Antawn Jamison scored 29 points and Danny Fortson added 25 and 17 rebounds against his former team as the Golden State Warriors held off the Nuggets, 105-101.
Although his team-imposed four-game suspension for using an ethnic slur ended, Issel requested and was granted a leave of absence. With Mike Evans again assuming the coaching reins, Denver lost for the 12th time in 15 games.
"I am absoulutely surprised," Evans said. "The players and myself were coming into this game with a new frame of mind. The news was shocking that he wasn't coming today.
 Bob Sura looked to get his teammates involved, and recorded five assists. Bill Baptist NBAE/Getty Images |
The Nuggets had a 92-88 lead with 5:21 to go, but Jason Richardson's jumper tied it two minutes later and the Warriors scored the next nine points to take control.
Fortson, who is fourth in the league with 16 double-doubles, had eight points during the spurt. He finished the period with 10 and five rebounds.
During the outburst, the Nuggets missed 12 shots and committed three turnovers.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Raef LaFrentz and James Posey cut the deficit to 101-98. But Richardson made four foul shots to seal the victory, capping Golden State's 34-of-45 effort from the line.
"Danny Fortson was terrific," Warriors coach Brian Winters said. "He is an unbelievable rebounder. He takes up a lot of space and has tremendous hands. His scoring tonight was an added bonus."
Posey scored a career-high 33 points for the Nuggets, but leading scorer Nick Van Exel was held to 13 on 6-of-20 shooting.
"I just tried to accept my role and be ready to play every game," Posey said. "I'll take a win any day over a night like this. That's just the bottom line."
"Situations happen and we still have to come out and perform," Van Exel added.
Golden State had a chance to put away the Nuggets late in the second quarter. Jamison's jumper opened a 40-37 lead with 3:21 to play and the Warriors closed the half on a 9-3 run.
The stretch carried into the third quarter as Golden State made 6-of-12 shots to extend to a 72-59 lead with 3:21 left in the period.
But Denver used an 11-2 push early in the final period to get close.
"We make it hard on ourselves," said Winters, who improved to 3-2 since replacing Dave Cowens last week. "We've got young guys and we are still learning. When we got the lead, I told our guys to make those guys put the ball on the floor and don't allow them to make threes."
"This is deja vu from last night," Fortson added. "It just happened the other way around and we pulled it out. I personally play hard when I play against Denver. This is a good win on the road and we are a young team who needed this."