Nuggets 104, Suns 96
PHOENIX -- Guard Randy Foye stepped into the starting lineup and produced 31 points, including seven 3-pointers, and the short-handed Denver Nuggets beat the Phoenix Suns 104-96 Wednesday night.
Forward Darrell Arthur added 19 points and Will Barton 17 off the bench for the Nuggets (12-17), who dressed only 10 players due to illness and injury, blew a 22-point lead and still snapped a three-game losing streak thanks to 14 3-pointers.
Foye hit seven of 16 3-points and was five points shy of his career high, set almost six years ago with the Minnesota Timberwolves (Feb. 20, 2009).
Ronnie Price scored a career-high 20 points -- including six 3-pointers -- for the Suns. After rallying from 17 down to beat the Nuggets in Denver on Nov. 20, Phoenix wiped out an even bigger deficit this time but couldn't finish the job.
Guard Brandon Knight has 21 points and forward Jon Leuer added 18 for the Suns (12-19), who lost their third straight game and 10 of the last 15.
The Suns were within a point at 88-87 on a layup by Knight with 5:44 left. But the Nuggets put the game away with an 11-2 run over, with Foye and Barton hitting 3-pointers and forward Kenneth Faried scoring the other five for a 99-89 lead with 1:32 left.
Playing without starting point guard Jameer Nelson, among others, the Nuggets were down to 10 healthy players and playing on back-to-back nights. But they had plenty of energy early.
Foye, starting at point guard for Nelson (flu), hit three 3-pointers in the first six minutes and Arthur added nine more off the bench in five minutes. Denver hit 14 of 25 shots in the quarter and Nikola Jokic's finger-roll layup with 11.9 seconds left gave the Nuggets a 12-point lead at 33-21 after one.
Leuer had the first eight points of the game for Phoenix and Knight had nine of the final 13. But the Suns only had three players score in the quarter.
Thing got worse early in the second for Phoenix. Denver opened the quarter with a 17-7 run and pushed their lead to 22 at 50-28 with 6:50 left on back-to-back 3-pointers by Kostas Papanikolaou and Barton.
But the Suns stormed back the rest of the way, holding the Nuggets to six points for the rest of the half with pressure defense while their small lineup featuring guard Bledsoe, Knight and Price produced 17 points during a 22-6 run.
Price cut the lead to 56-50 with his second 3-pointer, a 22-footer just before the halftime buzzer, and the Suns were back in the game.
Hornacek stayed with the same lineup to open the third quarter and they responded again with a 12-5 run, with Price giving Phoenix its first lead at 62-61 on a his third 3-pointer with 8:48 left.
But as soon as that unit went to the bench for a breather, the Nuggets regained control. Foye capped a 14-1 Denver run with his fifth and sixth 3-pointers of the game the second restored the Nuggets lead to back to 10 at 77-67 with 1:09 to go.
NOTES: The flu bug is running through the Nuggets. Both G Jameer Nelson and assistant coach Dee Brown missed the game due to illness. Randy Foye got the start at point guard for Denver. ... F Danilo Gallinari (sprained left ankle) and G Emmanuel Mudiay (sprained right ankle) were out for the Nuggets, who dressed 10 players for the game. ... After starting G Devin Booker in place of Brandon Knight in the 110-89 loss at the Utah Jazz on Monday, Phoenix coach Jeff Hornacek went back to Knight as a starter but put C Alex Len in the lineup in place of Tyson Chandler. T.J. Warren got a second consecutive start over P.J. Tucker at small forward.