DENVER — Allen Iverson scored 26 points and Carmelo Anthony added 24 to help the Denver Nuggets snap a three-game skid with a 123-107 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night.
J.R. Smith scored 22, hitting six 3-pointers, and Anthony Carter had a season-high 10 assists.
The Clippers have now dropped six of their last seven games.
Corey Maggette finished with 26 points in his second game back from a strained right hamstring. He missed four games due to the injury.
Chris Kaman had 16 points, but was a rebound shy of his fourth straight double-double. Brevin Knight had a season-high 13 points.
The Nuggets were coming off their most lopsided defeat of the season, a 127-99 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.
They blew a 17-point lead in the game against the Lakers.
Denver trailed the Clippers by 10 in the early stages of the game.
However, the Nuggets quickly rallied back and took the lead for good, 26-24, on Anthony’s runner in the lane with 36.6 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
The Nuggets built the lead up to 20 points heading into the four quarter, and Los Angeles wasn’t able to trim the lead to under double digits. The Clippers went on a 9-0 run late to cut the lead to 12, but Denver’s Yakhouba Diawara ended the threat with back-to-back 3-pointers with just over two minutes remaining.
Los Angeles played without guard Sam Cassell, who was hobbled by a strained left calf. Cassell suffered the injury while guarding Houston’s Rafer Alston on Monday night.
Kenyon Martin played more than 32 minutes Friday night, scoring nine points. He logged 22 minutes the night before against the Lakers.
The Nuggets are being cautious with Martin’s gimpy knees. He recently missed a game with a bone bruise in his right knee.
Martin has missed 106 games the last two seasons due to microfracture surgeries on both knees.
Notes:@ Los Angeles coach Mike Dunleavy remains stuck on 158 wins with the Clippers. He’s tied with Jack Ramsay as the winningest coach in team history. His team has dropped four straight since tying Ramsay’s mark. … Los Angeles assistant coach Kim Hughes played for Denver from 1978-80 and was an assistant for the Nuggets for five seasons. … Anthony has scored 10 or more points in 147 straight games, the longest active streak in the league. Boston’s Kevin Garnett had scored 10 or more in 411 straight games before an eight-point performance on Thursday night.
