In a duel between masterpieces from Nikola Jokic and Kyrie Irving, neither delivered the decisive blow.

Michael Porter Jr. attacked a closeout and buried 13-foot floater with 6.5 seconds left, and the Nuggets held on for a thrilling 122-120 victory over the Mavericks, completing a perfect five-game homestand on Sunday.

“What a weapon to have late in the game,” coach Michael Malone said. “Close game. One-possession game. Where someone who hasn’t touched or shot it in a while probably ends up taking the biggest shot of the night.

Jokic went for 37 points, 18 rebounds and 15 assists, making him the first player in NBA history to achieve that statistic. It was only the eleventh 35-15-15 game in regular season history, and his second. Irving scored 43 points on 17 of 22 shooting from the field. The only two three-pointers he missed were his last two. Peyton Watson challenged one of them to force an aerial ball and give Denver (7-3) a chance to break the tie. And Christian Braun contested the next one as time went on.

Jokic tapped in his own miss with 49 seconds left to tie the game and set up for Denver’s fifth win this season on its final possession.

“There are games where he gets triple-doubles, but they’re not close triple-doubles,” Porter said. “It’s not like it’s 22, 10 and 11. I mean, 37, 18 and 15 is pretty crazy.”

Watson continued to thrive in Aaron Gordon’s place among the starters, making all four 3-point attempts on his way to 16 points. Julian Strawther’s 12 points off the bench came at much-needed moments when the second unit needed an attack. Jamal Murray scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half. Porter scored 13 of his 17 in the first quarter.

“Mike went out early, and I obviously have to do a better job of keeping him going,” Malone said. “He’s playing at such a high level across the board. … It’s up to me to keep Michael Porter warm and make sure we feed him and watch him.

“But it generally happens with different players throughout the match,” Porter said when asked about his 34 minutes without scoring before the match winner. “When I get going, other guys might not touch it as much. When other guys get started, I might not touch it as much. So it’s not something I’m not used to. I got going in the first quarter and didn’t see the ball much after that, but I tried to stay ready throughout the second half in case I needed to make a big shot down the stretch. I tried to stay in the mindset that I was ready to score.”

For a while, it seemed like the Nuggets’ healthy offensive balance behind Jokic wouldn’t be enough to top one supernova of a game from Irving. He lit up Denver’s second unit for three quick long-distance jumpers in the fourth quarter, turning the Mavericks’ three-point deficit into a three-point lead. No one could stop him from getting into his spot — not Braun and certainly not the supporting cast that Denver tried to swamp Irving with.

“One of the best guards to ever handle the ball and one of the best guards ever,” Malone said. “… I felt like there were some shots that we could (say), ‘Hey, that’s a really hard shot.’ But there were also, we would have to take him off that three-point line, and we had guys who stood back and invited him to shoot. Those are the ones you need to take with you. It gets to a certain point where we have to send a body to him to get the ball out of his hands. And I still think we could have done that much better and relied on the fly-around (auxiliary rotations) behind that. I thought (against) OKC, we did a really good job. Tonight I thought it was good, but it will have to be better.”

On the other hand, Luka Doncic was held to 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting. New Maverick Klay Thompson scored just 10 points.

The Nuggets more or less survived a six-plus minute stretch early in the second quarter with Jokic on the bench and Doncic on the floor. It was tough at first. Russell Westbrook committed two turnovers, leading to easy buckets, and Zeke Nnaji missed a pair of free throws. But the period was extended by a lack of dead balls after Jokic went to the scorer’s table and Denver knocked back five straight points from Watson and Strawther.