Danilo Gallinari scored 17 points in a third quarter duel with Carmelo Anthony, and 24 of his team-high 28 points in the second half to help the New York Knicks defeat the Denver Nuggets 109-104 Tuesday night.

“(Anthony) was taking the challenge. I took the challenge. We played a great game and he played a great game, and we won,” Gallinari said.

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Anthony, the NBA’s third leading scorer, scored 12 points in the third quarter, appearing he would get the better of the 21-year old Gallinari earlier in the period.

The Nuggets were going to their 25-year old All-Star on every trip and Carmelo seemed amused yet annoyed by the Italian’s attempts to check him. He jawed at Gallinari after some of his baskets, but Gallinari gave as good as he got.

“Actually it was kind of fun for me to see him hold his ground and not back down,” Anthony said. “He was kind of talking back to me out there, too, which I was kind of surprised.”

“That’s the challenge. That’s basketball, talking is a great part of basketball. If you don’t talk in basketball, you cannot play basketball.” Gallinari said. “You’ve got to talk.”

In that third quarter, Anthony gave the Nuggets a two-point lead with 3:37 to go, then Gallinari hit consecutive 3-pointers to ignite an 11-0 run to end the period. Al Harrington’s 3 with 3.9 seconds gave the Knicks an 83-74 lead going into the fourth. Gallinari would hit four threes in the quarter, and outscore Anthony 17-12 in the period.

Anthony scored 36 points and Chauncey Billups 25 for the Denver Nuggets.

“You can see him clicking, taking the challenge,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Now the challenge for him will be, he needs to be clicking every night and that’s not who’s in front of him. That’s a little bit of, if he wants to go to that next level, then the game’s got to be the challenge. It can’t be, ‘OK, I got Carmelo, or Kobe or whoever.”’

“(Gallinari) has gotten a lot better since when he first came in (the league),” Anthony told reporters. “I think he’s coming along big time.”

“We played a great g me and we won. (After the game) Carmelo just said ‘great job, keep playing hard. Keep ballin.’ ” Gallinari said after the game. The Nuggets had won the last four meetings—Anthony scored a career-high 50 in the last matchup—their longest winning streak ever against the New York Knicks.