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Nuggets clip cold-shooting Spurs 93-87
The San Antonio Spurs couldn't stop missing, and the Denver Nuggets walked off as winners. Andre Miller scored 31 points and Denver held San Antonio without a field goal for more than 10 minutes of the fourth quarter Sunday as the Nuggets defeated the Spurs 93-87 in the opening game of their first-round playoff series.
Glenn Robinson made a 14-footer with 10:20 left in the game to put San Antonio up 81-76, but it would be the Spurs' last basket until Robert Horry hit a 3-pointer with 9 seconds left. In between, San Antonio missed 18 consecutive shots.
Despite the offensive futility, the Spurs stayed ahead until Earl Boykins made a high-arching jumper over 7-footer Nazr Mohammed with 1:56 remaining to give Denver an 85-84 lead. The Nuggets then got a short jumper from Marcus Camby and three free throws from Miller to build a seven-point lead in the final minute.
Carmelo Anthony had 14 points, Camby 12 and Kenyon Martin 11 for Denver. Camby, who missed the final three games of the regular season with a hamstring strain, also had 12 rebounds
Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Wednesday night in San Antonio.
Manu Ginobili led the Spurs with 23 points, his career playoff high, and Tim Duncan scored 18 with 11 rebounds. Mohammed added 15 points and 15 rebounds for the Spurs, who led by as many as nine points in the first half, and Tony Parker finished with 12.
Duncan quickly dispelled any notion that he would go easy after missing a dozen late-season games with a badly sprained right ankle. He made three baskets in the game's opening minutes, ran the floor in transition and bumped bodies at both ends with Martin and Camby as the Nuggets consistently double-teamed him.
Miller carried Denver's offense in the first half, scoring 24 points on 11-for-16 shooting. Ginobili went 6-for-8 and had 18 points in the half for San Antonio, which trailed only once before the break.
The Spurs made it 52-44 on a dunk by Ginobili on an inbounds pass from Parker. But Miller came back with a jumper and Camby converted a three-point play to pull the Nuggets to 52-49 with 5.7 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
Ginobili then picked up an offensive foul by bowling over Camby on a drive, and Miller hit a 41-foot heave as time ran out to knot the score at 52.
Anthony scored only four points in the half on 2-for-7 shooting.
San Antonio is now 6-2 in opening playoff games since Duncan joined the team in 1997-98. ... Duncan is 22 points shy of 2,000 in the playoffs. ... Horry's first 3-pointer, late in the third quarter, was his 200th in the postseason in his 13-year career. ... Anthony has averaged 14.8 points on 34.6 percent shooting in his five career playoff games. His career regular-season average is 20.9 ppg. ... DerMarr Johnson scored his first playoff points on a first-quarter tip-in for Denver. He went scoreless in three postseason games with New York last season.
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