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Warriors avenge recent loss behind Davis' 28

Dec 31, 2007 - 5:01 AM By Blake Redabaugh PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) -- It wasn't as pretty as Friday night's game, but the Golden State Warriors will take the win.

Baron Davis scored 28 points and Stephen Jackson added 23 as the Warriors defeated the Denver Nuggets, 105-95, on Sunday night at the Pepsi Center to complete a home-and-home series.

The victory avenged Friday night's loss in Oakland, California, when Allen Iverson scored 39 points and led the Nuggets to a 124-120 victory at Oracle Arena.

"Maybe, this is one of those NBA things," Warriors coach Don Nelson said. "You play a team back-to-back and it's hard to win them both. I don't know why, but it just happens that way more often than not."

"It was a tough loss at home," Jackson said of Friday night's loss. "We just wanted to come on the road and be solid. We were able to get a lead and sustain it through the rest of the game and pull this win out."

The two teams could not match the pace they displayed on Friday night as they combined to shoot just 39 percent (66-of-169) from the field after shooting 46 percent (87-for-189) in the previous game.

The Warriors, who snapped a seven-game losing streak at Denver, ended the opening half on a 6-0 run and took a 55-51 lead into the break. Davis scored 18 in the first 24 minutes to pace Golden State.

Iverson's jump shot with 5:15 remaining in the third quarter capped a 10-3 run and gave the Nuggets their only lead of the second half at 67-66.

Golden State responded by bridging the third and fourth quarters with a 17-6 run that pushed the advantage to 83-73 with 9:22 remaining. Jackson contributed nine points during the surge.

Denver would pull within 87-83 on J.R. Smith's 3-pointer with 6:31 to play, but Matt Barnes responded with a shot from the arc and the Nuggets, who ended the game 4-of-18 (22 percent) on 3-pointers, would not get any closer than five points the rest of the way.

"It wasn't that same high-impact energy that it was on Friday night," Davis said. "(In the fourth quarter) we made a conscious effort to try and keep them as perimeter as possible knowing that they weren't hitting a lot of their outside shots. We were able to get the rebounds and get some easy baskets."

"We couldn't hit the open threes tonight," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "They got away with playing with a small team. It might be as bad a basketball game as I have seen my team play all year."

Al Harrington chipped in 18 points and Andris Biedrins added eight and 14 rebounds for the Warriors, who had 26 assists on their 37 field goals.

Anthony scored 26 points and collected 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who saw their four-game winning streak come to an end.

"They had a little more fight in them tonight," Anthony said. "We knew they were not gong to let us beat them two times (in a row). They were a better team tonight, you've got to take your hat off to them."

Iverson could not duplicate his performance from Friday night, scoring a season-low 13 points on 2-of-12 shooting for Denver.

"I just struggled tonight," Iverson said. "It was just one of those games. Every time I tried to penetrate, they would bring a lot of people to make me give the ball up."