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Denver's magic trumps Wizards

Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 10, 2007 at midnight

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WASHINGTON - The Nuggets arrived late. Then they sent the Wizards home early.

Less than an hour before Friday night's tipoff, it looked as if the Nuggets might have to roll out a starting lineup that featured neither Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson nor Kenyon Martin and a coach who wasn't George Karl.

OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But the Nuggets' second bus, which featured its star players and coach, was stuck in traffic and didn't arrive until 48 minutes before tipoff.

No problem. The Nuggets routed the hapless Wizards 118- 92 to end a three-game losing streak.

"I was stressed," Karl said about the trip to the arena. "It's uncomfortable not being in your routine before a game. I don't think we were ever worried about missing the game. We were only three or four blocks away."

Karl said the 2 1/2-mile trip from the team hotel took an hour and 15 minutes, at least 45 minutes longer than normal. Because of rain and Friday rush- hour traffic, Karl said it went through the minds of those on the bus to walk.

As it turned out, the Nuggets (3-3) ran the Wizards (0-5) out of the Verizon Center.

Perhaps there was another traffic jam during the third quarter caused by all the fans leaving. That's when the Nuggets settled matters by outscoring the Wizards 33-11.

Anthony took matters into his own hands. En route to a game- high 32 points, he outscored the Wizards 16-11 by himself in the third, which he called a "hell of a stat."

"I started feeling good," said Anthony, who tweaked his right ankle on a putback in the second quarter and said it was sore but not anything serious. "I was knocking down shots."

That didn't happen for him Wednesday, when the Nuggets were hammered 119-92 at Boston. Anthony was held to 11 points.

"We had to bounce back and redeem ourselves," said Nuggets center Marcus Camby, who did his part with 13 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and four steals, although he surprisingly didn't have a block.

But with the shot clock running down in the third quarter, Camby did hit a three-pointer. It was the first one Camby, who came in 7-of-51 in his 12-year career, had made since Dec. 26, 2005.

The Nuggets also got some solid defense from Yakhouba Diawara, who started at shooting guard and was used against the Wizards' Gilbert Arenas. Diawara helped hold Arenas to 18 points on 5-of-13 shooting.

"We got kicked two days ago," Diawara said of the Boston massacre. "We just tried to come back hard, and I just tried to bring a lot of energy from the start. I was just trying to make (Arenas) frustrated."

There's a lot of that going around on the Wizards. They're off to the franchise's worst start since the 1966-67 Baltimore Bullets began 0-5.

The Nuggets are thankful these days for winless teams. In addition to the Wizards, they have wins over Seattle and Minnesota, the three a combined 0-15.

Anthony, playing as close as he ever gets to his Baltimore home, called it a "must win." His coach didn't seem to disagree.

"The urgency in the game was very obvious to us," Karl said. "We needed to get a win on the road and complete the game."

The Nuggets missed several dunks, prompting Karl to joke that the team might make a film and "put it to Abbott and Costello." But Karl couldn't complain about the Nuggets forcing 26 turnovers, and he liked the play of J.R. Smith, who totaled 16 points and five assists while getting time at point guard because of Denver's injuries.

The Nuggets came in on the heels of yet another injury. Forward Nene, who had surgery on a torn thumb ligament Friday, is out six weeks.

At least Martin was available after plans for him to play just one game in back-to-back situations while recovering from knee surgery were scrapped. With the Nuggets playing tonight at Indiana, Martin originally wasn't going to play Friday.

Karl said the restriction was likely going to be lifted after this weekend anyway, but it was "moved up one game" after Nene went down.

Martin started Friday. But the bus trip did put that in doubt for a while.

