Andre Iguodala’s defensive stop in the final moments helped the Nuggets survive a nerve-racking finish against the Pacers.
Iguodala made a free throw with 0.4 seconds remaining after forcing a turnover to deny a last-second shot by Indiana, and Denver won 102-101 Monday night.
‘’I’ll admit I was a little nervous (about) missing those other free throws,’’ said Iguodala, who had misfired on four consecutive free throws earlier in the fourth quarter. ‘’But we put ourselves in a bad position by giving up some buckets.
‘’Up 12 and put yourself in a position to give it away. But take a positive out of it, that you were able to gut it out. Got a big defensive stop and then got lucky and hit a free throw.’’
Iguodala finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, making up for his 5-of-10 shooting from the free throw line with the one at the end along with the defensive play of the game when he stole the ball from Paul George as the Pacers’ guard manoeuvred for a potential game-winning shot.
‘’It’s happened a couple of times, last-second shots and guys have come at me,’’ said Iguodala. ‘’It’s so surprising. I’m like, ‘Really?’ I take pride in being a defender and getting stops.’’’
Iguodala signalled for time out with 0.5 seconds remaining. On the inbounds, Andre Miller lobbed a pass toward the basket that Iguodala and George both went after with George making contact and getting called for the foul.
‘’I knew he was going to throw it up,’’ Iguodala said of the lob that both he and George jumped for. ‘’I was just trying to get my feet set to go get it. George was off balance. It was kind of a pass interference play, and it just happened to work for us.’’
Iguodala coolly sank the tiebreaker and missed the second on purpose and the buzzer sounded as the ball rattled off the backboard.
George, who led the Pacers with 23 points, declined to comment after the game.