Spencer Dinwiddie’s driving layup with under 30 seconds remaining lifted the Brooklyn Nets to a 105-102 win over the Denver Nuggets at Barclays Center Sunday afternoon, the 18th and final lead change in a back-and-forth game between Brooklyn and the Western Conference’s No. 3 team.
It was Brooklyn's ninth win in its last 12 games.
With the game tied at 97, Taurean Prince’s floater in the lane off a drive gave the Nets a 99-97 lead, but Denver’s Will Barton answered with a corner three to put the Nuggets up 100-99. In the final minute, Dinwiddie finished a drive for a 101-100 lead, but Nikola Jokic flipped in a reverse to put Denver back up with 30.5 seconds remaining.
Then it was Dinwiddie again, busting down the lane to put the Nets up 103-102 with 26.3 seconds remaining. Prince’s two free throws put the Nets up three with 7.8 seconds left.
Dinwiddie led Brooklyn with 24 points, plus eight assists.
Jarrett Allen posted another double-double, his seventh in the last eight games, with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Garrett Temple had 15 points and six rebounds and Joe Harris had 13 points. Prince grabbed 10 rebounds.
The Nets outrebounded Denver 48-37 and had a huge advantage in points in the paint, outscoring the Nuggets 66-22.
A halftime buzzer beater left the Nets trailing by a point at the break.
Brooklyn jumped out to an early 13-5 lead and was up 18-10 midway through the first quarter behind 10 quick points from Temple. Denver closed within 25-21 going into the second quarter.
The Nuggets evened the game at 32, and with the game tied at 34, the Nets scored seven straight on a Dinwiddie drive, three Harris free throws, and an Allen dunk off Prince’s drive and dish for a 41-34 lead. Brooklyn was still up 49-42 before the Nuggets outscored them 12-4 going into halftime, with Jamal Murray’s 3-point at the buzzer giving Denver a 54-53 lead.
Trading baskets over the first five minutes of the second half, the Nets and Nuggets had seven lead changes up through a Prince drive that put Brooklyn up 68-67. That was followed by two more rim attacks from Harris and Dinwiddie for a 72-67 Nets lead.
Brooklyn held that lead for the rest of the quarter, going up by as many as seven after a pair of back-to-back finishes by David Nwaba, and took an 82-77 lead into the fourth quarter.
Denver opened up the fourth quarter with back-to-back threes from Jerami Grant to reclaim the lead, and went on to make five of its first six threes in the quarter to go up 92-89 with seven minutes remaining.
Allen’s dunk and a Prince 3-pointer put the Nets back up 94-92 before another Grant 3-pointer, his fourth of the quarter. Harris answered to put the Nets up 97-95, but Nikola Jokic’s jumper tied the game at 97 with 3:13 remaining.