DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic had 23 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds to become the career assists leader among centers, and the streaking Denver Nuggets beat the Orlando Magic 126-115 on Thursday night.
Jokic, who has 13 triple-doubles this season, entered Thursday six assists behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had 5,660. Jokic passed him with 6:26 left in the first half when he fed Jalen Pickett for a 3-pointer.
Click to Gallery
Denver Nuggets center Jonas Valančiūnas, left, looks to pass the ball as Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, left, looks to pass the ball as Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze, front right, and guard Noah Penda defend in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero, right, drives past Denver Nuggets guard Julian Strawther in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, front, drives to the basket as Orlando Magic guard Anthony Black defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, right, looks to pass the ball under pressure from Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Jamal Murray scored 20 of his 32 points in a game-turning second quarter for Denver, which won its sixth straight.
Paolo Banchero had 26 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists for his third career triple-double and first since March 20, 2024.
The Magic, already missing leading scorer Franz Wagner due to a sprained left ankle, played without Jalen Suggs, who sustained a left hip contusion in the NBA Cup semifinal loss to New York on Saturday night.
Wendell Carter Jr. also scored 26 points for Orlando.
Murray, who has never been named to an All-Star team in his eight seasons, is averaging a career-best 25.2 points this season and 28.1 in December, which includes a 52-point game at Indiana two weeks ago.
He made 5 of 6 3-point attempts in the second quarter after the Nuggets fell behind by 14.
Denver had 33 total points midway through the period and went on a 35-7 run in the final 6:26 of the half to turn a 47-33 deficit into a 68-54 halftime lead.
It was 81-60 a few minutes into the third quarter before Orlando rallied to cut it to 92-83. Cam Johnson, who finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, hit a 3-pointer out of a timeout that spurred another Nuggets surge.
The Magic got within 121-115 with 1:32 remaining but Johnson hit a corner 3-pointer to seal it.
Mavericks: At Utah on Saturday night.
Nuggets: Host the Houston Rockets for the second time in six days on Saturday afternoon.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA
Denver Nuggets center Jonas Valančiūnas, left, looks to pass the ball as Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, left, looks to pass the ball as Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze, front right, and guard Noah Penda defend in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero, right, drives past Denver Nuggets guard Julian Strawther in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, front, drives to the basket as Orlando Magic guard Anthony Black defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, right, looks to pass the ball under pressure from Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is delaying a massive free-trade deal with South American countries after fiery protests by farmers and last-minute opposition by France and Italy threatened to derail the pact, seen by its backers as an important geopolitical move for both continents.
Top EU officials had hoped to sign the EU-Mercosur deal in Brazil this weekend, after 26 years of negotiations. Instead, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday after a tense EU summit that the signature will be delayed ‘’a few extra weeks to address some issues with member states.''
Experts say the delay could dent the EU’s negotiating credibility globally as it seeks to forge new trade ties amid commercial tensions with the U.S. and China. Once ratified, the trade deal would cover a market of 780 million people and a quarter of the globe’s gross domestic product, and progressively remove duties on almost all goods traded between the two blocs.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the postponement, as did French farmers unions, who fear the deal would undercut their livelihoods. France had led opposition to the deal between the EU and the five active Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. Italy raised new reservations Wednesday.
Thursday's agreement for a delay was reached between von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa on the sidelines of the EU summit with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, on the condition that Italy would vote in favor of the agreement in January, an EU official said.
The decision came hours after farmers in tractors blocked roads and set off fireworks in Brussels to protest the trade deal, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water cannons.
The farmers brought potatoes and eggs to throw and waged a furious back-and-forth with police. Protesters burned tires and a faux wooden coffin bearing the word “Agriculture.” Their fire unleashed a black cloud that swirled with white tear gas. The European Parliament evacuated some staff due to damage caused by protesters.
“We are fighting to defend our jobs,” said Armand Chevron, a 23-year old French farmer.
Hundreds of farmers like Pierre Vromann, 60, had arrived on tractors, which they parked to block roads around the key institutions of the EU.
