Nuggets 104, Trail Blazers 95
NUGGETS 104, TRAIL BLAZERS 95: Ty Lawson scored 11 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter as Denver defeated Portland for the seventh straight time at home.
Lawson’s 3-pointer with 4:09 remaining made it 101-91 as Denver won for the 16th time in the last 17 meetings with Portland at home and moved past the Trail Blazers into eighth place in the Western Conference.
Lawson, who missed the last two games with an ankle injury, added nine assists.
Rookie Kenneth Faried and Al Harrington had 13 points and 10 rebounds apiece for the Nuggets, who had seven players reach double figures in scoring. Timofey Mozgov added 14 and nine.
Jamal Crawford scored 21 points and LaMarcus Aldridge had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Trail Blazers.
Faried had eight points and four rebounds in the first six minutes and his driving bucket with 2.2 seconds left in the first half gave the Nuggets a 62-45 lead at intermission.
Denver shot 50 percent and outrebounded Portland 28-17 in the first half.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Denver is without leading scorer Danilo Gallinari (foot), who has missed the last 11 games, top rebounder Nene (heel, eight) and reserve guard Rudy Fernandez (back, five). … Arron Afflalo scored his 4,000th point as a Nugget on a 3-pointer in the second quarter. ... Denver is 22-2 in its last 24 at home against Portland.