Jokic Nears Triple-Double as Nuggets Hold Off Pacers' Rally to Win Mexico City Game 114-102

The air was thin in Mexico City, the lead was enormous, and for a while on Saturday night it looked like the Denver Nuggets might turn the NBA's latest trip south of the border into a laugher. Then the Indiana Pacers remembered they were still in the game, and the Nuggets had to earn every bit of a 114-102 win at Arena CDMX. Nikola Jokic did most of the early damage. The three-time MVP scored 10 of his 19 points in the opening quarter, and by the time the first half was nearly done, Denver had turned a four-minute Indiana scoring drought into a 15-0 run and a 64-37 lead, the biggest of the night. Jamal Murray's jumper with less than a minute left in the half put the exclamation point on it. The Pacers went into the break shooting 33.3 percent from the floor, 5 of 23 from three-point range, and outscored 30-16 in the paint. It was, by any honest measure, an abysmal half of basketball. What happened after halftime was the reason the building stayed loud. Indiana came out of the locker room and scored 37 points in the third quarter alone, nearly matching its entire first-half output, shooting 15 of 23 from the field and 7 of 12 from deep. Back-to-back three-pointers from Aaron Nesmith cut the deficit to 79-67, and a layup from Quenton Jackson with 1:16 left in the quarter made it a ten-point game. When Jarace Walker buried a three with 7:26 to play, the Pacers were within 102-95, and a 27-point blowout had become a genuine contest. That is when Denver's stars did what stars are paid to do. The Nuggets answered with six straight points to push the lead back into double digits, and Jokic and Murray closed the door from there. Jokic finished with 19 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists, two helpers short of a triple-double despite a 7-for-20 shooting night. Cameron Johnson added 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, Murray finished with 16 points and eight assists, seven of them coming in the fourth quarter, and Spencer Jones chipped in 13 off the bench. Pascal Siakam led Indiana with 23 points and passed 13,000 for his career in his 700th NBA game, a milestone that deserved a better result. Larry Nance Jr. hit five three-pointers for 15 points off the bench, and Ivica Zubac, in just his second game back from an ankle sprain, posted 10 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. The problem was the man he had to guard: Jokic got Zubac into foul trouble and held him to 19 minutes. Indiana played without All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton, who missed the trip with a hamstring strain, and the absence showed most in that first half, when the Pacers could not find a rhythm or a shot. There was at least one bright spot for the visitors. Veteran point guard T.J. McConnell made his season debut after missing the first nine games, scoring six points in nine first-half minutes in the thin air. Mexico City sits about 7,350 feet above sea level, higher even than Denver, and McConnell was on a minutes restriction and did not play in the second half. The game was the NBA's 35th played in Mexico, and the Pacers were the designated home team. Denver improved to 5-3 with its fourth win in five games, while Indiana fell to 3-7, losers of five of its last six. The Nuggets head to Houston on Monday night. The Pacers go to Dallas the same evening, still searching for the team that showed up in the second half.