Denver, Houston upset opponents

[tideway]

The Denver Nuggets have closed out their home regular season schedule in style by defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves for their ninth win in 10 games. Over in Houston, a combined 73 points by Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming's helped the Rockets beat the Phoenix Suns for their fifth straight victory.

Denver top Minnesota 122-107
Denver were four points down midway through the first quarter when Allen Iverson went right to the basket for a lay-up and collected a foul to make it a one-point game.

After Iverson missed a jumper from the corner, Mike James took the ball across mid-court before throwing it up for Mark Blount to make the alley-oop dunk and put the Timberwolves ahead 30 to 26.

The Nuggets kept pace and levelled the game at 38 in the second quarter, and went on to take a 10-point lead in the third quarter.

The Nuggets cruised through the rest of the game, going ahead 20 points a minute and a half into the fourth quarter.

Iverson surged around and through the entire Timberwolves squad on his way to a lay-up and the last of his game-high 25 points on the night as he sat out the end of the match.

Linas Kleiza delighted his followers by totalling 23 points as the Nuggets clinched victory 122-107.

Houston upset Phoenix 120-117
Over in Houston, the Rockets were hosting the Phoenix Suns. Tracy McGrady scored 25 points in the fast-paced first half to take the home side to a 56-54 lead.

The third quarter became showtime for the Rockets. McGrady contributed 11 and Yao Ming added nine to extended the Houston lead to 12 points.

The Suns rallied back in the fourth and cut Houston's lead to only three points with 48 seconds left. The Suns mustered one more rally, but were unable to complete their second straight regular-season sweep of Houston.