DENVER — Their homestand goals still firmly attainable, the Nuggets went about the work of putting Friday’s disappointment behind them and focusing on the Indiana Pacers.
And they got back on track.
Their defense took the night off, but their offense didn’t.
And, for that matter, neither did grit.
The Nuggets won a shootout Sunday night at the Pepsi Center, 129-126 over the Pacers.
The victory moved the Nuggets to 3-1 on this homestand, the only loss to Miami on Friday.
Beating the Pacers meant overcoming turnovers and a hot-shooting Indiana team.
And though the Nuggets were shaky on defense all game long, they got the one stop that mattered most — an Emmanuel Mudiay block on Paul George’s last-second 3-point attempt.
It was a back-and-forth affair.
Indiana rained down jumpers from all angles in the first half.
Forty-six of their 66 points came on jumpers as the Nuggets weren’t able to contest shots well. Monta Ellis was one of the Nuggets’ biggest problems.
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He hit five of his seven jump shots, two from 3-point range, and scored 15 first half points.
Turnovers put the Nuggets in bad situations.
The Pacers are the NBA’s best team at converting turnovers into points, and they held true to that form, forcing 10 Nuggets’ turnovers and cashing those in for 18 points in the first half.
Wild swings defined the third quarter. The Nuggets started on a 26-12 tear to take a two-point lead.
The Pacers answered with an 11-2 run to snatch the lead back and push it to seven points. That became a 13-4 run to end the quarter.
Defending was an issue throughout for the Nuggets.
The Pacers’ shooting percentage never dipped below 60 percent at any point in the first three quarters.
But the Nuggets figured things out in the fourth, scoring 45 points.
Danilo Gallinari scored 23 points before fouling out late in the fourth. With Gallinari on the bench, other players came through.
Will Barton hit a 3-pointer.
Mudiay’s monster dunk with 1:21 tied the game at 121. But George answered to give the Pacers the lead. A goaltending call on a Barton floater tied the game at 123.
The Nuggets got a stop and then Randy Foye knocked down a 3-point shot with 20.9 seconds to play, giving the Nuggets a 126-123 lead.
Barton scored 15 of his 21 points in the fourth and the Nuggets sizzled, making 15-of-22 in the final frame.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost
