DENVER—Anthony Carter hit a floater in the lane with 0.8 seconds left in double overtime to give the Denver Nuggets a 112-111 win over the shorthanded Houston Rockets on Thursday.
Carmelo Anthony scored 37 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, and Allen Iverson had 36 points and nine assists for Denver, which ended a two-game losing streak.
Yao Ming had 26 points and 19 rebounds and Luther Head scored a season-high 22 for the Rockets, who have lost three straight and five of their last six. Houston was without leading scorer Tracy McGrady, who sat out with a sore left knee.
Yao’s two free throws with 4.5 seconds left gave the Rockets the lead, but Carter, who had six points in the game, hit a 15-footer for the winner.
Chucky Atkins, who missed the first 24 games of the season with a groin injury, hit an 18-foot jumper with 20.1 seconds left to give Denver a 110-109 lead. Shane Battier had given the Rockets a 109-108 lead with 35.3 second left with a 3-pointer.
Houston led 106-103 before Atkins, who had 13 points, hit a 3-pointer with 1:32 left.
The Nuggets led 100-97 in overtime but a free throw by Rafer Alston, who had 18 points, with less than a minute left in the period sent the game to a second overtime.
The Rockets trailed 94-87 with 1:40 left in regulation but scored the final seven points, the last on a 3-pointer by Head.
Anthony, who had eight points on 2-for-17 shooting in the first half, found his stroke in the third quarter. He hit all eight of his shots in the period, and after making a 21-foot jumper from the wing to give Denver a 69-63 lead, he pumped his fist. He scored 16 points in the period. He hit his first shot of the fourth quarter before a 19-footer rimmed out.
The Nuggets led 44-42 at halftime thanks to their advantage from the free-throw line. Denver outscored Houston 12-2 from the foul line in the first half, when the Rockets were whistled for 11 fouls to the Nuggets’ five. Houston didn’t attempt a foul shot until Yao went 1-for-2 from the line with 1:30 left in the second period.
Denver trailed 27-23 early in the second when Iverson, who had 18 of the Nuggets’ first 26 points, scored on a three-point play and Atkins hit two 3-pointers to spark an 11-2 Denver run.
The Rockets used the 3-point shot to take the lead after the first quarter. Head hit two of them and Alston another to help give Houston a 23-18 lead heading into the second period.
Notes:@ Nuggets F Kenyon Martin left the game in the second half with a leg injury and did not return. … Head started in place of the injured McGrady, who was hurt in the first half of Houston’s loss to Orlando on Wednesday. … Rockets G Steve Francis was not with the team because of the flu.
