DENVER-
Carmelo Anthony produced his fourth straight 30-point game with 31 points, George Karl returned to Denver’s bench and the Nuggets beat the struggling Sacramento Kings 120-115 Wednesday night.
Anthony, who also had eight rebounds and four assists, has scored 30 or more points 31 times this year and in 75 games in his career. Nene added 28 points and 12 rebounds for the Nuggets, winners of three straight.
Karl missed Tuesday’s game against the Lakers to be with his son, who had surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes.
“He’s doing great,” the coach said of his son. “I think we can move to another chapter. My big thing is to hopefully make Coby cancer free for the rest of his life.”
The win kept Denver in the hunt in the race for sixth place in the Western Conference. The Nuggets (38-36) began the day 1 1/2 games behind sixth place Los Angeles Lakers (39-33). The Lakers were playing the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
The Nuggets are 37-13 when scoring at least 100 points and 1-23 when they don’t.
Ron Artest led the Kings with 32 points. Kevin Martin added 26 points for Sacramento, which has lost four straight.
Sacramento (30-44) began the day 6 1/2 games behind the Clippers (36-37) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.
The Kings trailed by 16 after three quarters, but closed the gap to 99-90 early in the fourth quarter on Martin’s 3-pointer. But Nene had two rebound baskets over the next two minutes to put the Nuggets ahead 105-92 and Allen Iverson’s jumper made it 109-94 with 4:48 left.
Sacramento went on a 12-2 run to close within 111-106 with 1:42 left, but Nene made six free throws to secure the win.
Notes@: Sacramento and the Nuggets split the four-game season series to the Nuggets. … The Kings are 5-15 on the second night of back-to-back games. … John Salmons (2,003) reached 2,000-point plateau for his career with four points. … Nuggets coach George Karl returned to the bench after missing a game to attend to family matters. … Camby blocked Martin’s shot and sent him to the floor hard early in the first quarter. … F Eduardo Najera has missed five of the last seven games with contusion is left tibia.
