Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points, All-Star sidekick Allen Iverson added 25 and the Denver Nuggets rolled to a 113-83 win Sunday night over the injury-depleted Cavaliers.
Anthony, who got to rest in the fourth quarter, improved to 8-2 in his pro career against good friend James, who scored 30 points – in three quarters – but got little help from a Cleveland team missing four key players, including two starters.
Though shorthanded, the Cavs have been able to get by playing good defense and came in 16-5 since Dec. 25. But from the opening tip on they didn’t do nearly enough to slow the Nuggets, who handed Cleveland its worst home loss since April 5, 2005.
Denver led by 11 points after one quarter, 18 at halftime and pushed its advantage to 26 by the end of the third. At the end of that period, James stormed off the court, took a seat at the far end of Cleveland’s bench and didn’t take part in coach Mike Brown’s huddle before the fourth quarter began.
Anthony, coming off a 49-point performance in a win against Washington, went 11-of-19 from the floor and added eight rebounds in 32 minutes. He, too, spent the fourth quarter on the sideline, savoring Denver’s fifth straight win over Cleveland.
Iverson added 13 assists and Marcus Camby 17 rebounds for Denver, which shot 63 percent in the first quarter.
The Cavaliers were again a shell of themselves as injuries continued to plague the Eastern Conference champions.
Drew Gooden missed his third game in a row with a strained right groin and Daniel Gibson , the team’s top long-range shooter, sat out his second straight because of a strained hamstring. On top of that, Cleveland didn’t have forward Anderson Varejo (sprained ankle) or swingman Sasha Pavlovic (sprained foot).
Also, Jones went to the locker room in the fourth quarter with a sprained ankle and center Zydrunas Ilgauskas was also forced to spend the final 12 minutes getting treatment for back spasms.
Denver led 63-45 at halftime and quickly upped its lead to 23 after Iverson opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer and Kenyon Martin scored inside. James helped trim Denver’s lead to 15, but Iverson and Anthony never relaxed and the Nuggets pushed their lead to 90-64 entering the fourth.
The Nuggets beat the Cavs 122-100 earlier this season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.