INDIANAPOLIS -- Before he began his postgame news conference Wednesday night, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle asked the room for a reminder of the exact extent of the run the Nuggets went on the close the second quarter, seemingly looking to check his math and make sure that the margin in that five-minute stretch was greater than the difference in the final score.

That was in fact the case. Denver blew the game open with a 22-3 run to close the first half and made it a 25-3 run when Jamal Murray started the third quarter with one of his 10 3-pointers in a 52-point explosion. The Pacers actually outscored the Nuggets 72-63 in the second half but still lost 135-120 , so the 15-point margin of defeat was four points smaller than the gap the Nuggets created in the last 4:41 of the second quart

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