(Friday, April 6th)

Final Score: Denver 75, Dallas 71

Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Carmelo Anthony scored 23 points and dominated the final minutes as Denver came back to edge Dallas, 75-71, at the Pepsi Center.

Allen Iverson added 22 points for the Nuggets, who won their fourth straight game and are now 1 1/2 games ahead of the LA Clippers for the seventh spot in the Western Conference playoff race. Denver remains just one-half game behind the LA Lakers for the sixth spot.

"We set our standards on the defensive end high tonight," said Anthony. "Offensively we missed a lot of shots but we got it done."

Nene chipped in with 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets.

Dirk Nowitzki returned from a bout of food poisoning to score 22 points and pull down 11 rebounds for the Mavericks, who remain on top of the Western Conference with a comfortable lead. Jason Terry chipped in with 13 points, while Erick Dampier had 11 points and 13 boards.

"Denver had a much better second half then we did," Mavs coach Avery Johnson said. "We weren't very good offensively and took too many jump shots all night."

Denver took a precarious one-point edge into the fourth quarter but the Mavs scored the first six points in the frame to regain control. Nowitzki connected on consecutive buckets to cap the mini-run and give Dallas a 57-52 cushion with less than two minutes gone in the stanza.

The Nuggets hung around, however, and deadlocked things at 62 when Nene converted a three-point play with a little over six minutes to go.

Things remained tight as the game headed toward the stretch. A pair of Nowitzki free throws evened things at 71 with under two minutes to go. But, Anthony went back door to haul in an alley-oop with 1:11 remaining to give Denver the advantage, 73-71.

Anthony then sealed things by intercepting a cross court Nowitzki pass and then draining a pair of free throws with 9.2 ticks left.

The Mavericks used a stifling defense to take a 22-13 lead after the opening 12 minutes.

The defensive theme continued in the second quarter as the team's combined for just 32 points and Dallas took a seven-point edge, 37-30, into the locker room. Iverson and Anthony combined to shoot a miserable 6-for-24 in the half and the Mavs weren't much better, hitting on 33 percent as a team.

Denver finally got things going a bit in the third quarter behind Iverson. The enigmatic guard had nine points in the stanza as the Nuggets jumped in front, 52-51.

Game Notes

The 75 points Denver scored was a season low as was the 71 points Dallas mustered...Mavs forward Josh Howard sprained his right ankle in the first quarter and was held out the rest of the way...The Mavericks are now 29-9 on the road this season...The Nuggets are 21-18 at home this season...Denver's Marcus Camby had a game-high 14 rebounds.

04/07 01:45:33 ET