Danilo Gallinari scored a season-high 19 points to lift the Denver Nuggets to a 76-73 win over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday.
Ty Lawson deposited 15 points with 10 assists and J.J. Hickson added 10 points off the bench for Denver, which has won two straight on the heels of a three- game skid.
Timofey Mozgov pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds and tied a career high with five blocks in the win.
David West led the Pacers with 19 points to go with 10 rebounds and C.J. Miles netted 16 points off the bench in the loss. Indiana has dropped 10 of its last 11 games.
The Pacers scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to make it 60-55. Denver then ripped off a 10-0 run highlighted by Mozgov's putback slam off a Kenneth Faried miss.
Indiana cut the deficit to one with 2 1/2 minutes left prior to Wilson Chandler's 3-pointer and Faried's dunk. Lavoy Allen converted a putback layup with 1:05 remaining to make it a 74-70 deficit for the visitors.
Donald Sloan pulled down a Miles miss in the closing seconds and nailed a trey to make it a one-point game with 1.2 seconds left. Arron Afflalo proceeded to knock down a pair of free throws with under a second on the clock to push the advantage to three. Miles was again off the mark from beyond the arc as the buzzer sounded and the Nuggets won their sixth straight over the Pacers at home.
In a forgetful first half, Indiana brought a slim 33-32 lead into the halftime break.
West had 11 points in the first quarter to help the Pacers to a 21-15 edge. Indiana then got cold. shooting just 3-for-19 (15.8 percent) from the floor in the second, but Denver didn't do much better and managed to trim the deficit to one after two quarters.
The Nuggets ended up tying the score at 55-55 entering the fourth.
Game Notes
Indiana has lost eight straight on the road ... Denver finished the game 30- of-82 (36.6 percent) from the floor while limiting the Pacers to 30 percent shooting ... Solomon Hill had 11 points in the setback ... There were nine ties and 14 lead changes ... Denver had a 48-18 edge in the paint.
[SportsNetwork.com]
