It was mostly smooth sailing between a sloppy start and unfocused finish for the Nuggets on Wednesday at Smoothie King Center.

Here are three takeaways from Denver’s 125-118 win over the Pelicans in New Orleans:

1. James Borrego lost a bet against Peyton Watson. New Orleans’ interim coach decided to double team Nikola Jokic from the jump with the help frequently coming from the player matched up against Peyton Watson, who continued to start in place of injured Christian Braun. Watson made the Pelicans pay. He shot it confidently from the jump and surpassed his previous career-high of 24 points by the middle of the third quarter. He recorded his first 30-point game and first double-double of his career in the middle of the fourth quarter. He finished with 32 points, 12 rebounds and three assists in 34 minutes, good for the best game of his young career.

2. Nuggets coach David Adelman had a tough decision to make pregame. Denver ruled out Aaron Gordon with bilateral hamstring injury management an hour before tip-off. The Pelicans announced Zion Williamson would be active soon after. Without Gordon or Braun available, Adelman decided to give Zeke Nnaji his first start of the season in Gordon’s spot to guard Williamson, who made his first three shots in the opening 5 minutes. Williamson finished the game with 14 points and needed 13 shots to get there. He also committed three turnovers. The Nuggets also used Spencer Jones, a double-big lineup with Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas and some zone against the Pelicans’ explosive power forward, but Nnaji handled more of the responsibility than anyone else. Nnaji didn’t score outside of a couple of free throws, but his defensive effort went a long way in keeping the Pelicans’ star in check.

3. That was a promising bounce-back performance from Valanciunas against one of his former teams. Denver’s new backup big man played fewer than 5 minutes against an undersized Bulls squad on Monday and finished Denver’s disappointing loss with two points and a couple of rebounds. It was his least productive game in a Denver uniform. Valanciunas got back to being a steadying force for Denver’s second unit in New Orleans. After an uncharacteristically sloppy start from Nikola Jokic, Valanciunas grabbed six rebounds in the first half and finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. His clutch jumper after Jokic fouled out in the final minutes effectively sealed the win for Denver.

NUGGETS 125, PELICANS 118

What happened: New Orleans took a four-point lead to the second quarter, but Denver led 62-58 at halftime. The Nuggets extended the lead to 14 to start the fourth quarter and improved to 11-3 on the season.

What went right: Nikola Jokic had his triple-double before the end of the third quarter. He finished with 28 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds before fouling out in the final minutes. He made 10 of 18 shots and 6 of 7 free throws.

What went wrong: Jokic was also the main culprit of Denver’s turnover issues. He committed four turnovers in the first quarter and finished the night responsible for nine of Denver’s 20 turnovers, which led to 24 of the Pelicans’ points.

Highlight of the night: Peyton Watson benefited from Jokic’s best pass of the night. Jokic had the ball on the right block in the middle of the fourth quarter and dropped a behind-the-back bounce pass into the middle of the lane. Watson caught the pass, went up and finished with a two-handed slam over Trey Murphy III.

Up next: The Nuggets are off to Houston for Friday’s NBA Cup game.