The Nuggets were coming into this game trying to prove that they were better than they showed on Friday night. It was apparent with how they came out that they wanted to win. It wasn’t the prettiest opening quarter — MPJ still struggled and there were some issues with how much they were getting called for fouls, but the Nuggets did a good job containing Luka Doncic and forcing other Mavericks players to beat them. It led to open jump shots for the Mavericks, but they missed a decent amount of them in the opening quarter.
On the other end of things, DeAndre Jordan had a strong opening with 6 points and 8 rebounds in the first quarter.