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The Denver Nuggets couldn't defend Pau Gasol in Game 1 or Kobe Bryant in Game 2.

So, what makes them think they can turn things around in their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers?

"We're home, man," Allen Iverson said. "They got a chance to play in front of their home crowd, and we want that same type of advantage playing in front of ours."

The homecourt is about the only thing the Nuggets have successfully defended all season.

They rode the energy of the Pepsi Center to a 33-8 record, including a series of clutch must-win triumphs over the final six weeks that allowed them to reach the playoffs for the fifth straight season.

"It's our turn to hold serve," Nuggets coach George Karl said Thursday. "It's a great challenge, a lot of fun. The homecourt's been kind of our biggest ally all year long."

Game 3 is Saturday and Game 4 is Monday night.

The Nuggets looked haggard as they filtered out of film study Thursday, most of them not wanting to stop and talk about being in a 2-0 hole after allowing a staggering 250 points so far.

"I think it might just be a travel day of getting to bed at 4:30 in the morning," Karl said. "There's a heaviness to waiting sometimes. We'll have a good practice tomorrow. I thought we got a little bit better last night. We didn't get better enough to win the game, but we got a little bit better."

The Nuggets hung with the Lakers until the fourth quarter after watching Gasol tear them up for 36 points in a 128-114 loss in Game 1. But Bryant scored 19 points in a 4:19 stretch of the fourth quarter, leading L.A. to a 122-107 win Wednesday night.

The Nuggets, however, insist they'll show up Saturday with a swagger and not a stagger.

"My sense is all year long when this team had its true back to the wall, they've responded great and the homecourt's been a big part of that," Karl said. "I think there's an energy out there. Statistically there's all sorts of positives that come our way here. We play better defence here. We make people miss more shots here. ..."

And all those clutch wins late in the season give the Nuggets plenty of confidence they can come back on L.A.

"Well, to us they were pretty much like playoff games," Marcus Camby said. "Going down that stretch, especially, late March and all of April, were all must-wins. So, we pretty much know how to perform under pressure."

The Nuggets ranked next-to-last in the NBA by allowing 107 points a game in the regular season despite leading the league in both blocks (6.72) and steals (9.17). So, it's not surprising the Lakers have piled up 250 points.

"It's a high-paced game," Gasol said. "They keep it real fast, an up-and-down game. You take advantage of what they give you."

Opponents haven't had as much success against the Nuggets in Denver, and Bryant said it's imperative for the Lakers to duplicate their energy, execution and emotion on the road to change that.

"Not getting too high, not getting too low. Even keel, keeping our poise," Bryant said. "They're a great home team. I think altitude is a factor the first few minutes. They play with a lot of energy.

"I think we're doing OK, we're playing typical playoff basketball. That being said, we haven't put together four explosive quarters that I think we're capable of. The important thing is getting the Ws."

Lakers point guard Derek Fisher isn't expecting any surprises from the Nuggets in Game 3, either.

"I don't think you're going to see wholesale changes. They believe in their style of play," Fisher said. "Defensively, I think they'll play even more zone than we saw last night. I don't expect them to do too many things differently than they've done so far. I just expect them to do them better on their home court."

So do the Nuggets.

"We still feel good about ourselves," Linas Kleiza said. "We've got to do what we're supposed to do, and that's defend our homecourt. We've been good all year at our home, so it should be exciting if we do that and the series is back where it started."

Notes: Ronny Turiaf, who missed Game 2 with tonsillitis, is expected to make the trip to Denver on Friday. ... Karl on his son, Coby, playing against the Nuggets in Game 2: "It's a proud moment for the family that is to be cherished and celebrated. But it will not be done in the next two weeks."

Games like this are why you can't trust box scores. You could look at the numbers, see that Kobe Bryant scored 49 points, and think you had the story of the Lakers' 122-107 victory over the Nuggets in Game 2 of this opening round playoff series. You'd have no idea that Bryant and the Lakers were at their best during a five-minute stretch at the end of the third quarter when Kobe made only one shot.

That's when he took over the game in a manner reminiscent of a guy sitting in the baseline seats at Staples Center: Magic Johnson.
The score was tied when Bryant found Luke Walton for a layup and a foul. The next time down the court, Bryant fed Vladimir Radmanovic for a dunk. Three possessions later he threw the ball to Walton for a 3-pointer. All that giving brought him a gift in return, when Pau Gasol tossed an alley-oop that Bryant appeared to stop in mid-air before throwing it down. And Bryant closed out the quarter with a pass to Sasha Vujacic for another 3-pointer. Four of Bryant's 10 assists in that little stretch.

A 10-point advantage for the Lakers heading into the fourth quarter. Kobe's quarter.

"It's just about forcing them to make choices," Bryant said. "I knew in the third quarter they were going to try to zero in on me a little bit, try to Ttake me out of my groove.

"We're very used to those types of defenses. So my teammates are used to making cuts and taking advantage of it. I felt like it kind of softened them up for me to go back at it in the fourth."

A bunch of Walton and Vujacic body blows before Bryant could unleash the haymakers. The game's greatest closer put this one away with a flourish exceptional even by his standards, scoring 19 points in less than 4 ½ minutes.

After Bryant hit a 3-pointer to give him 46 points and put the Lakers up by 17 with 2 ½ minutes remaining, he took advantage of a pause while Carmelo Anthony shot free throws. Bryant walked by Marv Albert and Reggie Miller in the sideline announcer seats, pulled out his imaginary six-shooters and blew them off.

Nuggets guard J.R. Smith made the mistake of saying something to him, which only brought more pain. Bryant went at Smith the next time down the court, got a layup and-one to get to 49 points, one shy of the playoff career high he set against Phoenix in 2006.

