James Posey made a 3-pointer with 19.1 seconds left Thursday night to lift the New Orleans Hornets to their fourth straight victory, 105-101 over the Denver Nuggets, one of his former teams.
Chris Paul led the Hornets with 22 points and 10 assists but came up six rebounds short of recording his third straight triple-double.
Still, he took the game over late, scoring seven straight points for his team, including a 3-pointer to tie the game at 92 with 2:07 left. A bit later, the Hornets took a four-point lead on Peja Stojakovic's 3 and a subsequent free throw after Kenyon Martin got a technical.
The Nuggets, led by J.R. Smith with 32 points, tied it at 98 with 37 seconds left, but the Hornets worked the ball to Posey, who made the 3 to give them the lead for good.
Chauncey Billups missed his own 3 on the next possession and the Hornets made four free throws down the stretch to ice the win. Denver fell to 9-3 since Billups arrived. He struggled in this one, finishing with only 12 points and never taking over the game.
Carmelo Anthony had 24 points on 8-for-13 shooting for Denver, showing more signs of coming out of a slump that had him making only 39 percent of his shots coming into the game.
Smith's season high came a night after George Karl benched him for being late to practice earlier in the week. He made a 3-pointer and had a steal and dunk to give the Nuggets the lead midway through the fourth quarter after they had trailed by as many as 14.
It looked like it would be his night, but instead it belonged to Paul, who dominated the fourth quarter, scoring 13 points, including the late streak that tied the game at 92.
The Hornets played without Mo Peterson (back) and Tyson Chandler, whose wife gave birth Tuesday. They had something of an advantage, though, having arrived in Denver for this Thanksgiving night game well before the Nuggets, who toughed out a 1-point win at the Clippers on Wednesday. New Orleans hadn't played since Monday.
Rasual Butler made his first seven shots for New Orleans and finished with 19 points. Stojakovic had 17 and David West had 15, including a stick back of Paul's near air ball that gave the Hornets a 98-94 lead with 52 seconds left.
Notes:@ Melvin Ely returned for the Hornets after missing three games because of a tooth infection. He had eight points. ... Chris Andersen scored six points for the Nuggets in his return after missing nine games because of fractured ribs.
