Carmelo Anthony missed a second game running due to his knee injury, but it didn’t matter as the Denver Nuggets held off a belligerent surge down the stretch by the Toronto Raptors to pull off a 123-116 win.
The win was especially important for the Nuggets coach George Karl, who after a two match frustrating wait has finally earned his 1000th win as a head coach, becoming only the seventh coach in the league’s history to accomplish this coveted feat.
Toronto came into Friday’s match having lost the last six games on a trot against the Denver Nuggets and were hoping to turn the tide. The Raptors did put up a valiant fight, but could not come to terms with the shooting prowess of a red hot Nuggets offence,
spearheaded by Al Harrington.
The maverick forward, came off the bench to score 31 points on a 12-for-19 field goal shooting and nailed six, in 11 attempts from beyond the arc, to lead all scorers. Nene scored 26 points while Chauncey Billups made his presence count with 21 points and
8 assists as Denver romped to their 14th win of the season.
The match started at a vociferous pace as both the teams shot more than they missed and the match was generally hung in balance throughout the first period.
The match was tied 9 times within the first 10 minutes of the game as both the teams pushed for dominancy. It was the Nuggets who got the first break as they surged ahead with a 9-4 run in the final minute of the first quarter.
Staring at a 39-33 deficit, the Raptors sprung back immediately as Ed Davis and Linas Kleiza made two consecutive shots and Toronto finally got into the lead as Kleiza ripped in a three pointer to cap a 13-4 run. The Nuggets responded quickly, tying the
game with a J.R. Smith 3-pointer and the match again went into a deadlock.
However, it was the Nuggets again who broke the deadlock as they pulled away with a 19-6 spurt bridging the second and the third quarter to gain a 78-67 lead and never looked back.
The Nuggets continued to up the ante and as Gary Forbes made his fourth shot in a row midway through the third quarter to hand a 93-74 advantage to Denver, their biggest of the match.
The Raptors though had still some fight left in them as they scored six consecutive points at the end of the third period to close the gap at 86-98 and their surge did not stop there. Toronto hit the ground running with an offensive game entering the final
quarter and assaulted the Nuggets ring with an array of accurate shooting, both from inside the circle and from downtown.
With 46.9 seconds left on the clock, the Raptors push reached its climax as Andrea Bargnani 3-pointer brought them within striking distance at 116-120, sending chills down the spines of the Nuggets.
The Nuggets though held their nerves and Chauncey Billups slipped three free throws in the last 20 seconds to seal the match.
Four Toronto players featured in the double figures with Andrea Bargnani leading the front with 26 points, but they could not match the phenomenal shooting rate of the Nuggets (56.6%) as Raptors slumped to their 15th loss of the season.
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