Denver Nuggets beat Pacers 114-102 in Mexico City as Spencer Jones returns

The Denver Nuggets opened their road trip with a 114-102 win over the Indiana Pacers at Arena CDMX in Mexico City on Saturday night. The win lifts Denver to 5-3 and gives the team back-to-back wins for the second time this season.

The final score makes it look closer than the game was. In his postgame breakdown for Mile High Sports, analyst Ryan Blackburn said Denver controlled the night. He pointed to a second-quarter stretch by the reserves as the point where the Pacers fell behind for good. That bench run is the part that matters most going forward. Denver's second unit has been the open question of the early season, and on Saturday it built the lead instead of giving one back.

Spencer Jones was a big part of that. He was back in the rotation after missing time, and Blackburn called his return impressive. Before the trip, Mile High Sports had looked at how Jones' return would reshape coach David Adelman's rotation. Saturday was the first look at that lineup, and it delivered. Nikola Jokic was seen celebrating at the final horn in Reuters photos from the arena, and the international showcase ended the way Denver wanted.

The result also continues a good stretch for Denver. The Nuggets have won four of their last five games. The only loss in that run was a 118-110 home defeat to Portland. The two most recent wins came by a combined 31 points: Saturday's 12-point win and a 128-109 win over Toronto earlier in the week. That's a big change from the start of the season, when Denver lost two of its first three games, including a 20-point home loss to Golden State.

What it means for Houston

The next stop is Houston on Monday, November 9, broadcast locally on ALT2/KTVD and 9NEWS. It's the first true road game of the trip after the neutral-site stop in Mexico.

The Nuggets have been better away from Ball Arena than their overall record suggests. They lost their opener 96-84 at Oklahoma City, the only game this season in which they failed to reach 100 points. Since then they have won at New Orleans (104-91) and at Phoenix (127-120). In those two wins they scored when they had to and held both opponents near their scoring averages.

Over eight games Denver is averaging about 115 points and allowing about 113. That margin is thin for a team with a 5-3 record, and it comes from the two lopsided losses to Golden State and Oklahoma City. In the five wins, the Nuggets have won by an average of about 11 points.

The number to watch Monday is minutes from the second unit. If Jones holds his place and the bench plays the way it did in Mexico City, Denver has a deeper rotation than it had for most of the first two weeks. A team built around Jokic can absorb an off night from its starters only if the reserves hold their ground. Saturday was the first real sign that this version of the bench can do that. A win in Houston would put Denver at 6-3 and give the road trip the start the team was hoping for.

Follow the rest of the season on our Denver Nuggets team page.