Nash got red in the face while berating his teammate's performance and they responded with a 113-108 victory, despite the loss of their fiery leader for the second half.

    "During the first half they roughed us up, knocked us around and we didn't stand up to them. Steve had a talk at halftime and we played with a little bit more oomph in the second half," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "They've got some tough guys and we had to stand up to it. We want to play pretty, but pretty wasn't getting it done tonight."

    The rough-and-tumble Nuggets nearly made up for the absences of stars Allen Iverson and Marcus Camby, with Carmelo Anthony getting his first career triple-double and Nene chipping in a career-high 27 points.

    But Amare Stoudemire scored 36 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to fend off the injured-but-inspired Nuggets.

    "This is what I expected. I thought they would try to rough us up," Stoudemire said. "So we responded. Some teams get physical with us and we get physical right back at them. We can give it back. We run and that's how teams try to slow us down."

    Leandro Barbosa added 20 points for Phoenix, including a clutch 3-pointer in the closing minutes.

    Anthony, who had 31 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, pulled the Nuggets to 109-106 with a three-point play with 13 seconds left. But Shawn Marion (19 points) and Raja Bell (18) each sank two free throws after that to seal the win for Phoenix, which had lost two of three after winning 17 straight.

    (Agencies)