It wasn’t supposed to be a stressful final 12 minutes in Indianapolis for the Nuggets on Friday night.
Denver held a 94-75 lead over the Pacers heading into the fourth quarter. The Nuggets to that point had limited Indiana to 45-percent shooting from the field, including 5-of-13 from 3-point range.
But in the fourth quarter the Pacers scored 42 points and hit eight 3-pointers, closing a 23-point lead to just five in the final minutes before the Nuggets held on.
The Nuggets are 26-8 this season when leading at halftime, but they’ve seen large leads come perilously close to slipping away several times recently.