Nuggets collapse, Oladipo goes off in comeback OT win for Pacers
With just under three minutes to play Sunday, Denver Nuggets shooting guard Gary Harris took a dribble-handoff and drilled a three from the left wing, giving his team a seemingly comfortable 114-106 lead on the Indiana Pacers.
For the next 7:41 of game time, the Nuggets did not score. They seemed to collectively succumb to fatigue as their offense devolved into a mess of go-nowhere sets, head-scratching decisions, late-clock isos, and clanked contested jumpers. Over that span, they shot 0-of-10 from the field and committed five unforced turnovers - two passes that sailed out of bounds, a traveling violation, an offensive foul, and a 24-second violation.
And while the Nuggets were faltering, the Pacers ran up 20 points, first sending the game to overtime and eventually turning that eight-point deficit into a 12-point lead before Kenneth Faried mercifully made a layup with 13 seconds to play.
Victor Oladipo accounted for 12 of those 20 points on his way to a career-high 47. The Pacers' breakout star has played with a newfound killer instinct all season, but he's never been as savagely opportunistic as he was down the stretch of this game. When he wasn't carving out space with change-of-pace dribbles and canning off-the-bounce jumpers, he was attacking switches with gusto, driving to the rack with no hesitation, using his body to protect the ball, and laying up some astounding finishes.
41 points from @VicOladipo in regulation. (His career high is 45.) pic.twitter.com/E3wUEVZxJj
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) December 11, 2017
Oladipo didn't score the game-tying bucket at the end of regulation, but he may as well have. The Pacers got Wilson Chandler switched onto him again, and Oladipo blew right past him, drawing weak-side help from Kenneth Faried and opening up Thaddeus Young for an uncontested tap-in.
In overtime, he stuck in the dagger, gliding in for an up-and-under layup finish and popping a three off the dribble on back-to-back possessions to stretch the Pacers' lead to seven. All told, he shot 15-of-28 from the field, 6-of-12 from deep, and 11-of-13 from the line, adding seven rebounds, six assists, two steals, and a block for good measure.
Pinpoint team defense - aided by some Nuggets malaise - was what allowed the Pacers to mount their late-game run, but Oladipo took them home. We should probably stop waiting for him to regress. He very much looks like the real deal.