Recap: Pacers' third-quarter run not enough, Nuggets win 109-96
DENVER -- Wilson Chandler scored a season-high 25 points and the Denver Nuggets snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Indiana Pacers 109-96 on Saturday night.
Nate Robinson and Timofey Mosgov each added 15. First-year Nuggets coach Brian Shaw won in his first matchup against Indiana since leaving his job as a Pacers assistant to come to Denver.
J.J. Hickson had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Lance Stephenson scored 23 for Indiana. The Pacers split a road back-to-back set after winning the night before in Sacramento.
Paul George added 18 points and David West 16 for the Pacers, who lost for the eighth time in nine trips to Denver.
Trailing by 19 at halftime, the Pacers got back in the game in a hurry, opening the third quarter with a 16-3 run in which Stephenson had seven of his points.
The Nuggets responded with a 7-0 burst late in the third that helped them take a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter.
Roy Hibbert, who was held to five points, became the second Pacers player to foul out after drawing his sixth foul with 3:19 remaining. Still, the Pacers pulled to 101-94 when Stephenson made a pair of free throws with 3:14 left. But the Nuggets wouldn't let the Pacers finish off the comeback, getting five straight points on free throws, including a pair from the foul line on technicals on David West and Pacers coach Frank Vogel.
The Pacers managed one more basket down the stretch but that was more than offset by Hickson's emphatic dunk with 1:09 remaining, the final points of the game.
Denver was up 22-18 after the first quarter and began the second with an 11-0 run highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers by Robinson.
NOTES: The Pacers have trailed at halftime 19 times this season, going 13-6 in those games. ... Former Nuggets executive Carl Scheer was honored during pregame ceremonies. ... Chandler had 20 or more points for the fourth time this season. ... Indiana's Ian Mahinmi fouled out with eight minutes remaining.
