Nuggets 113, Raptors 110
DENVER - Corey Brewer had 19 points, JaVale McGee added 17 points and five blocked shots and the Denver Nuggets survived a late scare to beat the Toronto Raptors 113-110 on Monday night.
Kenneth Faried had 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who nearly lost a 17-point fourth-quarter lead before holding on to snap a three-game skid.
Denver led 103-86 midway through the fourth when Toronto came alive. Kyle Lowry, who led the Raptors with 24 points, scored 12 in the final period and led the rally. Lowry scored on a three-point play, Terrence Ross had a fast-break dunk and Andrea Bargnani hit a reverse layup as Toronto scored 11 straight points to make it 103-97 with 3:41 left.
Toronto outscored Denver 18-2 in a 3:49 stretch to pull within 105-104.
Lowry hit a pair of free throws to get Toronto within one, but it couldn't overtake Denver.
Ty Lawson hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 108-104, and after three missed shots by Toronto, Danilo Gallinari hit two free throws to make it 110-104.
Lowry and Amir Johnson hit 3-pointers around two free throws from Andre Iguodala to make it 112-110 with 7.9 seconds left.
Faried was fouled and hit one of two foul shots with 5.8 seconds left, and DeMar DeRozan missed a long 3-point shot at the buzzer that would have tied it.
Bargnani had 21 points for the Raptors, who lost for the seventh time in eight games.
Toronto trailed by 17 at half before Bargnani scored the first five points of the third quarter to pull the Raptors to within 61-49. They cut it to 11 on another 3-pointer from the 7-footer before Denver got the lead back to 17 on consecutive 3-pointers from Gallinari.
Denver led 89-75 after three quarters.
With help from their bench, the Nuggets began to pull away late in the first quarter. Brewer came in for Gallinari and made an immediate impact, scoring six quick points on dunks and a layup. McGee also scored four points for Denver, which ended the period on a 10-2 run to take a 29-24 lead.
The subs continued to push the pace in the second quarter to get easy baskets. Brewer had a dunk, McGee had a free throw and Jordan Hamilton added an alley-oop basket as the Nuggets stretched the lead to 38-26.
Things didn't get much better for the Raptors. Brewer hit a 3-pointer from the corner and had a tip-in that made it 45-32 and gave him 15 points in just 10 minutes. McGee had 11 at intermission.
The lead grew to 19 on six straight points by Hamilton.
DeRozan scored 14 points and Bargnani had 13 to keep the Raptors within striking distance, but Lawson hit a floater in the lane at the buzzer to give the Nuggets a 61-44 lead into the locker room at halftime.
NOTES: Raptors forward Linas Kleiza sat out with a sore left hip. He had an MRI done Monday but the results were not back. ... Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler, who has missed the last 10 games while trying to recover from offseason surgery on his left hip, will not join the team on its upcoming five-game road trip. ... Brewer briefly went to the locker room in the second quarter but was back on the bench before halftime.
