Clippers Keep Losing

The Denver Nuggets badly needed a win.

The injury-riddled Clippers obliged.

Carmelo Anthony had 22 points to lead six Denver players in double figures, helping the Nuggets end a three-game losing streak with a 102-80 victory over the Clippers on Monday night.

Denver dropped out of the top eight in the Western Conference with a 21-point loss to Minnesota on Sunday. The Nuggets moved back into a tie with Utah for the final playoff berth with good shooting and one of their best defensive performances in a month.

“We’re in this thing despite what’s happened the past couple of weeks,” Nugget guard Jon Barry said. “If you said that we’d be right here with 10 games to go with a chance to get in the playoffs, I think everybody would take it. So forget about the last two weeks.”

The Clippers couldn’t get much of anything going after losing to Golden State the day before. They had only one player score in double figures and couldn’t get any closer than six points after falling behind big early.

The Clippers have lost four straight and 12 of their last 14.

“We were down by six at one point and then we missed a couple of chippy shots, we let them get behind us defensively,” Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “A couple of scores, a couple of miscommunications, a couple of threes and the next thing you know we were pretty much out of it.”

The Clippers had Quentin Richardson back after he missed two games because of back spasms, but they still were without Corey Maggette (knee), Chris Wilcox (Achilles’) and Marko Jaric (toe).

The Clippers struggled from the start without three of their top five scorers, fumbling away passes and hitting the side of the backboard with shots in the first quarter.

The Clippers finished the quarter five for 19 with six turnovers.

They weren’t any better on defense. Denver made 12 of 18 shots and led, 31-15, early.

“I thought we lost the game with a bad start,” Dunleavy said.

Richardson never got it going, finishing with six points on one-for-11 shooting.

“He probably wasn’t ready,” Dunleavy said of Richardson’s comeback.

Denver, a winner of only five of its last 17 games, has struggled with poor execution on defense, which has hampered its running game.

The Nuggets had the defensive part right, holding the Clippers to 36% shooting, but weren’t able to get their up-tempo game working much in the middle two quarters. It didn’t matter.

Denver worked its half-court offense well, swinging the ball around the perimeter and passing out of the post to get open shots. The Nuggets took a 16-point lead in the first quarter.