FG FT Reb
DENVER Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Anthony 34:39 14-24 2-2 1-5 5 1 32
Martin 20:10 6-11 0-0 3-3 1 3 12
Camby 31:24 6-10 0-0 3-12 7 3 13
Diawara 20:01 2-4 0-0 0-1 2 4 6
Iverson 36:09 5-13 4-4 0-2 8 1 15
Najera 24:10 1-4 0-0 4-7 1 4 2
Smith 24:51 4-8 6-7 2-6 5 3 16
Kleiza 23:50 4-8 1-2 0-5 2 2 11
Jones 16:36 3-5 3-4 0-1 1 3 11
Wafer 4:56 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Hunter 3:14 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Totals 240 45-88 16-19 13-43 32 25 118

Percentages - FG .511, FT .842. Three-point goals - 12-25, .480 (Anthony 2-3, Kleiza 2-3, Diawara 2-4, Smith 2-4, Jones 2-4, Camby 1-1, Iverson 1-3, Wafer 0-1, Najera 0-2). Team rebounds - 7. Team turnovers - 19 (16 pts.). Blocked shots - None. Turnovers - 19 (Iverson 5, Anthony 3, Camby 2, Kleiza 2, Najera 2, Smith 2, Martin, Hunter, Jones). Steals - 15 (Camby 4, Anthony 3, Iverson 2, Kleiza, Martin, Najera, Diawara, Smith, Jones). Technicals - Kleiza, 4:34 second.

FG FT Reb
WASH. Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Butler 31:00 7-12 6-6 1-4 1 2 21
Jamison 38:23 6-17 2-2 2-12 2 0 17
Haywood 20:06 1-3 4-8 0-5 1 5 6
Stevenson 17:37 0-6 0-0 2-3 5 1 0
Arenas 36:35 5-13 6-8 0-1 4 3 18
Blatche 22:23 5-8 1-2 5-8 0 2 11
NYoung 16:26 1-5 2-2 1-2 1 1 5
Daniels 27:46 3-8 2-3 1-4 3 1 8
Songaila 19:43 1-4 0-0 2-5 1 1 2
McGuire 5:06 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 2
Mason 4:55 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 2
Totals 240 31-81 23-31 14-44 19 17 92

Percentages - FG .383, FT .742. Three-point goals - 7-20, .350 (Jamison 3-6, Arenas 2-8, Butler 1-2, N.Young 1-3, Stevenson 0-1). Team rebounds - 10. Team turnovers - 26 (28 pts.). Blocked shots - 7 (Blatche 3, Stevenson 2, Haywood, Jamison). Turnovers - 24 (Arenas 4, Blatche 4, Butler 4, Jamison 4, Daniels 2, N.Young 2, Haywood, Songaila, Stevenson, McGuire). Steals - 9 (Arenas 4, Jamison 2, Butler, Daniels, Stevenson). Technicals - None.

Denver ......28 32 33 25 - 118
Washington ......26 25 11 30 - 92

A - 20,173 (20,173). T - 2:23. Officials - Scott Foster, James Capers, Eric Lewis.

Nuggets at Pacers

• When: 5 MST tonight.

• Where: Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis.

• TV/radio: Altitude; KKFN-AM (950).

• Starting lineups:

Denver (3-3) Pos. Ht. Pts.

15 Carmelo Anthony F 6-8 25.4

4 Kenyon Martin F 6-9 9.2

23 Marcus Camby C 6-11 11.0

5 Yakhouba Diawara G 6-7 3.8

3 Allen Iverson G 6-0 23.5

Coach: George Karl Indiana (3-2) Pos. Ht. Pts.

33 Danny Granger F 6-9 19.4

7 Jermaine O'Neal F 6-11 13.0

10 Jeff Foster C 6-11 6.4

17 Mike Dunleavy G 6-9 18.4

11 Jamaal Tinsley G 6-3 9.2

Coach: Jim O'Brien • Injuries: Nuggets - G Chucky Atkins (right groin strain), G Anthony Carter (broken right hand) and F Nene (torn left thumb ligament) are out; G Mike Wilks (strained right hamstring) is questionable. Pacers - F Ike Diogu (torn left calf muscle) is out.

• Notes: The Nuggets conclude a trip in which they played four games in five days. . . . The Nuggets again will have Iverson as their only point guard. Karl said Wilks will miss his fourth straight game and isn't even sure if he'll have him Monday against Cleveland. "I can't figure this out," said Wilks, who tested the hamstring before the game at Washington on Friday but couldn't go. "It hurts more than anything. I want to be out there." . . . The Nuggets have won three straight at Indiana after losing nine in a row. . . . Denver players are frustrated at Nene having been lost for six weeks after being hurt Wednesday at Boston. "It's tough. We're snakebit," Iverson said of the Nuggets, who have had numerous injuries.

Nuggets 118, Wizards 92