0.2 seconds left.

"An MVP-type player made an MVP-type play," head coach Jamahl Mosley said. "That's what it came down to."

The two-time reigning MVP crushed the Magic in the final moments, but Orlando held its own against the best team in the Western Conference.

Trailing by 15 points at halftime, the Magic stepped up to the plate in the second half and stormed back to take a four-point lead with less than two minutes to go.

In the waning seconds of the game, Markelle Fultz missed a key putback and a free throw that could have changed the fortunes of the game, but Jokic's buzzer-beater erased all of the hard work Orlando put to claw back into it.

"I love those moments," Fultz said. "I missed one today but I'm always ready to step up in those positions and knock them down."

The Magic finishes its five-game road trip 2-3 with a pair of those losses coming by less than three points. It's not the full results you want in the win-loss column, but the eye test looks promising for the team as it hopes to win some of those games back when it returns home.

Orlando is back in front of its fans Friday as the team takes on the New Orleans Pelicans. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

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Jeremy Brener
JEREMY BRENER

Jeremy Brener is an editor, writer and social media manager for several Fan Nation websites. His work has also been featured in 247 Sports and SB Nation as a writer and podcaster. Brener has been with Fan Nation since 2021. Brener grew up in Houston, going to Astros, Rockets and Texans games as a kid. He moved to Orlando in 2016 to go to college and pursue a degree. He hosts "The Dream Take" podcast covering the Rockets, which has produced over 350 episodes since March 2020. Brener graduated in May 2020 from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism minoring in Sport Business Management. While at UCF, Brener worked for the school's newspaper NSM.today and "Hitting the Field," a student-run sports talk show and network. He was the executive producer for "Hitting the Field" from 2019-20. During his professional career, Brener has covered a number of major sporting events including the Pro Bowl, March Madness and several NBA and NFL games. As a fan, Brener has been to the 2005 World Series, 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 NCAA National Championship between the Villanova Wildcats and North Carolina Tar Heels. Now, Brener still resides in the Central Florida area and enjoys writing, watching TV, hanging out with friends and going to the gym. Brener can be followed on Twitter @JeremyBrener. For more inquiries, please email jeremybrenerchs@gmail.com.

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