NEW YORK — First the crowd inside the Barclays Center groaned when Brooklyn Nets rookie Jarrett Allen could not slam home an alley-oop pass from D’Angelo Russell, as Allen shook his head while hanging on the rim.
The audible frustration grew seconds later, when the Nuggets’ Wilson Chandler drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing to push his team’s lead to 22 points.
That sequence perfectly captured the Nuggets’ third quarter their coach later called “phenomenal,” propelling Denver to its highest scoring output of the early season in a 124-111 victory Sunday night.
“That’s by far our best quarter of basketball on both ends of the floor,” coach Michael Malone said. “It was just a matter of doing what we’re doing with more intensity, more aggression, more commitment.”
Denver outscored Brooklyn 40-21 in the third quarter, including a 22-6 run to start the period to flip a halftime deficit into a comfortable advantage. The Nuggets held the Nets to 7-of-26 from the floor in the period, igniting its offense that made nearly 60 percent of its attempts.
A pull-up jumper by Jamal Murray gave the Nuggets a 66-64 lead. Three consecutive buckets by Paul Millsap increased that advantage to 76-67 about midway through the period. Chandler’s driving layup gave Denver a double-digit lead, before a Nikola Jokic 19-footer pushed it to a game-high 26 points with less than two minutes remaining in the period. The Nets never got closer than 11 points in the final period.
What worked so well for the Nuggets during that decisive third quarter?
“Everything,” Jokic said. “The ball was going in. Everybody made shots. Everybody passed the ball. We got wide-open shots. That’s how we want to play.”
Source: denverpost
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