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Blake, Anthony lead Nuggets past Allen, SuperSonics

Jan 24, 2007 - 7:26 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Steve Blake picked the right time to get hot.

With Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony still garnering most of the attention, it was Blake who came up big down the stretch, hitting a pair of huge 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to lift the Denver Nuggets to a 117-112 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Iverson and Anthony show got off to a strong start Monday with a 115-98 home victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.

The duo played well together again against Seattle - including Iverson's 20,000th career point - but they needed some help to pull out the win and they got it from Blake, among others.

"I put (Blake) back in the game because he makes our team run better and operate better," Denver coach George Karl said. "It was great to see him hit a big shot and to see our team kind of trust him. It was a great win for us."

With Denver trailing by three, Blake made a 3-pointer for his first basket of the game, tying it at 106-106 with 2:35 to play. After Nene added a pair of free throws, Blake came up with a steal of an ill-advised pass by Ray Allen and hit another 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to strecth Denver's lead to 111-106 with 1:28 remaining.

"My job is to take open shots if I can get them, see how the flow is going, get guys the ball and take advantage of the spots," Blake said. "It was a showcase of some good scorers. What can you say about Ray Allen. He was hitting shots with guys in his face all night."

Anthony finished with 34 points and nine rebounds and Iverson added 21 points and 10 assists. Denver also got a solid contribution from its bench led by Nene with 17 points and seven rebounds and J.R. Smith, who scored 20.

"I thought for the most part we did what we wanted to do but we had a tough time with Carmelo," Seattle coach Bob Hill said. " In our zone he did a good job of driving and getting himself to the foul line."

Denver got big games from its superstars, timely shooting from Blake and big nights from its bench and it was still almost not enough to overcome Allen.

The sharpshooting guard scored 22 of his 44 points in the fourth quarter to help Seattle get back in the game.

"I tip my hat to Denver because they made plays down the stretch," Allen said. "We're putting ourselves in great situations down the stretch. It's just the fourth quarter where you win games."

The SuperSonics led, 60-53, at the half but were outscored, 32-18, in the third quarter and trailed, 85-78, entering the fourth. Allen scored Seattle's first 11 points of the fourth quarter and hit a 3-pointer with 3:45 to play that gave Seattle a 104-101 lead.

"If you don't get near his shot, he can shoot the ball from 28-30 feet," Karl said.

Iverson became the 30th player in NBA history to score 20,000 career points with a driving layup in the second quarter.

"Scoring 20,000 points honestly is a tribute to my teammates I've had in my career and the coaches that put me in the position to succeed," Iverson said. "My teammates are the ones who gave me the ball and set screens for me. I don't know why people think I only care about points. I think I've scored enough not to be worried about points. It's 'Melo's time to score 20,000 points."