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MEMPHIS — Dante Cunningham tipped in Rudy Gay's miss with less than a second left and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Denver Nuggets 103-102 Friday night.
Andre Miller's inbounds pass with two tenths of a second left was batted away at the rim, and allowed Memphis to win its third straight, despite blowing a 23-point second-half lead.
Gay had 20 points to lead six Memphis players in double figures. O.J. Mayo finished with 17, Mike Conley and Marc Gasol scored 16 points apiece, Gasol grabbing 14 rebounds and handing out eight assists.
Tony Allen had 13 points and Marreesse Speights added 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Corey Brewer keyed the Nuggets rally, scoring a season-high 26 points, all in the second half, on 10 of 14 shooting.
Kenneth Faried and Ty Lawson finished with 18 points each. Faried also had 10 rebounds, tying a career high. His 18 points set a career high.
Andre Miller scored 13 for the Nuggets and had nine assists.
The Nuggets used Brewer's offense with Faried's help, to erase the Memphis lead by the 4:34 mark of the fourth.
Brewer's tip-in at that point gave Denver its first lead of the game at 91-90. There were seven lead changes and two ties in the final minutes.
Brewer's rebound dunk with 24.6 left gave the Nuggets a 102-101 lead, setting the stage for Cunningham's winning tip.
Memphis made 13 of its first 17 shots in a fluid execution of its offense. That helped the Grizzlies to a 21-point first-half lead, and they had a 60-43 advantage at the break.
Memphis built the lead to 23 early in the third, but Brewer, who did not take a shot in the first half, nailed a trio of 3-pointers to bring Denver within 14 points.
Brewer would eventually collect 18 points in the period, hitting 6 of 9 shots, including going 5 of 6 from outside the arc.
That helped Denver chip its way back into the game, and when Lawson tipped in a miss in the closing seconds of the period, the Memphis lead was cut to 83-73 entering the fourth.
And, after Denver scored the first two baskets of the fourth, including a layup by Brewer, the 23-point lead was down to 83-77.
Faried had 10 points in the fourth.
NOTES: Nene missed his third straight game with a strained left calf. . Denver's 15 first-quarter points matched a Nuggets low for points in a quarter. They had 15 in the third quarter in Wednesday's loss to the Mavericks. . The Grizzlies are 7-0 when scoring 100 points.
