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Lawson leads Nuggets over Kings

Jan 27, 2014 - 6:22 AM Sacramento, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Ty Lawson scored 27 points with six assists to lead the Denver Nuggets to a 125-117 win over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday.

Wilson Chandler tallied 20 points and Kenneth Faried deposited a 15-point, 11- rebound double-double for Denver, which has won two straight on the heels of a three-game skid.

"In a second night of a back-to-back we came in here and handled our business and did what we had to do," said Nuggets coach Brian Shaw. "The guys know they have the day off tomorrow and I told them to leave it all out on the floor tonight."

Isaiah Thomas had 22 points and eight assists to lead the Kings, who were without Rudy Gay (Achilles) and DeMarcus Cousins (ankle) for a second straight contest.

Marcus Thornton netted 19 points, Jason Thompson contributed 13 points and 10 rebounds and Ben McLemore scored 18 points off the bench in the setback.

"I played with a lot of confidence out there, but at the end of the day we came up short," McLemore said.

Both teams shot 42-for-81 (51.9 percent) from the field, but the difference was 10 3-pointers made by Denver compared to just four for Sacramento.

Denver brought a slim 95-93 lead into the fourth and the Nuggets stretched their advantage to 108-100 early in the final stanza courtesy of a 9-3 run.

Thornton made a jumper a couple of minutes later to cut the deficit to 111-107 with 4 1/2 minutes to play. Lawson answered with a layup and Chandler followed with a jumper to push the lead to eight. Denver was 6-for-6 from the free- throw line in the final minute to help secure the win.

Sacramento led 31-30 after one quarter and the two teams went back-and-forth in the second before Denver went on a 13-3 run to take a 64-55 lead. The Nuggets went into the locker room up 65-59 at the break.

Game Notes

There were 11 ties and 23 lead changes in the contest ... Thomas converted 7- of-21 attempts from the field ... Denver outscored Sacramento 58-48 in the paint and 33-23 on the fastbreak ... Timofey Mozgov and Nate Robinson scored 14 and 12 points, respectively, in a reserve role for Denver.