Nuggets 115, Trail Blazers 111
DENVER -- Wilson Chandler hit a 3-pointer with 14.9 seconds left in overtime and the Denver Nuggets rallied from blowing a late fourth-quarter lead to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 115-111 on Tuesday night.
Ty Lawson had 24 points and 12 assists and Kenneth Faried added 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Nuggets, who have won five straight and improved to 15-2 at home. Denver is 2-0 in overtime.
LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 28 points and J.J. Hickson had 19 points and 13 rebounds for the Blazers.
Nicolas Batum had 22 points for Portland, which fell to 5-1 in overtime.
The Nuggets trailed by one when Danilo Gallinari, who finished with 25 points, hit a fadeaway 3-pointer that gave them a 109-107 lead with 1:08 left.
Aldridge scored the next four points for Portland to tie the game but Chandler responded with a corner 3-pointer to give Denver the lead for good.
Damian Lillard missed a desperation 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left and Chandler, playing in just his second game after missing two months, grabbed the rebound. Lawson hit a free throw with 2.2 seconds left to seal the win for Denver.
The Nuggets led 95-86 with 3:48 left in regulation but let the lead slip away. Wes Mathews hit a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left to tie it at 99 and send the game into overtime.
The Trail Blazers led by as many as seven in the second on the strength of Aldridge's 14 points in the first half. Lillard and Batum had 10 each before the break.
Lawson, who missed the shootaround because he wasn't feeling well, had nine of his 10 points in the first four minutes of the game. Faried kept Denver close with 17 points and eight rebounds in the first half but the Nuggets trailed 57-54 at intermission.
NOTES: Portland hit its first five 3-pointers and finished the first quarter 5-for-6 from long range. ...The home team has won the last 14 games between the teams. Portland has lost eight straight in Denver and has not won in Pepsi Center since Dec. 16, 2007. ... Nuggets coach George Karl is happy with the progress of 7-footer JaVale McGee. "He's basically where I thought he'd be," Karl said. "He played about 20 minutes a game last year for us. Right now we'd like to get him to be a 25-minute player and I think that's feasible. He's just got to understand that lazy and crazy isn't going to make it work. We want solid, we want fundamental. We want spectacular but only when it happens, not force the action where sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't." ... Aldridge is averaging 20.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in his last three games against Denver.