ORLANDO, Fla. _ The Orlando Magic haven't held a practice since Nov. 27.
It shows.
Their defense once ranked among the NBA's best. These days, it looks awful.
Denver's Danilo Gallinari broke a 106-106 tie by swishing a 3-pointer with 4:08 to play, and Darrell Arthur followed on the Nuggets' next trip down the floor with a trey from the right corner.
The slippage on that end of the floor accelerated Saturday night. The Denver Nuggets hit one easy shot after another and beat the Magic 121-113 at Amway Center.
Those baskets gave Denver the cushion it needed on its best offensive night of the season. The Nuggets sank a season-high 56.6 percent of their shots and also outscored the Magic in the paint 64-34.
Magic swingman Evan Fournier scored a game-high 24 points and dished out a team-high six assists, while Serge Ibaka added 22 points and four blocks.
The Magic (10-15), who were on the second night of a back-to-back, looked exhausted throughout the first half, while the Nuggets (9-15) seemed energized at times.
Orlando played its fourth game in five nights _ its only such stretch of the season _ and its eighth game in 12 nights.
Denver made 13 of its 23 shot attempts in the first quarter, and their made baskets only required simple shots, like layups or dunks.
Orlando now has lost three consecutive games.
Not only were the Magic tired and beaten.
They were battered and bruised, too.
Nikola Vucevic sat out after he injured his back the night before against the Charlotte Hornets, and Bismack Biyombo started despite a sprained left shoulder.
The injuries to Vucevic and Biyombo forced the Magic to hurriedly recall 20-year-old rookie center Stephen Zimmerman from his NBA Development League assignment in Erie, Pa.
The Magic missed Vucevic's rebounding desperately. The Nuggets tallied 17 second-chance points.
Magic coach Frank Vogel inserted Zimmerman into the game late in the first quarter _ the earliest Zimmerman has played in a regular-season game.
The Magic opened the second quarter with Elfrid Payton, Jodie Meeks, Mario Hezonja, Jeff Green and Zimmerman on the court, and the results were disastrous defensively. Denver rookie Juancho Hernangomez made three 3-pointers after he was wide-open on each of them.
Nuggets players had reasons to feel tired, too.
Nearing the end of a long road trip, they were playing for the sixth time in nine days.
The Nuggets started Saturday ranked 25th in the NBA in field goal percentage, having made 43.2 percent of their attempts.
On Saturday, they generated so many easy shots that they resembled the 1985-86 NBA champion Boston Celtics.
Denver made 31 of its first 55 shot attempts.
That started to change with attempt No. 56.
Jusuf Nurkic went up for a one-handed dunk attempt, but Ibaka stuffed it.
Seconds later, Ibaka launched a 3-pointer and sank it, forcing Nuggets coach Michael Malone to call a timeout.
Ibaka's trey cut Denver's lead to 78-73 and gave the announced crowd of 17,010 within Amway Center something to cheer.
It also gave his teammates a spark.
Soon, D.J. Augustin took a charge on Gallinari. And on Orlando's next trip down the floor, Augustin made a pull-up jumper.
After Denver's Emmanuel Mudiay missed a jumper, Fournier drove into the lane and made a floater, putting the Magic ahead 81-80, giving them their first lead since the first quarter.
The basket capped a 13-2 Magic run.
It wasn't enough.
When the Magic posted a 4-1 record on their recently completed road trip, they looked like they might have saved their season.
Now, they're in trouble again, with a tough road game looming in Atlanta on Tuesday night and a home game the next night against the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Magic had a chance to stop the bleeding Saturday night.
But their defense failed them.
