Miami – The Nuggets’ road to recovery has come on the road.
The Nuggets won their third consecutive game, 112-105 over the reigning NBA champion Miami Heat on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Denver opened the season 0-3 but recovered to .500 with road wins at Philadelphia, Charlotte and Miami.
“Yeah, a week ago you (media) had us buried and now we’re good,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “You guys are great. … I’m not going to say when we lost that third game that we were going to come out (on the road) and win. (But) I didn’t think we were that far away from winning.”
Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony scored a team-high 33 points and has scored more than 30 in four straight games.
Anthony’s friendly rival and USA Basketball teammate Dwyane Wade scored a season-high 37 points for Miami (3-4).
“It’s always fun playing against Dwyane, Miami and the champions,” Anthony said.
Almost overshadowed were big performances by Andre Miller and Marcus Camby.
Miller came close to a triple-double with a season-high 29 points, 10 assists and a season-high eight rebounds. Camby had a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. He also had four blocked shots.
“Andre had an incredible game,” Karl said. “Marcus was fantastic.”
Heat center Shaquille O’Neal didn’t play because of a hyperextended left knee and has missed his past three games against Denver. When word reached the Nuggets’ locker room before the game that the 7-foot-1, 310-pounder was not playing, there was a sigh of relief.
“Ooh, y’all lucky,” Nuggets guard DerMarr Johnson said to the big men within earshot.
“I was looking forward to it,” Nuggets forward Eduardo Najera said sarcastically. After making that statement, Najera bolted to the training room to tell Camby about the O’Neal injury by exclaiming, “Breaking news!”
The Nuggets jumped out to a 19-4 lead. Led by Anthony’s 10 points, Denver finished the first quarter with a 24-17 lead.
The Heat led 52-48 at halftime after outscoring the Nuggets 35-24 in the second quarter. Miami finished the third quarter with an 83-82 lead.
The Nuggets opened the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run, with Anthony resting on the bench, to take a 91-83 lead after a layup by Miller with 8:12 remaining. Anthony re-entered the game with 7:12 left and Denver ahead 91-85.
“Guys on the team were picking up, hustling, running the lanes and hitting shots,” Anthony said.
Said Miami coach Pat Riley, “We were ahead by one going into the fourth quarter, and we missed our first six or seven shots and that was it.”
Anthony gave the Nuggets a 95-85 lead on an alley-oop dunk with 6:20 left. Consecutive Heat 3-pointers from Wade and Antoine Walker trimmed the deficit to 106-100 with two minutes remaining, but the Nuggets held on.
A win tonight against Orlando would give Denver a winning record and a 4-0 road trip. But the Nuggets haven’t won in Orlando since 1992.
“We’ve got to get this win (tonight),” Anthony said. “We’ve got to get this one.”
Staff writer Marc J. Spears can be reached at 303-954-5449 or mspears@denverpost.com.
