Allen Iverson scored a season-high 51 points but Kobe Bryant's 25 led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 111-107 win over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night.
Carmelo Anthony had 26 points and eight rebounds and Marcus Camby had 20 rebounds for the Nuggets. Vladimir Radmanovic scored 21 points and Derek Fisher added 20 for the Lakers.
Iverson was held scoreless in the fourth until his layup with 3:15 left gave Denver a 102-99 lead. They were his only two points of the period.
Andrew Bynum's alley-oop dunk cut the lead to one, and Radmanovic's free throw tied the game with two minutes left.
Bryant hit a pair of layups to give Los Angeles a 106-102 lead, and after Anthony scored, Bryant hit a jumper with 35.3 seconds left.
Kenyon Martin hit one of two free throws with 23.2 seconds left, but Fisher hit two foul shots to make it 110-105 with 15.8 seconds left. Anthony missed a 3-pointer and Fisher hit a free throw to seal the win.
Iverson, whose career high of 60 came against Orlando on Feb. 12, 2005, had 49 points through three quarters and was 17-for-23 from the field entering the fourth. He scored 16 of Denver's 30 points in the third, when the Nuggets took advantage of Bryant's foul trouble to tie the game at 88.
Iverson tied the game at 73 when he hit a soft jumper in the lane and was fouled by Fisher. He hit the free throw to give him 41 with 5:31 left in the third quarter. Thirty seconds later, he made a jumper a for a 75-73 lead, and then he hit two free throws to extend the lead to four points.
The Lakers rallied to take an 80-79 lead, but Iverson drove the lane, and when two Lakers collapsed on him, he kicked the ball to Eduardo Najera, who hit a 3-pointer.
Notes: Iverson's 33 first-half points tied his career high in a first half, which he set at Milwaukee on Dec. 18, 2004. His career-high for a half was 36 at Orlando on Nov. 10, 1999. ... Iverson's 51 points are the most by a Nuggets player since Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had 51 at Utah on Dec. 7, 1995. ... The Nuggets' franchise record for points in a game is held by David Thompson, who had 73 against Detroit on April 9, 1978. ... Bryant left the game with a hurt left shoulder after he took a hard foul with 2.5 seconds left in the first period.
