The conversation was short and to the point.


Carmelo Anthony saddled up to Allen Iverson late in the fourth quarter and told him they needed to put an end to this game.

Iverson nodded his head and then took over, leading the Nuggets to a 111-108 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.

The Nuggets point guard finished with 35 points, including a fade-away jumper and two free throws in the final 30 seconds that helped secure the win.

"He came up big for us," said Anthony, who finished with 26 points despite having the flu. "He hit some big shots."

Iverson gave the Nuggets a 109-108 lead with his jumper with 29 seconds left. Antoine Walker took a jumper with 10.9 seconds, but it was too strong and bounced off a pack of players and out of bounds. The officials ruled it was last touched by Minnesota.

The call had the Timberwolves, who fell to 1-20 on the road this season, steamed after the game.

"I clearly saw it go off both of the Nuggets players," Walker said. "I just wished the referees would get together and make sure they made the right call. I let the ball go out because I figured it was out on them."

On the subsequent inbounds play, Iverson was fouled by Marko Jaric, hitting both free throws.

But Minnesota coach Randy Wittman took issue with that, thinking that Iverson traveled before the foul.

"Iverson traveled. Traveled. Flat out," said Wittman, whose team has now lost 16 straight road games since a win at New Orleans on Nov. 26. "No ifs or could have been. Flat out, right in front of the referee."

Wittman was also upset by the discrepancy in free throws as Denver had 43 attempts (making 35) while the Timberwolves shot just 15 (hitting 12).

"All they had to do was yell tonight, which they did a good job of, and they get free throws," Wittman said. "We had guys dunking the ball, getting smacked. I guess I have to teach our guys to yell. I guess that's the factor."

Nuggets coach George Karl doesn't care how the Nuggets won, he was just happy they did.

"I feel like a thief tonight," said Karl, whose team finished 4-0 against Minnesota this season. "We weren't the better team, but we won. I'm happy we don't have to play them again. If we did, we would probably lose."

Al Jefferson had 20 points and 16 rebounds, his 29th double-double of the season. He's second in the league behind Orlando's Dwight Howard, who picked up his 37th double-double of the season against Portland on Saturday night.

Rashad McCants continued to torment the Nuggets, finishing with 23 points. He had a career-high 34 points on Jan. 4 against Denver.

"I'm disappointed in the way that it ended because we fought the whole 48 minutes," McCants said. "It's on us when we lose because of a lack of effort and a lack of energy, but who is it on when we are ahead all game and a couple of calls go a different way and the game's over? That's tough."

Iverson didn't think the Nuggets played all that well in improving to 17-5 at the Pepsi Center this season. He was not pleased about the team giving up 60 points in the first half.

"We could have played a lot better defensively," he said.

Still, he won't quibble too much with a victory.

"It was ugly, but we still got the win," Iverson said after the Nuggets improved to 9-3 when he scores 35 or more. "That's the only thing that mattered. We can work on all the negative things we did in the game. We can get into practice and work on those things and watch film, but I think we'd be feeling a lot worse if we didn't get the win."

Game notes
Nuggets F Kenyon Martin missed his third straight game with a staph infection. ... Karl said Saturday the team expected all the medical tests on Nene to be in by early next week. Nene had a testicular tumor removed by doctors on Monday. ... Minnesota F Ryan Gomes finished with 20 points. ... Nuggets C Marcus Camby had with 12 points and 13 rebounds, his 14th double-double of the season.

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