’Melo leads Nuggets over Kings

Nene added 28 points and 12 rebounds for the Nuggets, who nearly blew a 21- point halftime lead but still held on to win their third straight contest. Allen Iverson and J.R. Smith tallied 16 points each and Marcus Camby had 15 points and 11 boards for Denver, which will remain in the seventh spot in the Western Conference playoff race.

Denver pulled within one-half game of the Lakers for the sixth spot and remain one game ahead of the Clippers. The Lakers lost the Clippers, 90-82, on Wednesday night.

Ron Artest had 32 points and Kevin Martin tallied 26 points to lead the Kings, who have lost four in a row and seven of eight.

Denver led for most of the contest, building a 33-25 lead after one quarter and using a 17-5 run early in the second to build a comfortable cushion. Ahead 33-27, the Nuggets went on their burst with Smith capping it with a bucket with under eight minutes to play for a 50-32 cushion.

The lead later reached 20 points for the first time after Anthony hit a pair of free throws for a 62-42 advantage with just over three minutes to play i the half. Later, a Camby bucket in the final seconds of the stanza gave Denver a 71-50 cushion at the break.

Sacramento, which trailed 95-79 after three quarters, made it a game in the fourth. The Kings scored 11 of the first 15 points of the frame to draw within 99-90 with a little more than half the quarter to play.

Later, Kevin Martin scored four points during a 10-0 run that drew the Kings within 109-104. Justin Williams’ bucket with 2:30 left ended the burst, but Sacramento couldn’t get any closer than that the rest of the way.

Game Notes

Denver head coach George Karl returned to the bench after missing Tuesday night’s game to be with his son, Coby, who underwent surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes on Monday...These two teams split four meetings this season...Mike Bibby had 14 points and Shareef-Abdur Rahim had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Kings.