Michael Porter Jr. made his long-awaited return to Denver on Thursday. The matchup had been circled on his calendar since the Nuggets salary-dumped him to the Brooklyn Nets alongside a first-round pick in an offseason trade for Cam Johnson. Despite a heroic 38-point effort from Porter, the Nets came up short during a 107-103 down-to-the-wire loss.

Before the game, Porter said he has no hard feelings towards the Nuggets, calling the trade to the Nets a win-win.

“I would say it’s a very unique situation where both organizations are benefiting from the trade,” Porter said. “I don’t look back at it with any saltiness toward the organization. They got a lot out of trading me, not only Cam, but Val, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., who’s playing amazing. So I think it's cool. I still keep up with them. They've been able to stay afloat when Joker, AG, and CB are out, and I don't know with some of our roster last year, if some of those guys went down, that it would've been the same. So it probably was one of those unique trades where it worked out for everybody.”

Despite his comments, Porter's demeanor from the opening tip was that of a player determined to show the Nuggets what they had lost.

Michael Porter Jr.'s 38 points in return to Denver not enough as Nets fall to Nuggets

Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. (17) shoots the ball over Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) in the second half at Ball Arena.
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Despite Denver placing all of its defensive focus on him, the 6-foot-10 forward posted a season-high 38 points on 12-of-25 shooting from the field and 7-of-15 from three. He added 10 rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks.

The Nets battled back from a 19-point deficit to take a two-point lead with 3:15 remaining. However, as has been the case during several recent losses, they couldn't generate the clutch offense to pull out the win.

Porter ran out of gas down the stretch while facing constant double-teams, shooting 2-of-7 from the field and 1-of-5 from three in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Jamal Murray turned in one of his best clutch performances of the season. The All-Star hopeful scored on four consecutive possessions in the final three minutes to secure the win for Denver.

Murray finished with 27 points and six assists on 9-of-16 shooting.

“There was a little [extra] motivation [on my end],” Porter said. “We should’ve pulled it out, though. I felt like I missed a couple shots I should’ve made down the stretch… We came all the way back and took the lead. I gotta help finish that out… I wanted to get the season sweep of these dudes… But that's what Jamal does. He's been doing it for a long time. It was tough being on the other side of that.”

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Porter received a tribute video and a standing ovation from the Ball Arena crowd during the game's first timeout.

“It felt cool being back here and getting the love from the fans… I'll probably rewatch the [tribute] video on Instagram. It's just cool. The memories I had here and the fans recognizing that,” he said.

Brooklyn was without Egor Demin, Noah Clowney, Cam Thomas and Ziaire Williams on Thursday on the front end of a back-to-back. Denver was missing Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Johnson.

The Nets' highest scorers outside of Porter were Terance Mann with 12 points and Nic Claxton with 10 points. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 25 points on 7-of-11 shooting from three for the Nuggets, while Peyton Watson added 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field.

The win marked the Nuggets' 10th in their last 16 games since Jokic went down with a knee injury. Denver sits in third place in the Western Conference, a half-game behind the San Antonio Spurs for second.

Meanwhile, the Nets have lost seven straight and 15 of their last 17 games. The cold stretch has moved them into fourth place in the draft lottery standings, 1.5 games behind the Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans for the league's worst record.