Minus ’Melo, the Nuggets still turn back the Cavaliers, 99-97

DENVER (AP) — Even without Carmelo Anthony on the court, the Pepsi Center is still LeBron James’ personal house of horrors.

Anthony had the best seat in the arena for the big visit from James, missing the game but enjoying the result as the injury-riddled Denver Nuggets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 99-97 Friday night.

Anthony’s much-hyped matchup with James will have to wait until Feb. 18 because of a nagging knee injury that kept him out of his fourth straight game.

The Nuggets didn’t need ’Melo to send James to his sixth loss in seven trips to the Pepsi Center.

Kenyon Martin filled in nicely for Anthony, scoring 19 points, grabbing 12 boards and playing tough defense on James down the stretch, forcing him to miss a layup and then inducing him to step out of bounds on back-to-back possessions in the final minute.

“Those were big stops,” teammate Anthony Carter said. “K-Mart won the challenge.”

If only begrudging respect from King James.

“I think Kenyon is really good laterally, he’s a physical guy,” James said. “As far as problems, I don’t think he presents any problems. But he definitely did a good job of standing in front of me the last couple of possessions.”

Nuggets coach George Karl said he made the right call by not putting Martin on James too early. He stuck with Aaron Afflalo and Joey Graham until the final minute.

The Nuggets went on a 10-1 run to turn an 89-86 deficit into a seemingly safe 96-91 lead.

Despite committing eight turnovers and missing 16 shots, James scored 35 points and wouldn’t go down easily. He sank a 3-pointer with 11.8 seconds left that made it 96-94.

J.R. Smith’s two free throws with 11 seconds remaining gave Denver a 98-94 lead, and James misfired a 3-pointer at the other end. But when Nene missed two free throws for Denver, James made a 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left to pull Cleveland to 98-97.