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Blake leads Nuggets in overtime victory

Feb 3, 2007 - 7:35 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Steve Blake missed key free throws in regulation but more than made up for it during overtime.

Blake scored eight of his 19 points in the extra session and dished a season-high 14 assists to lead the Denver Nuggets to a 114-107 triumph over the Portland Trail Blazers, snapping their four-game losing streak.

Carmelo Anthony scored 33 points and Nene added 20 for the Nuggets, who played without All-Star guard Allen Iverson for the second consecutive game due to a right ankle injury.

"It feels great to get that monkey off our back," Anthony said. "We all know we haven't been playing our best basketball but tonight I think we held our own on the defensive end. That was the determining factor of the win."

The Nuggets limited to Trail Blazers to just under 42 percent (35-of-84) shooting and forced 17 turnovers.

Blake missed 2-of-4 free throws over the final 22 seconds of regulation, allowing Portland to tie it at 97-97 on rookie Brandon Roy's 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds left. Roy felt he should have been rewarded with a free throw.

"I thought I got fouled," Roy said. "I felt like if I missed, they should have called something. He leaned into me, and they had a foul to give. ... You can't expect them to call it and we had a chance in overtime."

A former Trail Blazer, Blake scored six straight points - two layups and a jumper - to turn a one-point deficit into a 105-102 lead with 2:56 to play. J.R. Smith netted the next five points as Denver built a 110-104 with 1:57 to play.

"I just wanted to play well," Blake said. "I missed a couple of free throws before the end of the game and that cost us. In overtime I just wanted to make up for it and play well. It was just a great team effort tonight."

Blake shot 6-of-7 from the floor, had two steals and turned over the ball just twice.

"Steve Blake showed a lot of passion in that overtime," Denver coach George Karl said. "He didn't want to lose that game. He felt bad having missed those free throws I think. Without A.I.(Iverson), we don't have the penetration we normally have."

Smith finished with 17 points for Denver, which shot 53 percent (42-of-79) and outscored the Blazers, 31-0, on the fastbreak.

Zach Randolph scored 25 points and Roy added 22 for Portland, which shot 42 percent (35-of-84), including just 10-of-27 from 3-point range.

"Too many mistakes," Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. "You can't have 17 turnovers against a team like this. We take 27 threes against their defense, we gave up 31 fast-break points, you know, this was all us.

"We had an opportunity to win this game, we needed to be sharper in this game; ball movement, by settling for the 3-point ball, and then not taking care of the ball."

Smith and Anthony were involved in a minor car accident due to weather conditions on their way to the Nuggets' shootaround on Friday morning. Neither was injured.