DENVER — Forward Kenneth Faried scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, forward Wilson Chandler added 17 points and the Denver Nuggets routed the New York Knicks 106-78 Monday night.
Forward Will Barton scored 17 points off the bench for the Nuggets, who won two of their past three home games after losing 10 straight at Pepsi Center. Point guard Ty Lawson scored 14 points for Denver (23-41).
Chandler, who was coming off a 26-point effort in a loss to Houston, exited in the third quarter due to left knee soreness and did not return.
Guard Alexey Shved scored 19 points and guard Langston Galloway had 14 for the Knicks, who lost their fourth game in a row. Center Andrea Bargnani added 12 points and seven rebounds for New York (12-50).
Both teams are working for lottery position rather than playoff seeds. Four years after the nine-player deal that sent forward Carmelo Anthony from Denver to New York, both organizations are far from where they expected to be.
In 2012-13, New York won 54 games and made it to the Eastern Conference semifinals. The same season, the Nuggets won a franchise-best 57 games. This season, the two teams will struggle to combine for 40 wins.
The Nuggets were the best of a bad lot Monday thanks to a seven-minute stretch that spanned the second and third quarters.
Leading 39-37 with 3:13 left in the second quarter, Denver ended the half with a 16-3 run to go up 55-40 at intermission. Nuggets center Joffrey Lauvergne was fouled while converting a layup with 2.1 seconds left. He missed the free throw, but forward Darrell Arthur tipped in the rebound to end the half.
Denver started the third with a 10-5 run to take a 65-45 lead. The advantage was 77-59 after Bargnani’s put-back with 3:20 left in the third, but the Nuggets closed the quarter on a 14-0 run to lead 91-59 heading into the fourth.
The lead grew to as much as 34, Denver’s largest of the season. The Nuggets tied a season-low with eight turnovers.
NOTES: New York G Tim Hardaway Jr. did not play because of back tightness. He also missed the Knicks’ loss to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday, but coach Derek Fisher said Hardaway is considered day-to-day. … Knicks F Quincy Acy was out with a knee injury sustained in Saturday’s game. Acy is due to undergo an MRI in the next day or two to receive an official diagnosis. “Something happened to him in the game the other night, and it really didn’t start to impact him until later in the night or the next morning,” Fisher said. … Nuggets C Jusuf Nurkic took part in the morning shootaround but remains out because of a sprained right ankle.