DENVER, Jan. 10 (Ticker) -- The Portland Trail Blazers continue to have problems with the Denver Nuggets.

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Rookie Nene Hilario scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Juwan Howard added 19 and nine as the Nuggets beat the Trail Blazers for the second time in two meetings this season, 82-81.

"It is always nice to win the game," Hilario said. "It gives you more confidence and we're showing the rest of the league that we're going to grow as a team as well."

On November 2, the Nuggets shocked the Blazers in Portland, 96-79, and appeared to be well on their way toward another upset victory after taking a 76-65 advantage on a jumper by Rodney White with 6:42 remaining.

But Portland stormed back to tie the game, 78-78, on a jumper by Derek Anderson with 1:27 left. White countered with two free throws 17 seconds later, and after Anderson missed a leaner with 58 seconds to play, Hilario made it 82-78 on a dunk with 37 seconds left.

After a timeout, Ruben Patterson got Portland within 82-81 on a layup and free throw with 36 seconds left. Nuggets rookie Vincent Yarbrough turned the ball over in the paint with 18 seconds remaining, giving the Blazers a chance to hold for a final shot.

Following another timeout, Rasheed Wallace missed a spinning bank shot with about two seconds left, but the rebound came to Dale Davis under the basket. But Davis came up short twice on follow attempts, allowing the Nuggets to escape with a sixth straight home victory over the Blazers.

"It was a gutty win," Nuggets coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "Portland was tough down the stretch, and our execution was shaky down the stretch."

"This should be the Coke Center instead of the Pepsi Center," Blazers coach Mo Cheeks said. "I haven't won here since I started coaching. We got the shot we wanted, (but) the ball didn't go in like we wanted."

Anderson scored 17 points, Bonzi Wells added 15 and Wallace 14 with 12 rebounds for Portland, which had won 11 of its last 13 contests, including seven of eight on the road.

The Blazers limited the Nuggets to 44 percent shooting and did not allow a 3-pointer, but Denver stymied Portland into just 35 percent from the floor (29-of-82).

"We had a chance to win but we shouldn't have been in that position anyway," Wells said. "We should have had it in the bag but it didn't happen, so back to the drawing board. This is one of those teams with nothing to lose. It was a good game on their part and a bad one on our part."

Denver led, 26-25, after one quarter, was tied with Portland at the break and took a 62-59 edge into the fourth quarter. Neither team held a double-digit advantage throughout the first 36 minutes.

"We were a little tired and got in late," said Cheeks, whose team beat San Antonio on Thursday. "It looked like we had no energy. We played back-to-back and didn't have any life early on. (But) we gave ourselves a chance to win the game, that was the main thing."

"They came in off a back-to-back, came in late and we wanted to take advantage of that," Yarbrough said. "We wanted to come out and run them early. That is what we did and they got tired in the fourth quarter."