ALLEN IVERSON and J.R. Smith put the enigmatic Denver Nuggets on the cusp of the NBA playoffs.

Iverson scored 33 points and Smith sparked the Nuggets out of their early doldrums with a 23-point performance in Denver’s 111-94 rout of the Houston Rockets on Sunday night.

The Rockets entered the Pepsi Center riding a five-game winning streak and still very much alive for the top seed in the wild West.

Instead, the Rockets fell 1 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Lakers atop the crazy conference, in which Golden State could become the first team in NBA history to win 50 games and miss the playoffs.

Luther Head lead Houston with 19 points and Tracy McGrady scored 16, but he was in foul trouble from the closing minutes of the first half, and even by then the game was out of hand.(SD-Agencies)