NBA: Denver 123, Toronto 116

TORONTO, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Al Harrington scored 31 points off the bench Friday to give Coach George Karl a milestone victory in the Denver Nuggets' 123-116 win over Toronto.

It was the 1,000th triumph in Karl's career, making him the seventh NBA coach to reach that figure. The Nuggets had dropped their previous two attempts to bring Karl the historic win.

He joined Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Pat Riley, Jerry Sloan, Phil Jackson and Larry Brown among NBA coaches with 1,000 victories. Karl has battled throat and neck cancer during the past year.

Harrington made six of Denver's 12 3-pointers and hit on 12-of-19 attempts from the field overall.

The Nuggets trailed by a point with 4:15 to play in the second quarter but closed the half on a 14-4 run and opened as much as a 19-point lead in the third period.

Nene contributed 26 points for Denver, Chauncey Billups had 21 and Gary Forbes scored 15.

Toronto, which has lost four straight, was led by Linas Kleiza with 26.

Both teams shot more than 50 percent and Denver survived 22 turnovers to pick up its eighth victory in 10 games. The Nuggets played without Carmelo Anthony (knee) for the second straight game.