A night after needing overtime to pick up their fourth straight victory, the Spurs will try to win for the ninth time in 10 games on Tuesday when they visit the Nuggets, who are happy to have their superstar back on the floor.

San Antonio's "rodeo" road trip has been a major success over the past six seasons, as coach Gregg Popovich's team has gone 35-13 on the annual journey since 2002-03.

This year's eight-game trek began at Golden State on Monday, and the Spurs (33-14) found themselves down 89-77 with less than nine minutes left to the defensively challenged Warriors.

But San Antonio closed regulation on an 18-6 run - including four Manu Ginobili free throws in the final minute to tie the score - and won 110-105 in overtime despite Tim Duncan fouling out.

Ginobili finished with 32 points, and is averaging 28.0 points in his last three games. He's 35-of-36 from the free-throw line.

"(Ginobili) is really finding his stride and been playing great the last five or six games," said Duncan, who also had 32 points. "It looks like he's feeling good about it and is getting back to the basket a lot more which is only going to help us."

Tony Parker had 23 points and seven assists as the team improved to 15-7 away from home.

The Spurs' next two games on their trip appear to be their toughest. Following their visit to the Pepsi Center, they'll have four days off before playing defending champion Boston on Sunday. The trip closes with four of five games against sub-.500 teams.

Denver (31-16) had a three-game lead over Portland in the Northwest Division when Carmelo Anthony went down with a broken hand on Jan. 6, and went 6-4 in the three weeks he missed.

The Nuggets' lead is down to a game over the streaking Trail Blazers now, but Anthony didn't look too rusty in his first game back on Friday. He had 19 points and five assists in 30 minutes as Denver beat Charlotte 110-99.

"It felt pretty good," Anthony said of his hand. "It's still a little tender. That's going to be something that I have to fight through."

Chauncey Billups scored 21.6 points per game in Anthony's absence and J.R. Smith averaged 16.7 points, but it was Linas Kleiza who stepped up offensively.

Kleiza was only scoring 9.7 ppg when Anthony went down, but averaged 14.6 points and 5.5 rebounds in the 10 games his two-time All-Star teammate missed. With Anthony back on Friday, Kleiza's play didn't suffer - he scored 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting.

Nene, meanwhile, is shooting 61.7 percent from the field to lead the league, but has been even better recently. He's averaging 17.8 points on 68.9 percent shooting in his last six games, including a 10-for-11 performance against the Bobcats.

"The sky's the limit for this team," Anthony said. "They made my time (out) a little bit easier by winning games. Now, we want to build on that."

Nene will be in for a challenge down low against Duncan, who had 21 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks at Denver in a 108-91 Spurs win on Dec. 4. Parker had a game-high 22 and Ginobili 21 in that contest.

Duncan is averaging 23.8 points and 11.8 rebounds in 21 career regular-season games in Denver.