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Foye powers Nuggets past Rockets

Apr 10, 2014 - 6:18 AM Denver, CO (SportsNetwork.com) - Randy Foye scored 22 of his 30 points in the third quarter to go along with 15 assists, helping the Denver Nuggets to a 123-116 win over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.

Kenneth Faried netted 23 points with nine rebounds and Timofey Mozgov had 22 points as Denver snapped a two-game losing skid.

Jeremy Lin paced Houston with 18 points, Chandler Parsons tallied 16 and Omer Asik recorded 12 points with 12 rebounds in the setback. The Rockets had their three-game winning streak snapped.

"I do think that we can sure up some things," Lin said. "I do think we should be concerned, but I don't think we should overreact."

Denver blew a double-digit fourth quarter lead Sunday on the road at Houston, and nearly did it again on Wednesday before holding off a furious rally late.

Evan Fournier opened the fourth with a 3-pointer that was followed with an alley-oop by Quincy Miller to stretch the Nuggets' lead to 110-88. Denver led by 20 when Houston ripped off 13 straight points to cut the deficit to 116-109 with under four minutes left.

Troy Daniels started the surge with a 3-pointer and Jordan Hamilton capped it with a trey to make it a single-digit spread.

Houston's Isaiah Canaan tipped in a Robert Covington miss to make it a four-point deficit, but Foye made a runner off an awkward angle and Fournier buried a three to push the margin to 123-114 with over a minute left.

Earlier, Faried scored 10 points over the first 6 1/2 minutes of the first quarter as the Nuggets raced out to a 23-8 lead. Minutes later, Denver built a 19-point cushion at 30-11 after Fournier split a pair at the line.

"The way they got us off to a good start in the beginning of the game was the key to the way the game ended up going," Nuggets head coach Brian Shaw said of Foye, Faried and Mozgov fueling the Nuggets early on.

Houston scored the final seven points of the period and trailed, 30-18, after 12 minutes.

The Nuggets led by as many as 16 in the second quarter before the Rockets trimmed the deficit to 68-58, at the break.

Houston got to within five a couple of times in the third quarter, but couldn't get over the hump as Foye helped Denver take control.

A Parsons jumper got the Rockets within eight with just over three minutes left in the period. Foye proceeded to scored seven points over the final stages with the Nuggets outscoring Houston, 11-2, to take a 105-88 lead into the fourth.

Game Notes

Fournier finished with 14 points ... Denver shot 50-of-101 (49.5 percent) from the field ... The Nuggets scored 17 points off of 15 Houston turnovers ... Houston was again without Dwight Howard (ankle) and Patrick Beverley (knee). Howard was a game-time decision but remained out of the lineup for a seventh straight tilt.