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Nuggets down Hornets for sixth straight win

Feb 2, 2013 - 5:54 AM Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Andre Iguodala scored 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting in leading the Denver Nuggets to their sixth straight win with a 113-98 victory over the New Orleans Hornets at Pepsi Center.

Ty Lawson recorded 21 points and 13 assists in a balanced effort for the Nuggets, who got 18 points from Danilo Gallinari and 17 from Corey Brewer.

Denver had 32 fastbreak points thanks to forcing 22 turnovers.

"I think any time you can get to turning them over, that creates a mental frustration and a mental fatigue," said Nuggets head coach George Karl, who on Friday was named Western Conference Coach of the Month for January. "The points off of turnovers gave us the confidence to win the game."

Ryan Anderson led New Orleans with 21 points, while Anthony Davis provided a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds in the club's third straight loss. Robin Lopez and Greivis Vasquez also netted 13 points apiece in defeat.

The Hornets scored 10 of the first 11 points of the second quarter to break a 26-26 tie, but Brewer sparked a 15-2 run with a jumper and 3-pointer and ended it with a pair of dunks for a 42-38 lead at the midway point.

New Orleans trailed at halftime, 51-48, and pulled within one on several occasions in the third quarter, the last time at 62-61 on Eric Gordon's floater with 7 1/2 minutes on the clock.

Iguodala responded with a three-point play off a putback, and Kenneth Faried followed his own miss with another bucket inside to give the Nuggets a little breathing room. Lawson's buzzer-beating 3-pointer provided Denver with an 85-78 cushion.

After shooting 60 percent from the field through the first three quarters, the Hornets missed six of their first seven shots of the fourth to go down by double digits.

Iguodala drained a 3-pointer and hooked up with Faried on an alley-oop slam during a 7-0 run that extended Denver's lead to 102-86 with 3:44 to go.

"Playing against veteran teams like Denver, it is hard to overcome (that deficit)," Hornets head Coach Monty Williams said. "It got away from us for four or five minutes."

The closest it got from there was eight points.

Game Notes

Faried logged 13 points and nine rebounds ... The Nuggets, who turned it over only nine times, registered 14 steals and improved to 16-3 when collecting 10 or more steals ... Nuggets center JaVale McGee missed a third straight game with a sprained left tibia ... The Hornets have yielded 100 or more points in seven of their last eight games.