Nuggets end Sixers' five-game road win streak.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Joe Juliano

DENVER _ If the Philadelphia 76ers popped some champagne corks to welcome in the New Year, they probably found the bubbly to be a bit sour and flat.

A road that had been filled with fun and frolic for the Sixers turned dark and dreary last night, especially in the fourth quarter when they turned the ball over 10 times, blew an 11-point lead and saw their five-game road winning streak shattered with a 97-92 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday night.

The Nuggets, to the approval of a sellout crowd of 19,099 at the Pepsi Center, broke a six-game losing streak and won in the debut of interim head coach Michael Cooper. They played without injured starters Kenyon Martin and Greg Buckner, and lost a third starter, Marcus Camby, late in the first quarter with a back injury.

So the Sixers should have had the upper hand but they couldn't capitalize. They finished with 25 turnovers in the game and allowed 16 offensive rebounds which the Nuggets converted into 22 points. The Nuggets outscored the Sixers, 12-0, in the fourth quarter on second-chance opportunities.

"It really was a case of our turnovers and our inability to keep them off the glass," Sixers coach Jim O'Brien said. "I think they were the two main factors of the game. They're athletic. I don't think we got our bodies on them enough. Some long shots bounced over our heads. I think we were competing but we just didn't have what it took to keep them off the glass or pursue the rebounds tonight."

The Sixers led 78-67 on Marc Jackson's layup with 9 minutes, 59 seconds remaining but then got sloppy. In the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, they had taken two shots from the field and committed eight turnovers, and frittered away the advantage.