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Randolph, Grizzlies end Nuggets' win streak

Mar 17, 2015 - 5:39 AM Memphis, TN (SportsNetwork.com) - Zach Randolph had 21 points and 16 rebounds and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Denver Nuggets 92-81 on Monday night.

Marc Gasol and Tony Allen added 14 points apiece and Nick Calathes scored 12 for the Grizzlies, who increased their lead over idle Houston to 2 1/2 games atop the Southwest Division.

Jameer Nelson scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Nuggets, who had a four-game winning streak snapped, falling one victory shy of matching a season best.

Denver was coming off a 118-111 win over New Orleans in double-overtime on Sunday to open a five-game road trip.

"Our guys were fighting," Nuggets interim head coach Melvin Hunt said. "I'm proud of the effort."

The Nuggets took their first lead of the game with an 11-0 run to start the third quarter, which was capped by Nelson's layup to make it 48-47. Memphis didn't score in the second half until Randolph's jumper 4 1/2 minutes in.

The Grizzlies led 65-63 going into the fourth quarter and never trailed the rest of the way. The scored was tied with 4:54 remaining but the Grizzlies scored seven points in a row over a two-minute span following a 20-second timeout and were never ahead by fewer than five points the rest of the way.

"We just buckled down," Randolph said. " We just played hard and got the stops when we need to."

Randolph had eight points and nine rebounds in the first quarter and the Grizzlies led by as much as eight.

They pushed the margin to 11 after an 8-0 run in the second quarter sparked by four points in a row from Beno Udrih and led by 10 at halftime behind 12 points and 13 rebounds from Randolph.

Game Notes

Memphis won the season series 2-1 ... Randy Foye scored 16 points for Denver and Wilson Chandler had 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds ... Allen had nine rebounds for Memphis and Gasol blocked three shots ... Memphis goes on the road to play Detroit on Tuesday ... Denver continues its road trip on Thursday against Houston.