Denver

Clippers on Thursday AT DENVER When: 7:30 PST. Where: Pepsi Center. On the air: TV: TNT; Radio: 980, 1330. Records: Clippers 43-19 (before Wednesday night), Nuggets 40-22. Record vs. Nuggets : 1-1. Update: The Nuggets have won six straight games. They have won 11 consecutive games at home and own a 26-3 record at the Pepsi Center, one of the best home marks in the NBA. The Nuggets average 105.7 points per game, the third-highest in the NBA. —Broderick Turner

DENVER - As if George Karl needed another reason to loathe the Lakers. The self-avowed Lakers hater watched video of Metta World Peace smacking Denver Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried in the mouth Monday and came away with a fairly straightforward review: two thumbs down. "I saw it on film and I thought it was - whatever the word is - premeditated," Karl, the veteran Nuggets coach, said Friday about a play toward the end of the third quarter in which no foul was called. The NBA seemed to agree, retroactively assessing World Peace a flagrant-2 foul Thursday.

The NBA giveth reprimands retroactively as well as taketh them away. Two days after rescinding a technical foul on Kobe Bryant , the league office assessed a flagrant 2 foul on Lakers forward Metta World Peace for hitting Denver's Kenneth Faried in the face with his elbow Monday. No foul was called on the play by the game officials when it occurred in the final seconds of the third quarter. Had World Peace been given the flagrant foul at the time of the contact, he would have been immediately ejected.

Nuggets 119 - Lakers 108 (final) The Denver Nuggets owned the paint, defeating the Lakers, 119-108. The Nuggets scored 78 points in the paint, taking advantage of 12 first-half Lakers' turnovers to build a sizable cushion.  The Lakers won both the third and fourth quarters by a single point but it wasn't enough to overcome a 13-point halftime deficit. Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 29 points on 12-of-23 shooting along with nine assists.  Steve Nash shot 6-of-9 from the field with 16 points, but Nash (six)

DENVER - It's been awhile since Dwight Howard's free-throw shooting became a headline. It happened Monday. He made three of 14 from the line in the Lakers' 119-108 loss to the Denver Nuggets, a woeful 21%. He actually made his first two, so you can imagine what happened from there. Everyone knows Howard will never win any free-throw contests. The carnival workers won't be handing out any stuffed animals when he steps up to the basketball booth and opens his wallet. But three for 14 tied his worst of the season when he's had more than 10 attempts.

For the second time this season, the Lakers (28-29) will visit the Denver Nuggets (35-23) on the second night of a back-to-back. The Lakers previously lost the day after Christmas in Denver after winning the first meeting at Staples Center on November 30. The Nuggets also won in Los Angeles on January 6, an especially costly game for the Lakers.  Jordan Hill suffered the season-ending hip injury, Gasol was concussed by JaVale McGee and Dwight...

DENVER - Sorry, Lakers fans. Not yet. A modest three-game Lakers winning streak was strewn across the court by the Denver Nuggets, who looked like the varsity scrimmaging against the JVs for most of a breezy 119-108 victory Monday night at the Pepsi Center. The Lakers were turnstiles on defense, the Nuggets amassing - stop and sit for a sec - 78 points in the paint. Fastbreak points? Please. The Lakers were annihilated, 33-3. There was cheering for a fast-food taco promotion, but not the type Lakers fans would like.

Security at Denver International Airport aims to protect cars from vandalism and theft, but there's a new threat at the its expansive parking lot. Ravenous rabbits. Officials say the animals are causing hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in damage to cars by devouring the wires under the hood. Officials with the U.S. Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services in the Denver area are removing at least 100 rabbits every month, but the problem persists. The airport is surrounded by prairie, and the rabbits are seeking warmth and food in the parked vehicles.

Almost a week after a Denver woman shot her three children and then committed suicide, family members clung to hope that the lone survivor -- a round-faced 2-year-old named Isabel -- would keep improving and get to leave the hospital. Hospital spokeswoman Jenny Bertrand said  Isabel was still in critical condition Tuesday, but Liliana Castro, the girl's aunt, told the Denver Post that Isabel was out of a coma. "This is very, very good news for us,” Castro said. When police responded to a 911 call Wednesday morning, they found blood, three dead bodies and young Isabel.