Beat down in Beantown

Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, November 8, 2007

BOSTON — Sixteen championship banners hang at TD Banknorth Garden. The Boston Celtics have played some of the greatest games in NBA history.

But they haven't had many halves like Wednesday night.

The Celtics torched the Nuggets 77-38 in the first half of a 119-93 win. They shot 72.1 percent and made the Nuggets look like St. Leo facing Georgetown.

"I said to someone, 'I don't think I've ever been down that much at a half,' " said Nuggets coach George Karl, also noting it "looked like we forgot how to play basketball."

A major concern was how long it will be before forward Nene again plays. He suffered a sprained left thumb in the first quarter, and there were indications it could be serious.

Nene flew back to Denver after the game. Though preliminary X-rays were negative, he will see a hand specialist today and will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging exam.

"I'm worried," Karl said of Nene, who will remain in Denver while the Nuggets complete their trip Friday at Washington and Saturday at Indiana.

As Nene exited the arena, his hand was heavily wrapped and he looked concerned, saying, "I don't know" in regard to how long he'll be out. Forward Carmelo Anthony also sounded worried, saying the Nuggets are "going to really miss him."

The Nuggets, down to Allen Iverson as their only point guard, are a battered bunch. Now, everybody on the team has a severely bruised ego.

"They beat the (expletive) out of us," said Anthony, who talked about being quadruple-teamed and finished with only 11 points. "It was an embarrassing loss."

Anthony said he looked at the scoreboard and "we were down almost 100 points." In reality, the Nuggets were doubled up at 50-25, 68-34 and 74-37.

The Nuggets might have put together the star-studded combo of Anthony and Iverson, but three beats two. They had no answer for the Celtics trio of Paul Pierce (26 points), Kevin Garnett (23) and Ray Allen (22), who combined for 71 points and would have had more had all not been done for the game before the nine-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

Then again, the Nuggets (2-3) had no answer for anybody wearing green.

"They pretty much did anything they wanted," said Iverson, who had a team-most 22 points. "We just got to put this game behind us . . . and leave this one in Boston."

The way Boston looked, perhaps the Larry O'Brien Trophy will be here in the summer.

"The Boston Celtics are my champions right now," Karl said.

The Celtics (3-0) shot 64.5 percent, their best in 14 years. That missed the 65.5 percent Phoenix shot against Denver 24 years ago, the best by a Nuggets opponent.

The Celtics, who led by as many as 41 midway through the third quarter, reached the 100-point mark with 1:18 left in the third. Only a late run by the Nuggets during garbage time prevented it from being their worst loss to the Celtics, by 27 points.

"(The Nuggets) played (Tuesday), and they played a tough game," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who returned after missing one game because of the death of his father. "We didn't, and we were ready to play. . . . We set the tone."

The Nuggets lost an emotional 119-112 decision Tuesday at New York in the first meeting between the teams since their December brawl. They had to use top players for extended minutes, and perhaps some were spent.

It marked the third straight loss by the Nuggets, all to teams with losing marks last season. But New Orleans, New York and Boston are improved.

"Is this year completely different from last season?" Boston center Kendrick Perkins said. "Yes, it is."

There is some concern on the Nuggets' side. Their only wins are against winless Seattle and Minnesota, and neither was easy.

"Our fundamental nature of playing hard went out the window the last couple of nights," said Karl, who vowed to "burn" the game tape. "If we don't get back to playing hard, you can't beat good teams."

Or even stay in the game. Nuggets center Marcus Camby, a 12-year veteran, also couldn't remember a half such as the one Wednesday against one of his teams.

"Not even that bad on the Toronto teams when I first got drafted," said Camby, who played for a 16-66 team in 1997-98 and also for a 17-65 Nuggets team in 2002-03.

Even Boston legend Bob Cousy said on a Celtics broadcast he couldn't remember such a dominant half. And he had a lot to do with six of the banners hanging above the court.

tomassonc@RockyMountainNews.com