Carmelo Anthony finished with 26 points and Chauncey Billups added 17 as the Denver Nuggets pulled away from the Los Angeles Clippers en route to a 109-104 victory on Friday.

J.R. Smith chipped in 21 points off the bench for the Nuggets, who have won six straight.

Anthony, who played only three minutes on Sunday due to the flu and was tossed in the third quarter on Wednesday for arguing with officials, managed to stay on the court for his customary 36 minutes on Friday.

He seemed a little rusty, though, struggling to 6-of-18 from the field. He did take advantage of what the referees were giving the home team, however, going to the line 18 times while Denver enjoyed a 59 to 29 discrepancy in free throw attempts.

The Clippers were coming off a win over the NBA-best San Antonio Spurs and hung around until the end with the Nuggets, pulling within 107-104 with nine seconds left before Smith hit two free throws to ice it.

Blake Griffin finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds and Eric Gordon scored 24 points for Los Angeles.