Despite holding the Los Angeles Clippers without a basket for nearly six minutes late in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets still lost, 82-80, as the Clippers collected just their second road win of the season.
Darius Miles' mid-range jumper put the Clippers up, 79-71, with 7:16 left. But Los Angeles went 5:39 without another basket and Denver went on a 9-0 run to take an 80-79 lead with 2:51 left.
The Clippers took the lead for good, 81-80, with 1:37 remaining on Elton Brand's layup. Brand grabbed Corey Maggette's missed shot and easily slipped across the lane for the basket.
 Darius Miles rises like a young salmon, but gets denied by a shot-blocking bear named Raef Lafrentz. William R. Sallaz /NBAE/Getty Images |
"We really needed this one before the East Coast swing," Brand said. "This road trip will show if we're a good team. We'll have to win some big games to get into the playoffs."
With 11.9 seconds left, Denver coach Mike Evans was whistled for a technical foul on what he believed to be a foul committed against James Posey.
After Raef LaFrentz's 3-point attempt was short, Posey grabbed the rebound. He went up for a shot in traffic and the ball went out of bounds.
Jeff McInnis made 1-of-2 free throws to make it 82-80 with 11 seconds left. The Clippers could have sealed the game three seconds later, but Odom missed two foul shots with 8.7 seconds to go to give the Nuggets a final chance to force overtime.
"We pulled this one out," Brand said. "Lamar had a chance to hit those free throws but he didn't, so we had to play defense. This was a big win. We would have been down if we would have lost.
Odom led the Clippers with 27 points on 12-of-21 shooting. Overall, Los Angeles shot 41 percent (33-of-80).
"It doesn't matter to me that Odom missed those free throws," Clippers coach Alvin Gentry said. "It wouldn't have mattered because of the way he was playing. That's what gets wins. We need to learn to let a lot of bad calls go and remember the next play is the most important."
Denver, which lost, 87-86, to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, had a chance to win despite leading scorer Nick Van Exel's absence. Van Exel was scoreless in 19 minutes and left the game in the third quarter with a lower back strain. X-rays were negative and he is listed as day-to-day.
"The group that healthy enough to play, played their tails off," Evans said. "They competed. Again we come up short, but I can't fault the effort at all. We were right there and we have to find a way to change that. We're finding ourselves coming from behind almost in every second half of the game."
But Posey, who scored 28 points, dribbled into traffic on the other end and was called for traveling. After he inbounded to LaFrentz, he got the ball back and Maggette and Odom collapsed on him to force the turnover.
"I turned it over, plain and simple," Posey said. "I got caught in an extra step. I saw Ryan (Bowen) and I was just trying to hit him. I'm fine, I just turned the ball over. I can live with that."
The Clippers had a chance to put away the Nuggets in the third quarter when Odom's 3-pointer gave them a 59-48 lead with 4:44 left.
But the Nuggets went on a 15-4 and tied the game 63-63, on Posey's 3-pointer with 1:26 remaining. However, he committed a turnover after that and Earl Boykins converted it into an easy layup with 5.5 seconds left that gave Los Angeles a 67-63 lead.