PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 16 (Ticker) -- Larry Brown left just after halftime with an upset stomach. You could only imagine how sick Jeff Bzdelik was.

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Brown's Philadelphia 76ers overwhelmed Bzdelik's Denver Nuggets in the first half as they tied a 47-year-old club record and cruised to a 93-71 victory that snapped a season-high five-game losing streak.

Brown, who has missed a handful of games in each of the last two seasons due to illness, retreated to his office with a stomach virus and turned over the coaching duties to Randy Ayers in the second half. By that time, the 76ers had forced 14 turnovers by the Nuggets en route to a 41-22 halftime lead.

"I'm OK," Brown said. "I'd been listless all day. I could have gone back, but I didn't want to all of a sudden walk out when we were 19 up. I've been listless all day, stopped up (sinuses), but I'll be just fine. I will be at practice tomorrow. The doc says I'm going to have some blood work done. But I had a good pulse and a good blood pressure, and winning sure helps."

"He still expects us to play the same way, whether he's on the bench or back here sick," guard Eric Snow said. "From that standpoint, nothing changes; he's just not able to say it verbally."

The Syracuse Nationals, who later moved to Philadelphia and became the 76ers, held the Milwaukee Hawks to 22 points in the first half on February 12, 1955, the first season of the shot clock.

Bzdelik watched his young, inexperienced team make just 10-of-38 shots in the first half. After Donnell Harvey's layup at 9:05 of the second quarter ended a drought of more than six minutes, the Nuggets went scoreless for another three-plus minutes.

"Some of our younger players aren't ready for prime time. I know that," Bzdelik said. "I've got to get them experience. There's no excuse for scoring 22 points. This is the NBA, but we've got a lot of young players who need time on the floor to develop. I have to give it to them and know we go through periods where we can't score. It's that simple."

By that time, Philadelphia had opened a 34-12 lead and was well on its way to its first win since December 4 against Boston.

The Nuggets tied a club record for fewest points in a half set April 16, 1997 at Portland. They were held below 80 points for the 13th time this season.

Allen Iverson scored 23 points and Keith Van Horn added 15 for the Sixers, who improved to 16-9. Last season, they did not win their 16th game until January 11, when they were 16-20.

"It didn't matter what team came in here," Iverson said. "We just had to get that feeling back. After losing five in a row, some guys were starting to doubt themselves, starting to doubt the team, starting to doubt the coaching staff."

Rookie Nene Hilario had a season-high 23 points and four blocks for the Nuggets, who have lost five in a row and 10 of 11. They dropped all four games of their road trip and fell to 2-11 on the road.

Van Horn scored eight points in the first quarter, while the Nuggets managed just 10 and dug themselves an 11-point hole.

Scoreless in the first period, Iverson opened the second quarter with a three-pointer and layup before Harvey's hoop made it 26-12. A layup by Van Horn capped an 8-0 spurt as the Sixers opened their largest lead of the half.

"I think the one thing we wanted to improve upon going into tonight's game was our defense," Van Horn said. "I think we did that, especially in the first half."

Last in the NBA in shooting and scoring, Denver got no closer than 17 points in the second half. Philadelphia led by as many as 29 points late in the fourth quarter, which had to make Brown feel a bit better.

"I reminded them (Sixers) that they've beaten Portland, they've beaten San Antonio, they've beaten Indiana," Brown said. "So we just had to keep playing."

Todd MacCulloch scored 13 points for the Sixers, who shot 51 percent (37-of-72). Aaron McKie handed out nine assists.

Juwan Howard scored 12 points and Harvey added 11 and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who shot under 40 percent (28-of-71) and committed 22 turnovers.

"You have to pick yourself up every night, pull positives out of the games," said Nuggets guard James Posey, who scored 11 points. "It's a long season."

Philadelphia guard Eric Snow suffered a groin strain early in the fourth quarter.