"We gave them some turnovers and easy scores and had some missed defensive assignments," Butler said. "During the timeout, we just talked about tightening back up and refocusing. We were able to do that and started getting stops and rebounds. Marcus Camby came up with two big stops for us, getting the charge after the timeout and then a blocked shot that started the fast break for us."

Anthony, who scored 17 points in the opening quarter, made his first six shots before Kaman blocked his attempted layup with 8.9 seconds left in the period. The rejection led to a 3-pointer by Butler at the other end with less than a second on the clock, slicing Denver's lead to 26-21.

The Clippers took the lead for good at 28-26 on a layup by Sebastian Telfair with 9:50 left in the second quarter. Davis, who missed his first four shots, ended the drought on a 3-pointer with 1:20 left in the first half to increase Los Angeles' margin to 53-42. Butler followed with a three-point play 28 seconds later to cap a 7-0 spurt.

NOTES: Clippers longtime play-by-play announcer Ralph Lawler and color analyst Michael Smith did not work Friday's broadcast, after the Fox Sports Prime Ticket cable network suspended them for one game because of some off-the-cuff comments they made during Wednesday night's telecast from Memphis about Iranian-born Grizzlies center Hamed Haddadi. The on-air banter offended one viewer who e-mailed Fox to complain. Michael Eaves and former NBA and UCLA player Don MacLean, who regularly serve as halftime and postgame analysts on the Clippers telecasts, substituted for Lawler and Smith at courtside. ... Davis recorded his 5,000th regular-season assist in the NBA when he set up Kaman's 15-foot jumper with 3:19 left in the first quarter. ... Anthony has scored at least 30 points in eight of his first 12 games. He and Miami's Dwyane Wade are the only players in the league who have had 20 or more in all of their teams' games so far. ... Denver coach George Karl got a technical foul from referee Marc Davis with 4:40 left in the third quarter after Anthony was called for a foul on Thornton with the Nuggets trailing 75-60. .