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Bobcats beat Nuggets, deny Karl No. 1,000

Dec 8, 2010 - 4:14 AM Charlotte, NC (Sports Network) - Stephen Jackson scored a team-high 23 points and hit some clutch three-pointers down the stretch, as the Charlotte Bobcats snapped Denver's seven-game winning streak with a narrow 100-98 win and denied Nuggets head coach George Karl a chance to earn his 1,000th career victory.

Gerald Wallace netted 20 points to go with nine rebounds and D.J. Augustin went for 18 points for Charlotte, which recovered from a 109-91 loss at Philadelphia on Saturday to win for the second time in three games.

Chauncey Billups led all scorers with 25 points, but missed a potential game- winning three-pointer in the final seconds for the Nuggets, who will try to give their head coach his milestone victory on Wednesday at Boston. Carmelo Anthony donated 22 points and seven boards in defeat.

"I thought tonight we made some good passes and didn't get rewarded early in the game," Karl said. "I thought we had numerous wide open looks. We just didn't make shots tonight off the pass."

The 59-year-old Karl, who missed the last two months of the 2009-10 season while undergoing treatment for throat and neck cancer, is trying to join Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Pat Riley, Jerry Sloan, Phil Jackson and Larry Brown as the only head coaches in NBA history to reach the 1,000-win plateau.

"He's done a marvelous job and he's overcome a lot," Bobcats head coach Brown said about Karl. "The way his team plays, I think they play the right way and it's a credit to him and I don't think he'll ever stop coaching. I think he'll continue to do well."

The game was tied 83-83 with 7:13 left in the fourth quarter before Augustin made a pair of three-pointers sandwiched around an Anthony jumper to put the Bobcats ahead 89-85.

Jackson then hit back-to-back threes a short time later to extend the Charlotte lead to 95-88 with 3:21 remaining and it would be a 99-91 game in favor of the hosts with 1:35 left after Boris Diaw's layup.

However, J.R. Smith hit a trey and after Kwame Brown made 1-of-2 free throws, Nene and Billups both drained a pair of foul shots to make it a 100-98 game with 30.8 seconds to play.

Billups grabbed Jackson's miss of an attempted three with 6.9 seconds left, raced the length of the floor, but was off the mark on a would-be game-winning triple from the baseline with a second to go. Jackson secured the rebound as time expired.

Tyrus Thomas' two free throws and dunk closed the first quarter to give the Bobcats a 21-16 lead after the opening 12 minutes.

Charlotte went ahead by double-digits, 27-16, on a Dominic McGuire tip-in, but Ty Lawson's reverse layup cut the Nuggets' deficit to 37-33 with 5:37 to go before the half.

After the Bobcats built their lead up to nine, 49-40, with 1:09 left, Arron Afflalo's layup finished off seven straight by Denver to make it a two-point game.

Wallace then hit a three to beat the buzzer and put the hosts up 52-47 at the break.

Charlotte never trailed in the third quarter and it extended its lead to nine at 71-62 following a Diaw layup, but the Nuggets closed with a 14-5 surge to even things at 76-all after three quarters.

Game Notes

Despite the loss, the Nuggets have still won four of their last six meetings with Charlotte...Thomas finished with 16 points off the bench...The Bobcats shot 50 percent from the field and made 9-of-20 from three-point range, while Denver made 42.5 percent of its shots and hit 11-of-27 from beyond the arc...Smith made 4-of-6 from three-point territory and ended with 14 points, while Nene chipped in with 12 points and seven boards for the Nuggets.