The
Denver Nuggets (31-23) hosted the
Dallas Mavericks (37-16) and jumped out to a 23-12 lead with
Aaron Afflalo hitting a 3-pointer during a 14-2 run.
Chauncey Billups was the man in the first quarter with 18 of his 30 points to lead the Nuggets to a 33-19 lead to end the quarter.
The Nuggets were lead by
Carmelo Anthony who had another big night scoring a game high 42 points with seven rebounds and three assists. Billups was the second leading scorer on the team and in the game with 30 points, five rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals and one block. Afflalo had 24 points giving the Nuggets three scorers in double digits with no one else scoring over eight points.
The second quarter began and
Jose Barea of the Mavs had a big period giving them a boost with 12 of his 17 points. The Nuggets pushed the lead to 18, but the Mavs battled back to tie the game at 54 behind the play of their bench. Their bench was the key to them getting back in the game scoring 31 of the 39 points the team had in this period. The Mavs had the lead at 55 to 54 after a Barea free-throw, but the Nuggets quickly bounced back to go into the half leading by one, 59-58. Melo kept the Nuggets in it with 11 points in that period.
The third quarter began and the Mavs looked like they were poised to take over the game. They went on a 13-2 run to take the lead. The Mavs finished winning the quarter 34-29 behind the hands of Marion, Chandler and Terry.
The Mavs were led by
Jason Terry off the bench with 25 points and
Tyson Chandler was the second leading scorer with 20 points with 11 rebounds and 2 steals.
Dirk Nowitzki added 16 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. The bench tried to give them a spark behind Terry with
Shawn Marion scoring 19 and Berea adding 17.
The fourth began and Dallas tried to pull away building a 13 point lead, but the quarter belonged to Afflalo who scored 19 of his 24 points to give the Nuggets the boost they needed to pull this victory off. Anthony fouled out with 19.6 seconds left in the game, and Afflalo took over with the score tied at 119. Dirk hit a free-throw and it was left up to someone to step in take over and Afflalo was in the right place at the right time.
The Mavs doubled down on Billups who kicked it over to Afflalo who shook Marion to get a free look at the basket and he knocked it down for the win. His shoot capped a nine-point comeback by the Nuggets with 2:51 left in the game.
Dallas will face the
Houston Rockets on Feb. 12, and Denver will face the
Memphis Grizzlies on Feb. 13.
