"The first guy I remember making a lot of those was Larry Bird, and I used to call them 'daggers,"' Nuggets coach George Karl said. "You still had hope and then there's this 3-ball with three seconds on the shot clock, and it's now too many points to overcome."

With the win, the Nuggets (21-12) are in sole possession of first place in the Northwest Division. Moreover, it was a historic victory for Karl, his 900th as an NBA coach.

Asked during the postgame if he would uncork New Year's champagne a couple of hours early, Karl smiled and said: "I'm not a champagne guy. I'm a beer guy. And beer after a win tastes like champagne."

And a half-hour after the game, Karl sauntered into the winning locker room - beer in hand - and spotted Billups and Carmelo Anthony.

"You can only do it with good players," Karl said. "Thank you, guys."

The 57-year-old Karl received an ovation from his team right after the game, as well as the game ball.

"For me, I've been fortunate to have good players, good situations and good coaches," said Karl, who is in his 21st NBA season with his fifth franchise. "(Assistant) Tim Grgurich, he's been with me for probably 600 of them. I thank him for putting me back together a lot of nights."

Karl is 10th all-time in wins and only four coaches ahead of him - Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, Pat Riley and Jerry Sloan - have a better winning percentage than Karl's .590.

"Not a lot of coaches coach 900 games," Billups said, "let alone win 900."

Karl's Nuggets entered Wednesday's game with a serious attitude, following an intense film session in Toronto on Tuesday. Karl said the team took Monday's road loss to the Atlanta Hawks "pretty hard." And in the film session, "we held people accountable," Billups said, notably the fourth-quarter performance, when Denver forced shots and was sloppy defensively.

In the fourth quarter at Toronto, Denver was unflappable, playing smart, team-first defense - Toronto shot 36.8 percent in the final quarter - and, of course, hitting big shots.

"Our execution in the last 2-3 minutes was pretty first-class," Karl said.

At Toronto (12-20), Anthony scored 20 points on 8-for-20 shooting, though his right elbow continued to hurt.

"Yeah, I was in pain," Anthony said, "and they didn't make it any better by hitting it."

And so, a new year begins, and Denver is in a great place - first place.

"We're not a finished product," Mr. 900 said. "I think we're still in the stage of getting better. What I'm excited about is probably our two toughest months were November and December. I think it would be top-10 tough schedules in the league. January gives us a lot of home games. And after that, I think the schedule is fairly fair to us. But we still have got to keep winning."

Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com