Denver’s “big three” led the Nuggets to a win in New Orleans before potentially adding a fourth.

“We all had our times when we were scoring tonight,” Michael Porter Jr. said after a 113-108 win over the Pelicans. “I thought Jamal (Murray) played really well, facilitating (with) the ball tonight. Obviously, he had 11 assists. Joker (Nikola Jokic) always does what Joker always does — and then me, I just tried to knock down shots and pick my spots to be aggressive.”

The trio combined for 85 of Denver’s points in the team’s last game before Aaron Gordon and JaVale McGee are expected to join the squad. Jokic, the star of Denver’s basketball operation, led the Nuggets with 37 points, nine assists and six rebounds.

“He scores 37 points and didn’t even score any points from the free throw line,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “That shows you the talent he is.”

Porter hit five of six 3-pointers, adding 25 points and five rebounds, while Murray finished with a 23-point, 11-assist double-double. Beyond the hot shooting, Malone praised Porter’s defense on Brandon Ingram.

“I thought Michael’s defense tonight and his length on Brandon Ingram was spectacular, so I’m proud of our guys to end this road trip,” Malone said Friday, a day after the Nuggets acquired Gordon in one of the deadline’s biggest deals. “It’s been an emotional couple of days, and I’m proud of them for pulling it out.”

Ingram finished with 13 points on 30 shots a few days after scoring 30 in a win over the Nuggets on Sunday. Porter said he spent more time guarding the Pelicans wing than he did last week and just tried to make it difficult on another gifted scorer.

“Players like that, you just try to contain them,” Porter said. “You’re not going to necessarily lock players like that up. They’re still going to make some shots, but I try to make it tough for them, use my length to bother some of his shots.”

The combined effort was needed, as Zion Williamson scored a game-high 39 points, missing just three of his 19 shots, and grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out five assists. Denver’s Paul Millsap did his best to negate Williamson’s offense, scoring 16 points and grabbing seven rebounds.

“I thought Paul was terrific,” Malone said. “Zion is almost unguardable. You really need all five guys on the floor guarding him. He’s just so explosive, so shifty. He gets wherever he wants.”

Williamson scored 15 of his points in the first quarter, leading New Orleans to a seven-point lead. That advantage grew to 14 when the Pelicans’ star spun past Nuggets rookie Zeke Nnaji for another dunk. The Nuggets would get the deficit down to nine by halftime before a series of 3-pointers from Porter, Murray and Jokic helped the Nuggets regain the lead in the third quarter.

“We can all score,” Murray said. “Mike got into a rhythm. He was hitting shots at a high percentage. Joker shot (a high percentage) as well.”

The lead flipped back and forth over a stretch of the fourth quarter before the Nuggets got a couple of solid defensive plays. Will Barton III blocked an Ingram 3-pointer that would’ve tied the game with 14.4 seconds left, and Porter helped force a shot clock violation roughly 10 seconds later. Barton finished with three blocks – all after halftime – made two free throws with four seconds left to put the game away.

“That was a hell of a come-from-behind win,” Malone said.

“We stayed with it, executed, made big plays offensively, and then we had a couple of really big defensive stops.”

When the Nuggets return to action at home Sunday against Atlanta, they hope to get a look at what they have in Gordon.

“Hopefully, he’s going to fit in the system real quick, and we are going to have him on the court,” Jokic said.