The Mercosur deal would be “bad for farmers, bad for consumers, bad for citizens and bad for Europe,” said Vromann, who raises cattle and grains in the nearby Belgian city of Waterloo.
Other farmers came from as far away as Spain and Poland.
Macron dug in against the deal upon arrival at Thursday's summit, and wouldn't commit to supporting the deal next month either. He said he has been in discussions with Italian, Polish, Belgian, Austrian and Irish colleagues among others about delaying it to address farmers' concerns.
“Farmers already face an enormous amount of challenges,″ he said, as farmer protests over the trade deal and a cattle disease roil regions around France. “We cannot sacrifice them to this accord.”
Worried by a surging far right that rallies support by criticizing the deal, Macron's centrist government has demanded safeguards to monitor and stop large economic disruption in the EU, increased regulations in the Mercosur nations like pesticide restrictions, and more inspections of imports at EU ports.
Italy's Meloni also warned against signing the agreement this week.
“Work is underway to postpone the Mercosur summit, which gives us a few more weeks to try to provide the answers our farmers are asking for, the safeguards that are necessary for our products, and thus enable us to approve the Mercosur agreement,'' she said early Friday.
Von der Leyen needs the backing of at least two-thirds of EU nations to secure the deal. Italy’s opposition would give France enough votes to veto von der Leyen’s signature.
In Greece, farmers have set up roadblocks along highways across the country for weeks, protesting delays in agricultural subsidy payments as well as high production costs and low product prices that they say are strangling their sector and making it impossible to make ends meet.
Supporters say the EU-Mercosur deal would offer a clear alternative to Beijing's export controls and Washington's tariff blitzkrieg, while detractors say it will undermine both environmental regulations and the EU's iconic agricultural sector.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said ahead of the Brussels summit, “If the European Union wants to remain credible in global trade policy, then decisions must be made now.''
The deal is also about strategic competition between Western nations and China over Latin America, said Agathe Demarais, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “A failure to sign the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement risks pushing Latin American economies closer to Beijing’s orbit,” she said.
The political tensions that have marked Mercosur in recent years — especially between Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei and Brazil’s center-left Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the bloc’s two main partners — have not deterred South American leaders from pursuing an alliance with Europe that will benefit their agricultural sectors.
Lula has been one of the most fervent promoters of the agreement. He was betting on closing the deal Saturday and scoring a major diplomatic achievement ahead of next year’s general elections. He said he was surprised by Italy’s hesitancy.
At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Lula was clearly irked by Italy and France's positions.
“If we don't do it now, Brazil won't make any more agreements while I'm president,” Lula said, adding that the agreement would “defend multilateralism” as Trump pursues unilateralism.
Milei, a close ideological ally of Trump, also supports the deal.
“We must stop thinking of Mercosur as a shield that protects us from the world and start thinking of it as a spear that allows us to effectively penetrate global markets,” he said some time ago.
Associated Press writers Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Elene Becatoros in Athens, Gabriela Sá Pessoa in Sao Paulo, and Sylvain Plazy and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
A protestor sits on a curb injured during a demonstration of European farmers near the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)
Police try to disperse protestors during a demonstration of European farmers near the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)
A protestor picks up tire to throw onto a fire during a demonstration of European farmers outside the EU Summit meeting in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)
Protestors burn tires during a demonstration of European farmers outside the EU Summit meeting in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with the media as he arrives for the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
A fire burns in a barrel as European farmers block a road with their tractors during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)
Police stand behind a barrier as European farmers block a road with their tractors during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks with the media as she arrives for the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
A farmer drives a tractor with a sign that reads in Dutch 'Don't forget, without farmers there's no food' during a demonstration outside a gathering of European leaders at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)
Farmers drive their tractors to block a main boulevard during a demonstration outside a gathering of European leaders at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marius Burgelman)
A farmer puts wood in a fire during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
Protestors and farmers stand next to a wood fire during a demonstration outside the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
Farmers use their tractors to block a main road during a demonstration outside a gathering of European leaders at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
