Cavaliers 117 - 109 Nuggets
Final
  for this game

Cavs close out western trek against Nuggets

Jan 17, 2014 - 3:24 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Cleveland Cavaliers will try to end their western road trip with a winning record Friday night when they visit the Pepsi Center to meet the Denver Nuggets.

The Cavs, who own the second-worst road mark in the league at 4-17, defeated the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers on the sojourn, but fell to the Sacramento Kings and most recently, the Portland Trail Blazers.

The score was knotted at 96-96 when Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge put the team on his back with a personal 6-0 run. Wesley Matthews and Damian Lillard followed with 3-pointers to seal the 108-96 victory for the Blazers.

Newly-acquired Luol Deng led the Cavs in scoring for the second straight tilt with 25 points, while Kyrie Irving dropped 21 points in the setback. Dion Waiters chipped in 18 off the bench as Cleveland fell to 4-4 in January.

Tristan Thompson finished with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Anderson Varejao only had eight points, but pulled down 14 boards.

"You have to give LaMarcus Aldridge credit," Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown said. "He hit some tough shots down the stretch, they came up with a couple of tough rebounds, for kick-out threes and it kind of discombobulated us a little bit when they scored."

The Cavs return to the Q on Monday for five straight.

The Nuggets had a five-game winning streak snapped in Utah on Monday, but they rebounded with a great road victory over the Golden State Warriors, 123-116, on Wednesday.

During this great stretch, the Nuggets are averaging 117.7 points per game and the 123 they put on the Warriors was the third-highest total for Denver in its last seven.

J.J. Hickson was the difference in Wednesday's win over the Warriors. He grabbed a career-high 24 rebounds and supplied 13 points, including the first four of a game-closing 8-0 spurt.

"J.J. Hickson was a monster on the boards," Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said.

With Denver trailing 116-115 and just over a minute to play, Hickson buried a pullup jumper to put the Nuggets on top before stripping Stephen Curry at the other end and going coast-to-coast for a two-handed dunk and a 119-116 lead.

Ty Lawson, who went 4-for-4 from the foul line late, finished with 22 points and 11 assists, Nate Robinson registered 24 points off the bench, and Wilson Chandler chipped in 22 points and six boards for the Nuggets.

Randy Foye, who grabbed a key offensive rebound down the stretch to keep Denver's hopes alive, finished with 21 and Timofey Mozgov added 10 in a reserve role.

The Cavaliers beat the Nuggets by 10 in Cleveland on Dec. 4, but have lost 10 of their last 13 in Denver.






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