Clippers can’t deny Smith

J.R. Smith hopped back downcourt following his second straight three-point shot that forced a timeout. He held his scorching right hand while teammates Carmelo Anthony and Dahntay Jones acted as if they had to use fire extinguishers to cool him off.

“I tried to put the fire out,” Anthony said, “but it didn’t work.”

Smith’s 34-point performance off the bench sparked the Denver Nuggets’ 120-104 win over the short-handed Clippers on Saturday night for their 11th win in 12 games.

The Nuggets’ winning ways have them on the cusp of earning home-court advantage in a playoff series for the first time since the 1988 Western Conference semifinals.

Denver is one of four NBA teams that have made the playoffs every year since 2003-04, joining Dallas, Detroit and San Antonio. But the Nuggets are the only one of the four who haven’t won a single playoff series in that span.

And Smith is getting hot at the perfect time for Denver (51-26), which leads San Antonio by a game for the No. 2-seeded team in the West.

He’s 15 for 27 from three-point range in the last two games and five for seven from inside the arc while averaging 31 points. He scored 21 points in only 12 first-half minutes Saturday as the Nuggets raced to a 66-47 halftime lead.

“He’s been on fire,” Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “The first couple of threes, our bigs weren’t up close enough to him and he just drilled them. We got a little bit better as the game went on, but 21 points in the first half, it got away from us. That really decided most of the game.”

Anthony scored 18 points for the Nuggets. Zach Randolph led the Clippers with 22 points, and DeAndre Jordan had 21.

The depleted Clippers were missing Marcus Camby (ankle), Mardy Collins (foot), Ricky Davis (knee), Al Thornton (foot) and Chris Kaman (flu), and Dunleavy had no choice but to play Steve Novak, who scored nine points in 22 minutes on a tender ankle.

Smith didn’t just impress with his long-ball jumpers and his 12-for-20 shooting. He had three assists, including a sweet one from underneath that resulted in a three-point swish from a wide-open Chauncey Billups.

“Man, I love watching it,” Billups said. “He’s as hot as anybody in the league right now, so just put the ball in his hands and watch the show.”

On a night where the outcome was never in doubt, Smith provided the fuel for some fun. The fire extinguisher theatrics came after his three-pointer gave Denver a 112-89 lead.

“I got crazy teammates. We’ve got to beat LeBron and them, man, they’re killing us right now,” Smith said, referring to LeBron James and the pretend photos he takes of his preening Cleveland teammates with his fake camera during timeouts.

There’s nothing phony about Smith’s hot hand.

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Lakers-Clippers tonight

Time: 6:30.

On the air: TV: FS West, Channel 5; Radio: 570, 710, 1220, 1330.

Where: Staples Center.

Records: Lakers 60-16, Clippers 18-58.

Series: Lakers, 3-0.

Update: The Lakers have had their way against the Clippers this season, winning by an average of 22.3 points a game. In their first matchup, the Lakers destroyed the Clippers by 38 points. But Lakers Coach Phil Jackson cautioned his players after practice Saturday to make sure they watched the Clippers’ game against Denver because Jackson was unsure what lineup the Clippers would use. (The Nuggets beat the Clippers by 16.) Each time the Lakers have faced the Clippers, they have used a different lineup because of injuries.

-- Broderick Turner