PORTLAND, Ore, Feb. 23 (Ticker) -- The new-look Denver Nuggets performed much like the old edition and lost their fourth straight game, 101-90, to the surging Portland Trail Blazers.

Juwan Howard and Tim Hardaway made capable debuts for Denver with 16 and 11 points, respectively. But it was not enough to overcome Portland, which got 24 points and 11 assists from Damon Stoudamire and won its season-high fifth straight game.

On Thursday, the Nuggets made a seven-player trade with Dallas. Looking to clear future salary cap room, they dealt forward Raef Lafrentz and guards Nick Van Exel, Avery Johnson and Tariq Abdul-Wahad to the Mavericks for Howard, Hardaway, Donnell Harvey, a 2002 first-round pick and $1 million.

"I think we will be pretty good down the road," Nuggets coach Mike Evans said. "We'll develop some chemistry, guys will learn one another."

NBA TV highlights from Nuggets-Blazers: 56k | 300k Damon Stoudamire led Portland with 24 points, but here he looks for one of his 11 assists. Sam Forencich NBAE/Getty Images

Van Exel and LaFrentz were the club's leading scorers, averaging 21.4 points and 14.9 points, respectively. Hardaway and Howard started in their place Saturday.

Howard went 6-of-12 from the field, grabbed six rebounds and had four assists in 35 minutes. Hardaway connected on 4-of-9 shots and dished out five assists in 26 minutes.

"Tonight's debut was solid, but we're a team and lost the game," Howard said. "This is a business and I can't do anything about it. It's not in my control. If you can take one positive thing about this, is that there are some guys in this league people don't want. But it's good to know on the flip side, when I got traded, somebody did want my help, to help build a team to where it used to be. I feel good that I'm playing here with some good guys. Hopefully, Tim, Donnell and I can bring some spark to this team."

Reserve George McCloud scored a season-high 20 points to lead Denver, which has lost eight of its last 11 games and is mired in 12th place in the Western Conference.

Rasheed Wallace scored 23 points and Bonzi Wells contributed 18 for the Trail Blazers, who won for the sixth time in their last seven games since the All-Star break.

"It was a pretty solid game," said Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks, whose team has won 10 of its last 11 at home. "We talked about how they might be a little better (with their new players) energy-wise. Our defense wasn't very good to start off, but then we began to run our offense better and I think that was the difference. We ran our offense much better in the third quarter and pulled away."

Portland (31-24) improved to 18-6 since January 5 and moved into a tie with the Utah Jazz for sixth place in the West.

The Blazers defeated the Nuggets for the 13th time in their last 14 encounters at the Rose Garden despite playing without backup forward Shawn Kemp, who was suspended indefinitely without pay Friday for violating the league's anti-drug policy.

Portland starting forward Scottie Pippen also sat out Saturday's contest with a viral infection.

"Right now we're shorthanded," Stoudamire said. "In the second half, we picked up our intensity and that was the key. You figure they were going to keep it basic with their new guys. Right now we feel like we're playing well enough to get wins. Everybody on our team knows their role and everybody that came on the floor contributed."

In a game featuring 17 lead changes and six ties, the Nuggets led for most of the first half. They closed the first quarter with a 10-2 run to take a 27-21 lead and pushed their advantage to 10 points with 7:47 left in the second period.

But Portland outscored Denver, 22-13, the rest of the period to bring in a 47-46 lead into halftime.

The Blazers pulled away in the third with a 14-3 run, ignited by a 3-pointer by Stoudamire with 10:18 left and capped by three free throws by the point guard a little more than four minutes later. After getting fouled hard on his way to the basket, Stoudamire made the flagrant foul shot and two more from the line to give Portland a 63-51 lead.

"Damon played an all-around game," Cheeks said. "He was the catalyst on both offense and defense. Even when we had some turnovers and breakdowns in the first quarter, in the second quarter we stayed with it and I thought executed pretty well. In the second half, our defense also came back a little stronger.

"We pushed the ball more," Stoudamire said. "I wanted to make a concerted effort to push the ball at every opportunity. We were able to get out and get it to the open floor and that was what opened the game for us."

Never leading by less than 11 points the rest of the way, the Blazers took their largest advantage early in the fourth as Derek Anderson made two free throws for an 84-63 cushion.

"We just didn't make shots," Evans said. "You've got to make shots, we only scored 17 points, and they made just about every shot they took. They scored 33 points in that third quarter. That's huge, that tells you the caliber of players that they have offensively out on the floor. If we score in the 25-point range in the third quarter, then we are in the game with a chance to win. But with 17, we had no chance after that."

Anderson finished with 17 points and eight rebounds as Portland shot 52 percent (38-of-73) from the field. The Blazers are 12-3 when they shoot 50 percent or more and improved to 17-3 when scoring at least 100 points.

Scott Williams and James Posey chipped in eight points apiece and Calbert Cheaney and Zendon Hamilton each collected seven for Denver, which shot 38 percent (31-of-81).