Takeaways from Nuggets’ heartbreaking loss to Pacers

The Denver Nuggets lost a heart breaker in Indiana.

Throughout much of this game, it looked as if the Denver Nuggets actually had things under control. Especially with two minutes left in the fourth quarter as they were up by a score of 114-108. Sadly, they choked and Indiana took advantage thanks to the monster effort from Victor Oladipo.

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They allowed Victor Oladipo to have a career night, scoring 47 points while shooting 53.6% from the field along with him dishing out six assists as well. Don’t be fooled though, Gary Harris still had a solid game posting 21 points along with five boards. Unfortunately, it was just Victor’s night and Gary could not keep up defensively.

Trey Lyles was one of the silver linings for the Nuggets in this loss. He recorded a team high 25 points and also shot a very efficient 60% from the floor. Lyles continues to impress Nuggets Nation and show he is getting more and more comfortable in the offensive scheme. It will be interesting to see how his minutes are allocated once Jokic returns from injury.

However, the last stretch of the game is what really killed the Nuggets. The game was right there for the taking and they let it slip out of their grasp. Denver became too complacent with the lead and the end result was a crushing overtime loss on the road.

The Nuggets allowed way too many three point shots as Indiana shot an extremely high 40% from deep in this game. On the other side, Denver did also shoot 40.5% from three as well. However, the turnovers are what really hurt them. The Nuggets committed 21 turnovers compared to the Pacers 11. Way too high, especially against a team like the Pacers who are flying high currently.

It was an extremely tough way to lose, but Denver should at least learn to never get comfortable with a lead after this experience.