DENVER, Feb. 24 (Ticker) -- Shareef Abdur-Rahim hit four free throws in the final 27 seconds as the Atlanta Hawks snapped a three-game losing streak with an 89-84 victory over the Denver Nuggets, who dropped their fifth straight contest.

After Jacque Vaughn's basket tied the game, 68-68, less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, Juwan Howard -- playing in his first home game since being traded from Dallas on Thursday -- bookended an 8-0 run with a pair of baskets.

But the Hawks countered with a 12-0 run, taking the lead for good, 77-76, on a layup by Toni Kukoc with 4:30 left. After Abdur-Rahim's jump hook gave Atlanta an 85-80 advantage with 1:52 to go, James Posey, Howard and Tim Hardaway -- who also came over from the Mavericks in the trade -- combined to make just 4-of-6 free throws to get Denver within 85-84 with 29 seconds remaining.

NBA TV highlights from Hawks-Nuggets: 56k | 300k Shareef Abdur-Rahim clinched the Hawks victory with clutch free throws. William R. Sallaz NBAE/Getty Images

Abdur-Rahim hit a pair of free throws with 26 seconds left, and after Hardaway and Posey missed jump shots, Abdur-Rahim capped the scoring with his second pair from the line 20 seconds later.

"Seemed like they had more energy there midway in the fourth," Hawks coach Lon Kruger said of his team. "I thought Jason (Terry) had some big buckets there to get us back into it. Good, solid possessions down the stretch and hit some big shots, and Reef goes to the line makes the big free throws."

Jason Terry had 25 points and 10 assists for Atlanta, which shot 48 percent (34-of-71) and limited Denver to 39 percent (32-of-82). Abdur-Rahim finished with 23 points and eight rebounds for the Hawks, who concluded a six-game road trip, 3-3.

"Coach put the ball in my hands and my teammates were setting great picks out there all night and that really opened up the lane," Terry said. "Without them having a dominate shot blocker like (the injured Antonio) McDyess, that really made a difference."

Howard made 12-of-16 shots and scored 28 points.

"In Dallas they counted heavily on Dirk (Nowitzki), Steve (Nash) and Mike (Finley) to be the scorers out there so I guess I had to take the role of the guy that rebounds, whenever we needed a bucket inside, be ready to score," Howard said. "Never, ever been a selfish guy, so I'll sacrifice for the team. In Washington I was the go-to guy, now I'm that guy again, and I don't mind. I will try to do my best to help this team win."

"I was very happy with Juwan Howard's game, he got as many touches tonight than he has had in the last few years," Nuggets coach Mike Evans said. "He's played great the last couple of games."

Posey added 20 and 14 rebounds, but Hardaway converted just 2-of-13 shots, including 1-of-8 from beyond the arc.

"I shot very, very poor," Hardaway said. "If I would have made two or three jump shots like I normally do, we would have won the game. I just let the team down. I'm looking forward to some practice. Getting to know everybody. Just knowing what's going on because I made some key turnovers out there tonight."

Denver, which shot under 40 percent for the fourth time in five games, sank just 23 percent of its 3-point attempts (5-of-22). Atlanta made 7-of-15 shots from beyond the arc, including 4-of-7 from Terry.

Denver has lost nine of its last 12 and have dropped five consecutive games on three occasions this season -- most recently from December 29-January 8.