Kings 110, Nuggets 105: Darren Collison scored 21 points and DeMarcus Cousins added 19 as visiting Sacramento improved to 3-1 for the first time since 2010.

Carl Landry and Rudy Gay added 14 points apiece for the Kings. Ramon Sessions contributed 13 points and Reggie Evans had 14 rebounds off the bench for Sacramento.

Arron Afflalo and JaVale McGee scored 16 points apiece to lead the Nuggets (1-2). Wilson Chandler added 14 points and Timofey Mozgov, Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur and Nate Robinson finished with 10 points apiece for Denver.

Cousins, Gay and Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson re-entered the game with 5:31 left and the score tied at 90, and neither side led by more than two points until Gay’s three-point play with 2:24 left gave the Kings a five-point lead. Denver had a chance to tie with just under a minute remaining but Randy Foye’s 3-point try was off target and Cousins sank a pair of free throws with 29 seconds left to push the lead back to five.

Gay, who missed seven of eight first-half field-goal attempts, sank a 15-footer coming out of halftime to give the Kings their biggest lead at 53-46, but that was as large as it would grow. Mozgov picked up his fourth foul in the opening seconds of the second half and was replaced by McGee, who scored eight points over the next 7:10 as Sacramento took a two-point lead into the fourth.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Kings rookie G Nik Stauskas picked up three fouls in two minutes of action in the first half. … Chandler, third on the team in scoring last season behind Lawson and Faried, shot 5-for-15 and is 8-for-33 from the field through the first three games. … Lawson finished with nine points on 1-for-8 shooting on his 27th birthday.