ATLANTA, March 13 (Ticker) -- Jason Terry starred for the Atlanta Hawks, who overcame a major second-half collapse to continue their home mastery of the Denver Nuggets.

Terry had 31 points and Shareef Abdur-Rahim added 25 as the Hawks extended their home winning streak against the Nuggets to 12 games by holding on for a 105-102 victory.

Terry scored eight points during the Hawks' 18-4 third-quarter run, and scored 24 points in the second and third quarters. The point guard hit DerMarr Johnson for an alley-oop dunk with 4:55 left in the period as Atlanta opened its biggest lead at 79-59.

"We made it harder than it had to be," Abdur-Rahim said. "We have to get better than that. But to win games is good. We're just trying to keep it going. That's our focus."

NBA TV highlights from Nuggets-Hawks: 56k | 300k Shareef Abdur-Rahim scored 10 of his 25 points in the first quarter. Scott Cunningham NBAE/Getty Images

But Tim Hardaway collected 14 of his 20 points in the second half as the Nuggets stormed back. George McCloud, who scored 19 points off the bench, capped the comeback by sinking a 3-pointer with 2:19 to play, giving Denver took a 98-95 lead.

"We battled back, we never should have been down that much. We showed we have character," Hardaway said.

However, Abdur-Rahim hit a jumper and Terry put the Hawks back in front for good, 99-98, as Atlanta registered its fourth victory in the last six games.

The Hawks are 23-4 all-time at home against the Nuggets.

Terry has shined for Atlanta in recent games. On Monday, the Arizona product collected 32 points, nine assists and seven rebounds as the Hawks posted a season-high total in a 121-96 rout of Golden State.

"We made it more interesting than we would have liked but it was a good win," Hawks coach Lon Kruger said. "Reef and JT all night long carried us. JT again, he was unbelievable. He made big shots, he was aggressive, he helped us in every way."

Playing in his third NBA season, Terry has averaged 29.3 points in his last four games.

After missing his first two shots of the game, Terry made nine straight, including five 3-pointers. His next miss came with 11:38 to go in the fourth quarter.

"I felt in the zone before, it didn't really feel like that. Good shot selection, guys found me," Terry said.

Hardaway helped pull the Nuggets to within striking distance. The former All-Star nailed a jumper with 3:28 left to make it 95-93.

"We didn't start playing until the fourth quarter," Nuggets coach Mike Evans said. "We decided to play with a sense of urgency. That shows you what we can do when we play hard. A valiant comeback, but not enough to pull it out down the stretch."

Johnson missed a jumper for Atlanta, McCloud pulled down the rebound and fired a pass the length of the court to Juwan Howard, who knotted the contest with a layup.

Off a timeout, Abdur-Rahim missed a shot and McCloud nailed a basket from the arc with 2:20 to play, giving the Nuggets their first lead since the opening quarter, 98-95.

"We started making some shots," Howard said. "We got some stops on defense, we took care of the basketball."

Atlanta responded with a critical 6-0 burst. Nazr Mohammed capped it by converting two free throws with 1:09 left to give the Hawks a 101-98 edge.

Denver's Calbert Cheaney made a jumper, but Abdur-Rahim hit a pair from the line to restore Atlanta's three-point advantage with 16 seconds left.

Hardaway, who frequently made clutch shots during his tenure with the Miami Heat, fired a wayward 3-pointer with 11 seconds remaining. Terry collected the rebound and sealed the victory with two more free throws.

"I had a pretty good look, I missed the shot," Hardaway said. "That was the game. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't."