Anthony led six players in double figures with 28 points and reached a milestone early as the Nuggets posted a 104-95 victory over the Miami Heat.
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"I think the loss against Cleveland really gave us energy," Anthony said. "We wanted to come back and show people that the team that played against Cleveland the other night was not the same team that's going to come out every night."
They eliminated any chance of a repeat performance with a quick start Saturday. Anthony scored six points to help the Nuggets to a 19-10 lead, capping the burst with a layup that gave him 2,000 career points. James scored his 2,000th point earlier this week.
"I think as a team, we started to get back into the same zone we were in last year when we were winning all those games, which is to focus on basketball and leave everything else outside," Anthony said. "What we did tonight was come out focused from beginning to end and it led to a big game."
Anthony made a season-high 12 baskets in 19 attempts. He made his first six shots and scored 16 points in the first half, when Denver took a 56-48 lead. The Nuggets scored just 30 points in the first half Thursday against Cleveland.
"When I start out like that, I think my team feeds off it," he said. "They get energy, they start hitting shots, and they get confidence out there."
Denver tied a season high with 28 fast-break points and improved to 7-0 when scoring 18 points or more in transition.
The Heat committed 25 turnovers to negate 51 percent (37-of-72) shooting and never got closer than five points thereafter.
"It disturbs me that our guys could not understand what (Denver's) performance was going to be like coming off the Cleveland game the other night," Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. "I'm getting tired of talking about effort with our players on a nightly basis. I'm tired of begging people to play hard. I'm tired of it being one game and then not the next game and we can't play with a consistent energy and intensity. It's inexcusable."
Tiny Earl Boykins had 15 points, six assists and a season-high five steals for Denver. His elusive dribbling in the final minute prevented Miami from fouling and eventually led to Kenyon Martin's clinching dunk.
Martin scored 12 points and three others added 10 for the Nuggets, who have won seven of nine overall after a 2-5 start.
"We're a completely different team, it shows in our record," guard Greg Buckner said. "On the defensive end, they got us a lot of fast-break points, we got an early lead and played from ahead and it's easy to play that way."
Dwyane Wade scored 26 points but Shaquille O'Neal was held to a season-low 12 for Miami. O'Neal owns a lifetime average of 27.0 points per game but has failed to reach 20 points in eight of 18 games this season.
"They had way more energy than we did," O'Neal said. "In the first half, we had way too many turnovers and ended up having 25. It's hard to win when you have that many turnovers. We played a little bit harder in the second half but we didn't play that smart."