By ARNIE STAPLETON
AP Sports Writer
DENVER (AP) --George Karl earned his 999th NBA win the hard way.
The Denver Nuggets overcame a third-quarter meltdown that included a technical on Carmelo Anthony for arguing a call and held off the scrappy Memphis Grizzlies 108-107 on Sunday night for their seventh straight win.
Nene (27 points) and Arron Afflalo (25) made up for a bad shooting night from Anthony, who was just 4 of 20 from the floor and finished with 13 points.
Afflalo's 3-pointer from the left elbow with 42 seconds left gave Denver a 104-98 lead moments after he blew a breakaway layup after Chauncey Billups' steal.
After Mike Conley's drive pulled the Grizzlies to 104-102, Anthony saw nobody was deep downcourt and lofted a long pass to Nene, whose rim-rattling slam with 5.9 seconds left made it a four-point game.
It still wasn't decided, however. Conley's inbounds pass was dunked by Henry with 5.3 seconds left and Billups was fouled with 4.8 seconds remaining. He sank both for a 108-104 lead.
Conley's uncontested 3-pointer with a tenth of a second left provided the final score.
Rudy Gay led the Grizzlies with 24 points.
Karl will go for win No. 1,000 on Tuesday night in Charlotte, his first chance to join the elite fraternity that has just a half-dozen members, including Bobcats coach Larry Brown, his good friend who was the last coach to join the club.
Karl, who is talking with the Nuggets about an extension through the 2011-12 season, is 999-677 for a winning percentage of .596.
The coaches he'll join in the 1,000-win club are: Brown, Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Pat Riley, Jerry Sloan and Phil Jackson.
"There's no question I'm the name that's going to stick out in that group: 'They gave him a couple hundred wins?'" Karl cracked before tip-off Sunday night. "The six before me are special, special coaches. Some of them are friends. Someday it'll be fun maybe if they all get together to yell at each other."
The Nuggets jumped out to a 33-16 lead after one quarter, led by 21 and were up 62-47 at halftime. But instead of cruising, Denver coughed up the big lead in a terrible third quarter that began with them missing 12 of their first 15 shots.
Memphis led 77-76 heading into the fourth quarter.
J.R. Smith's steal and three-point play put the Nuggets ahead 83-81 and settled them down as they used a 13-4 run to regain control. Afflalo had six points in that stretch.
Anthony's jumper with 3 minutes left gave the Nuggets some breathing room with a 100-91 lead, but nothing was going to be easy on this night and the Grizzlies chipped away and pulled to 101-98 on Xavier Henry's drive with a minute left.
Conley finished with 19 points and Zach Randolph had 18 points and a dozen rebounds for Memphis.
NOTES: Nuggets big man Chris Andersen will miss 10-14 days with a broken transverse process after hurting his back in a nasty tumble Friday night. Further tests Sunday found the fracture. ... The Nuggets are 10-1 at home after winning all five in a homestand.
Updated December 5, 2010
