INDIANAPOLIS — The Nuggets needed this.
They needed freeing power a road game can sometimes provide.
They needed the shooting they knew their players had in them.
They needed a win.
And Friday night, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, they got one. A big one. Their six-game losing streak was snapped in a confidence-building 108-87 victory. It wasn’t big because of the opponent — the Pacers came into the game 3-6 — but big because, well, they got it, and also because of the way it happened.
“We were on a six-game losing streak, and everyone was losing their minds,” Nuggets guard Ty Lawson said. “But it’s early in the season, and we have a chance to turn it around. This was a right step in doing that.”
The Nuggets dominated Indiana the same way they were dominated by the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night. And they did it by playing their best 48 minutes of the season from an effort standpoint — and from a shooting standpoint.
The Nuggets entered the game shooting 41 percent as a team in the first seven games. They hit 49.4 percent Friday night. They entered the game allowing opponents to shoot 46 percent. The Pacers could only muster 40.5 percent in the face of a Nuggets defense that flew around on its rotations, contested shots, cleared defensive stops by getting the rebound and played with the most passion it has this season.
“Our defense was active and was flying around,” Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said. “We had the effort. We had the energy. We had the intensity.”
There were a number of players who had important contributions to the bottom line — but maybe just as importantly for themselves.
Danilo Gallinari came off the bench and hit his first three shots, two of them 3-pointers, on his way to 12 points.
Gary Harris had a stellar debut, scoring 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field. His early points helped get the Nuggets on track after a slow start.
Arron Afflalo has been frustrated at not being as involved as he should have been in the offense. That wasn’t a problem Friday. He caught the ball looking to score, and he did, leading the team with 17 points.
There wasn’t a player who didn’t contribute something positive to the win. The Nuggets held a 30-27 lead after the first quarter, and that quickly ballooned to 18 by halftime, then to 33 points in the third quarter. In a span of 48 hours they went from losing by 17 to winning by 21.
“It feels good to win,” Gallinari said. “And a great win, too. We’re on the road, and we were able to win by a pretty good margin.”
And now the question is: Was this an isolated game or the start of the Nuggets playing the kind of basketball they believed they could? Saturday’s game at New York will provide more information to that query.
But on this night, the Nuggets played Nuggets basketball.
On this night, they could finally smile.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
