LONDON (AP) - Italian star Danilo Gallinari and the Denver Nuggets made themselves right at home at O2 Arena.
Gallinari scored 18 points and had what coach Mike Malone said was easily his best game of the season to help Denver beat the Indiana Pacers 140-112 on Thursday night in the NBA’s Global Games series.
“Just to come back to Europe and play in front of these fans, it was great,” said Gallinari, who wore knee-high socks adorned with the Union Jack and London skyline. “Hopefully, the fans had a good show.”
The Nuggets snapped a five-game losing streak and ended the Pacers’ five-game winning streak.
“I joked with our guys after the game, ’I think we’re going to stay here in London and play our home games here,’” Malone said. “Our guys were very comfortable out there and we had one of our best performances.”
Nikola Jokic had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Wilson Chandler added 21 points for the Nuggets. They outscored the Pacers 39-20 in the third quarter, shooting 73.7 percent in the period to put it away.
Denver trailed only once, when Kevin Seraphin gave the Pacers a 31-30 lead early in the second quarter, and finished with a season high in scoring.
C.J. Miles had 20 points, and Jeff Teague added 14 points and nine assists for Indiana. The Pacers had won five in a row, scoring at least 120 points in each victory.
“We didn’t show up tonight. I don’t have a reason for that,” Pacers coach Nate McMillan said. “Denver, they came, showed up and played well, and I didn’t think that we showed up tonight.”
The Nuggets had conceded at least 120 points in each of their five losses, and when Malone asked players before the game what the key to victory would be, Gallinari who spoke up and said defense.
Gallinari, matched one-on-one with Indiana scoring leader Paul George for much of the game, held his counterpart to just 12 points on 2-for-12 shooting.
Gallinari made three 3-pointers in the first 3:08 to set the tone. Denver made six of its first 10 3-point attempts and finished 15 for 32 from the perimeter.
Kenneth Faried added 15 points for Denver. He punctuated the Nuggets’ dominance with an alley-oop from Jameer Nelson that brought the sellout crowd of 18,689 fans to their feet with 8:55 remaining.
After conceding their only lead, Indiana held Denver within four points for much of the second quarter, but three careless fouls - two by center Al Jefferson - and a succession of converted free throws pushed the Nuggets back out on top.
Jokic, who missed Denver’s last game because of an illness, scored 11 points and had five rebounds in the third quarter alone. A minute after knocking down a pair of free throws, he hit a 3-pointer from the right, then made another jumper as part of a 14-4 run by the Nuggets.
A RECORD MARGIN
The game marked the fifth consecutive year the NBA has held a regular-season game in London and the seventh overall. In winning by 28 points, the Nuggets set a record for the largest margin of victory overseas, topping the 23-point victory by the Phoenix Suns over the Utah Jazz in Tokyo on Nov. 2, 1990.
SEEING THE SIGHTS
The teams arrived Monday and had the better part of the next three days to practice and see the sights. The Pacers visited Westminster Abbey, Kensington Palace and the Churchill War Rooms at the Imperial War Museum, while the Nuggets visited Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.
AN EXPANDING REACH
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said before the game that the league is committed to increasing the number of regular-season games it plays internationally, but that the team doesn’t have any firm plans at the moment to take games to new locations. One possibility Silver said the league is closely examining is holding a preseason game in Australia.
TIP-INS
Pacers: Indiana has beaten the Nuggets away from home since Nov. 27, 2007, now a span of eight games. … Thaddeus Young, who entered averaging 1.42 steals this season, needed two to reach 1,000 in his career. He was not credited with a steal against Denver.
Nuggets: Darrell Arthur sat out the game with soreness in his lower left leg. … Juan Hernangomez, from Spain, received a round of applause upon entering the game for the first time with 3:18 left. He finished with four points.
UP NEXT
Pacers: Indiana hosts the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day showdown. The Pacers lost 102-95 in New Orleans on Dec. 15 and the Pelicans have not won at Indiana since Jan. 16, 2010.
Nuggets: Denver will welcome the Orlando Magic, also on Monday. The Nuggets won the first meeting, 121-113, on Dec. 10 after Gallinari broke open a back-and-forth game with a late 3-pointer.
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