Davis tried to keep the Magic close in the third quarter by making four jump shots in the period. Orlando got as close as 76-60 on a jumper by Davis, but Denver quickly pushed its lead back to 92-66 by the start of the fourth quarter.
``He really had some good looks tonight and they went in,’’ Vaughn said ofg Davis. ``They were the same shots that he had in Sacramento. Exact same shots and same play calls and they went in tonight. I love that he was persistent, taking the right shots and playing the right way.’’
Denver coach Brian Shaw, who played on the Magic’s 1995 team that reached the 1995 NBA Finals, talked before the game about his team not being good enough to overlook any team, and the Nuggets certainly didn’t do that in the first half while racing to a 69-47 lead. Six Nuggets had at least six points in the first half as they shot 54.5 percent and drilled six 3-pointers.
Denver’s dancers throw T-shirts into the crowd every time a Nuggets’ player hits a 3-pointer, and considering the torrid shooting by Denver early on it seemed as if every fan inside the Pepsi Center might get a T-shirt. The Nuggets made six of their first nine tries from beyond the arc to blow out to a 17-point lead.
Highlighted by the three-point play where he went at Denver’s Faried, Oladipo played especially well in the first half. He made five of his first nine shots and handed out four assists in the first 24 minutes.
And no play in the second half was more impressive that Oladipo going right back at a player nicknamed ``Manimal’’ because of his ferocious and physical style of play. Vaughn said the moment offered a glimpse into the competitive nature of Orlando’s prized No. 2 pick from last June’s NBA Draft.
``He’s done it time and time again of playing onto the next play,’’ Vaughn said. ``He’ll eventually be better when the ball isn’t taken away from him. That’s where we want him to get to. We’ll keep putting him in these positions and he’ll grow from this.’’
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