It started out as a drizzle.

Then came the rain.

Finally, the thunder.

Poor defense and a disjointed offense threatened to derail the Nuggets on Friday night, but a barrage of three-pointers and an emphatic dunk allowed them to steal a game they had no business winning.

Playing in front of a sellout crowd at the Pepsi Center, the Nuggets overcame a season-high 24 turnovers by hitting a season-high 15 three-pointers during a 105-101 win against the Philadelphia 76ers.

In the end, it was Kenyon Martin's two-handed dunk with nine seconds remaining that gave Denver the lead for good and erased the memory of a 17-point third-quarter deficit.

"The thought that comes to my mind is, bad teams lose games they're supposed to win and good teams win games they're supposed to lose," Nuggets coach George Karl said.

"There's always a couple games during the year that you always look back on in a positive way that helped your season. I think this one will be on that list."

Down 74-57 with 4:14 to go in the third quarter, the Nuggets shot their way back into the game by making eight three-pointers in the game's final 13 minutes.

J.R. Smith, who made at least six three-pointers seven times last season, led the way with 27 points on 7-for-11 shooting from beyond the arc.

"I hope we're not becoming a three-ball team," Karl said. "They put that line out there to help teams down 17, so I think we took advantage of it."

Despite going 15-for-31 from long range, the Nuggets still trailed by a point after Marreese Speights scored on an alley-oop with 17.7 seconds to go.

The Nuggets called a timeout, and Chauncey Billups found Martin near the top of the key after being double- teamed 40 feet from the basket.

Spotting a wide-open lane, Martin drove the middle and dunked over 6-foot-11 center Samuel Dalembert to put the Nuggets ahead 102-101.

"They wanted to take the ball out of Chauncey's hands, but they weren't going to leave J.R. and Chucky (Atkins) in the corners," Martin said. "I'm a basketball player and I'm going to make basketball plays, and that's what I did."

Billups said he intentionally backed the ball out near midcourt when he saw the double-team, enabling Martin to get more room to drive.

"He made a great decision," Billups said. "He had Chucky in the corner. He just went down the lane and did what he does best - be athletic."

The Sixers had a chance to go ahead in the final seconds, but Andre Iguodala traveled with 3.7 seconds remaining and former Nuggets point guard Andre Miller was called for a rare technical foul with 2.9 left.

With Atkins preparing to shoot two free throws, Miller walked in front of him in as part of a psychological ploy.

"I didn't do nothing or say anything," Miller said. "I was just trying to stall the free throw. Maybe it was a stupid move, but I wasn't expecting a tech. Maybe a delay (of game), but not a tech. Guys do that all the time in this league."

Billups hit the ensuing technical-foul shot, and Atkins converted his two free throws to ice it.

"We've got a lot of guys that can shoot it from deep and break down a defense," Billups said. "The thing is, you don't want to get down 17. That's my concern. All of a sudden, pride kicks in and you get back in the game."

Billups finished with 26 points and 10 assists, while Nene had 13 points and 12 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double. Atkins, who didn't play in the first half, provided a spark off the bench with eight points in the fourth quarter.

"I thought Chucky gave us great minutes," Karl said. "That was the spirit that we kind of needed to get into the game."

Denver played its third straight game without leading scorer Carmelo Anthony, who is nursing a bruised elbow. He said Friday he hopes to return when the Nuggets start a four- game trip Sunday in New York.

He couldn't have done much worse than his teammates early Friday night.

Looking sluggish after two days off for Christmas, the Nuggets committed 11 turnovers in the first 16 minutes and trailed 52-49 at halftime.

"It might have been my fault, giving them two days off and being a little rusty," Karl said. "The (back-to-back) Portland games and the four games in five nights had drained our battery pretty good, and we came out a little flat and a little stale."

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