Michael Porter Jr. understands the question, but he still doesn’t have a great answer.

Why is it that his hot starts to games flame out so often?

“It’s something we’re collectively still trying to master, you know, like continuing to find guys shots throughout the game, because sometimes we play different in the first quarter than we do in the fourth quarter,” Porter said after his 22-point performance in Friday’s 122-120 loss to Orlando at Ball Arena.

“It’s a tough balance. When you’ve got a lot of guys who are very capable, sometimes you go long stretches without really touching the ball. For me, I kind of realize if I’m going to get some shot attempts up, it’s going to have to come in the flow of the game or I’m going to have to really, at times, be aggressive.”

Porter’s 4-for-5 start against the Magic helped the Nuggets build a nine-point lead at the end of the first quarter. He scored Denver’s first two points on a floater two minutes into the game. From there, he drove and finished a tough reverse layup, hit a pull-up 3 and a heavily contested 19-foot jumper, his most difficult shot of the night. He scored nine points before he missed his first shot with under five minutes left in the opening quarter.

His second quarter started with a clean jumper from a step behind the free throw line after his shot fake took Chuma Okeke out of the play. He was 6 for 7 with 14 points after some textbook Nuggets ball movement produced an open 3 on the right wing.

The 25-year-old missed his final two shots of the first half but got back on track in the third, hitting back-to-back jumpers to start the third. Despite missing his final two shots of the quarter, Porter had 19 points on 13 shots through three quarters. After taking four or five shots in the first three quarters, he took just one in the fourth, a corner 3 that cut Orlando’s lead to one point with seven minutes to play.

“It’s tough because we do got a lot of guys who, game-to-game, it could be a different hot hand … that’s a blessing and a curse sometimes. I don’t know,” Porter said. “Maybe the answer is staggering a couple of the starters with the bench unit. I don’t really know the answer, but I do feel like there are times in the game when, you know, Aaron (Gordon) doesn’t touch the ball for an extended period of time or myself or (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) has some games where he’s getting two, three shots up and he’s on the floor (for) 35 minutes. I think it’s definitely a tough balance to find, and that’s really up to the coaches, you know. That’s their job. That’s not our job, so we just do what we’re told, try to space the floor the right way, play through the big fella and that’s all we can do. I think as the season goes on, we’ll continue to get better and better at finding that balance.”

Big fella, also known as Nikola Jokic, has the freedom to dictate Denver’s offense. Sometimes it looks like he diagrams a play on the fly, directing players to different parts of the court to take advantage of the hot hand or a mismatch. When asked if he puts any extra emphasis on trying to find players when they’re hot, Jokic didn’t have a great answer, either.

“I don’t know. I’m just trying to play the game. I’m trying to win a game,” Jokic said.

“For me, open man wins. Is it me or is it someone else (who’s open)? If you take a shot (and) you miss, I’m going to be fine with that.”

There are times when Jokic and Jamal Murray’s two-man game is operating at such a high level that it makes the most sense for Porter and Caldwell-Pope to provide as much space as possible by spotting up at the 3-point line, forcing their respective defenders to make an impossible decision. It’s either give Denver’s best shooters a good look or provided help on the Nuggets’ two biggest stars, but Murray had more shot attempts (23) than points (20) against Orlando. Murray missed all six of his 3-pointers, while Caldwell-Pope went 0 for 3. With Porter’s 4-for-6 mark from 3 removed, the rest of the Nuggets went 5 of 27 (18.5%) from 3.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone needed to review the tape before he offered a real assessment of Denver’s shot selection in the fourth quarter, but he didn’t seem too concerned with his team’s process in the immediate aftermath.

“Our shots were OK,” Malone said of the final period, which Orlando won 27-22. “Obviously, the starting backcourt was 0 of 9 from 3. That doesn’t happen very often with Jamal and KCP.”

It also doesn’t happen very often for Porter, who’s made multiple 3s in 11 straight games. He shot under 30% from deep in just two of those games. While Friday’s game was the most recent example of Porter’s shot attempts declining as the game goes on, it’s far from the only example. In a nine-point loss to the Clippers on Dec. 6., Porter made all four of his shots in the first quarter and finished with 11 points. He missed his only shot of the second quarter, went 3 for 3 in the third and did not attempt a shot in the fourth, finishing the loss with 18 points on eight shots. He had 17 points on 14 shots through three quarters of the Christmas Day win over Golden State and finished the game with 19 points on 17 shots.

“It’s still a balance we’re trying to figure out,” Porter said.