NEW YORK -- The first 30 minutes were going well for the Brooklyn Nets as they held their biggest lead of the season and seemed to avoid their frequent struggles in third quarters.

Then the rest of Wednesday's game turned into a full-fledged boxing match with the Denver Nuggets countering with rebounding and shot-making to turn an apparent laugher into a tense Nets win that was seriously in doubt.

Eventually the Nets withstood those blows, and despite blowing a 29-point lead, they held on for a 116-111 victory over the Nuggets.

"We took two punches, maybe five punches and we got off the floor and finished it out," Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson said. "I really think again offensively, I felt like they started switching some of our pick-and-rolls and we got stagnant. We didn't see some post-ups. I thought we should have seen on the switch and settled for some ill-advised shots quite honestly."

Brook Lopez scored 24 points as the Nets (6-15) placed five starters in double figures and won for the second time in 10 games despite getting outscored 48-24 in the final 17:56 while missing 23 of their final 29 shots.

"It shows great mental strength and persistence the way we held on," Lopez said.

Sean Kilpatrick added 22 points while Bojan Bogdanovic had 19 points and Trevor Booker collected 15 and 12 rebounds as the Nets posted their sixth straight victory over Denver. Reserve Joe Harris contributed 16 and rookie Isaiah Whitehead totaled a career-best 14 for Brooklyn.

"They threw a couple of punches at us and we were able to kind of counter them with the fact that we started getting more physical at the end," Kilpatrick said.

Wilson Chandler led all scorers with 11 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter for Denver, which held a commanding 58-42 rebounding advantage and attempted 20 more shots than the Nets.

Will Barton added 15 for Denver, which gave up 27 points on 17 turnovers. Nikola Jokic and Jameer Nelson added 14 apiece for the Nuggets, who scored 32 points in the final 12 minutes.

The frantic comeback attempt occurred shortly after Denver coach Michael Malone was ejected by Derrick Stafford for arguing a foul call on Danilo Gallinari when the Nets were up 81-60 with 7:43 left in the third.

"When he got ejected, that was the plan, to try to get something going," Chandler said. "We were down. There was nothing happening and I think that kind of lit a fire under us."

Before getting tossed, Malone watched his team give up the first 11 points as the Nets collected 42 points inside en route to a 68-52 halftime lead for Brooklyn.

"I told our team at halftime that Brooklyn was on pace for 84 points in the paint, which just shows signs of no resistance, no fight," Malone said. "But I tell you, I am proud of our guys, getting down by 29 points and cutting it to three or four, whatever it was late. We got a couple of good shots that just didn't go down for us but we didn't roll over. Twenty-nine points didn't become 50 and I'm happy about that."

The counters by Denver were subtle at first.

The Nets held a 92-63 lead with 5:56 left on a 3-pointer by Whitehead, and the Nuggets gradually came back, finishing the quarter with a 16-4 burst. Denver kept coming and got the margin to single digits for the first time since late in the first quarter when Nelson hit a finger roll layup with 8:26 remaining.

About four minutes later, Kenneth Faried's hook shot sliced the lead to 103-99. The Nets regained their double-digit edge with 1:46 remaining, but with 16.3 seconds left, it was down to 111-109 following a corner 3-pointer by Chandler following two Denver rebounds.

The Nets then needed some proficiency at the line and a little luck to finish it. They got both as Nelson threw an inbounds pass out of bounds while Bogdanovic and Kilpatrick hit free throws in the final 12.7 seconds.

NOTES: Denver C Nikola Jokic was active and recorded his third double-double of the season in 21 minutes, after missing three games with a sprained left wrist. Coach Michael Malone's main concern before the game was how Jokic would handle contact, especially defensively. ... Brooklyn F Sean Kilpatrick played eight games with Denver last season. Malone was asked if he was surprised about Kilpatrick's success this year. "Not to me. I'm a huge fan. I was last year," he said ... Nets G Isaiah Whitehead had his jersey retired Tuesday at Lincoln High School in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. ... Brooklyn swingman Caris LeVert played nine minutes in his NBA debut and recorded three steals. He was the first Net to record at least three steals in his debut since Chris Childs had four on Dec. 27, 1994, against the New York Knicks.