National Basketball Association

Spurs stymie Carmelo, Nuggets

Published Feb. 12, 2010 7:47 a.m. ET

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George Hill scored 17 points after starting in place of an injured Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs never trailed in routing the cold-shooting Denver Nuggets 111-92 on Thursday night.

DeJuan Blair also scored 17 points, Tim Duncan added 16 and Manu Ginobili 15 for San Antonio, which snapped a three-game losing streak to Denver dating to last season.

The Spurs outshot the Nuggets 53.2 percent to 39.2 in winning for just the third time in six games despite missing Parker, who was sidelined with a left hip flexor strain suffered three days ago during a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Nuggets were missing their best defensive player, Kenyon Martin, who sat out a second consecutive game because of tendinitis in his left knee.

Nene had 20 points and Carmelo Anthony 19 for the Nuggets, who lost for only the fourth time in 28 games this season at the Pepsi Center.

Down by nine at the half, the Nuggets narrowed the deficit to 56-52 on a fastbreak layup by Nene before San Antonio pulled away again.

The Spurs used a 7-0 burst capped by Roger Mason's 3-pointer to go in front 72-58 with 4:27 left in the third, and took an 83-70 advantage into the fourth quarter.

They continued pulling away from there, scoring 12 of the first 16 points in the final period to extend their lead to 95-74, their biggest to that point.

Going on an 8-0 run to start the second quarter, the Spurs built a 40-29 advantage. Blair fueled the spree with three straight baskets, including a dunk that came after Malik Allen turned the ball over in San Antonio's end of the court. Hill's fastbreak layup with 6:49 left in the second extended San Antonio's lead to 14 points but Denver cut the deficit to 54-45 at halftime as Anthony made successive baskets in the last 52 seconds of the period.

San Antonio set a blistering shooting pace in the first quarter, hitting 72.2 percent of its shots (13 of 18), including all four from 3-point range, to take a 32-29 lead.

NOTES: The Nuggets failed to score 100 points for only the fourth time this season at the Pepsi Center. ... The Spurs improved to 11-11 on the road. ... San Antonio improved to 34-42 all-time in Denver. ... Anthony had just his fifth sub-20 point game of the season.