"Better learn not to talk to me," Bryant said of Smith's jabbering. "You shake the tree, a leopard's gonna fall out."

The Nuggets shouldn't say anything to anyone right now. They picked up two more technical fouls in the fourth quarter, the first at a time when the Laker lead was still in single digits.

"As a team, I think we lost our focus, lost our composure," Carmelo Anthony said.

Sometimes it seems as if the Nuggets don't care if they win the series. In the second quarter George Karl sat Allen Iverson for what seemed as long as an afternoon at the DMV (in reality it was four minutes and 15 seconds). And even though Lakers backup big man Ronny Turiaf sat out with a sore throat, the Nuggets didn't make a point of attacking the Laker frontcourt players to get them in foul trouble.

Instead it was Denver's Kenyon Martin who fouled out halfway through the fourth quarter.

The Lakers know their way to win, and it requires getting everyone involved through the first three quarters. In the first quarter, Bryant had 20 points but the Lakers only had a one-point lead to show for it.

"Defensively, we couldn't find the combination of what to do," Phil Jackson said. "We were just a step behind defensively, they were attacking with a lot of confidence."

It wasn't that Bryant dominated the ball. He got transition baskets. He scored when the defense rotated away from him. One time a loose ball bounced his way, he gathered it up, didn't see anyone around and he calmly shot a 3-pointer.

And when a guy's shooting 60 percent, common sense dictates he should be taking all the shots. But that's not what got the Lakers to the top of the Western Conference this year. This was the season when a three-point drop in his scoring average coincided with a 15-win increase in the standings.

"You definitely play better when you're touching the ball and you're involved," said Walton, who had another big playoff performance with 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists. "Basketball is so much of a rhythm game and just being in the flow, not even realizing what's going on. When you're involved and touching the ball and making passes and making plays, it makes you involved in defense. You can read the court better, you can do all of the little things. It definitely helps."

Those were the Lakers of the third quarter, much more similar to the way they played this season.

Now the Nuggets need to make more adjustments. They went with Martin on Bryant again, but replaced Anthony Carter with Linas Kleiza in the starting lineup to avoid the size mismatches that allowed Pau Gasol to score 36 points in the first game. They tried zone defense. They put Smith on Bryant. None of it worked.

"The way he was going we could have put 10 people on the court and it probably wouldn't have been able to stop him," Allen Iverson said.

It's not about throwing everyone at Bryant. It's the way he has used every player on his team that's made the Lakers more of a threat this year, and certainly a class above the Nuggets in the first two games of this series.

J.A. Adande joined ESPN.com as an NBA columnist in August 2007 after 10 years with the Los Angeles Times. Click here to e-mail J.A.

The Nuggets could not have even hoped to contain Kobe Bryant in Game 2.

Bryant led all scorers with 49 points to go with 10 assists as the Lakers prevailed 122-107 at STAPLES Center on Wednesday to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the Western Conference first-round playoff series.

Pau Gasol added 18 points and 10 rebounds and Luke Walton scored 18 off the bench for Los Angeles. But it was Kobe's show as he went 18-of-27 from the floor and finished one point off his career playoff high. He scored 20 points in an electric first quarter and 25 in the half as the Lakers went into the lockerroom with a 10-point lead.

Bryant was replaced by Coby Karl, the son of Denver coach George Karl. It was the first time in NBA playoff history that a father has coached against his son.

The Nuggets played much better in the second half as Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony combined for 17 points in the third quarter. Iverson led Denver with 31 points and Anthony added 23.

Down 11 with 10:39 to play, Denver went on an 8-2 run to pull within five on J.R. Smith's 3-pointer with 10:25 to play. The Nuggets got within five again on Anthony's layup with 7:16 remaining, but Bryant heled trigger a 13-2 Lakers run with under seven minutes to play to help put the game out of reach.

Bryant scored 19 of the Lakers' final 24 points in the game.

The teams will square off again on in Game 3 on Saturday at 5:30 ET ON TNT.

Karl admitted before the game Sunday he’d prefer facing No. 2 seed New Orleans rather than the No. 1 Lakers in the first round. "I’m not going to deny we were rooting to play New Orleans," he said. "We wanted to play the more inexperienced team." About the Lakers last summer, Karl later said, "I was hoping they would trade Kobe." [Rocky Mountain News]

Several Denver Nuggets players were stranded on the highway for about a half hour Sunday when the team bus broke down on the way to Staples Center for a playoff opener against the Los Angeles Lakers.


The bus left the team's hotel about 2 1/2 hours before tipoff as scheduled, but experienced problems about 15 minutes into the trip, club spokesman Eric Sebastian said. Players and staff had to wait on the Santa Monica Freeway.

"There was a pop, black smoke, there was another pop, more black smoke," Sebastian said. "We rushed off the bus. We were standing on the side of the road."

The Nuggets' second bus, which left the team hotel about 30 minutes after the first one, stopped to pick up their teammates. The entire team made the rest of the trip to the arena, arriving about 90 minutes before game-time.

"It was a good bonding experience," Sebastian said with a smile.

Rookie guard Taurean Green was on the first bus.

"It wasn't scary; it was just a little frustrating," he said. "All we could do is stand around. You don't want to start off the first series being delayed to the arena."

Nuggets coach George Karl was on the second bus. When told what happened, his response was: "Go pick 'em up."

"It was fine," he added. "It was a little pressure relief — laugh a little bit."

Denver Nuggets looks towards winning the Lakers Game

They embody the NBA's fusion of hip-hop and pick and roll, oozing of swagger, boasting of athleticism and as the unofficial titleholders of the team with the most body art.

These Denver Nuggets are star-studded and expensive, carrying one of the league's highest payrolls.

They scratched and clawed their way to the playoffs, finally curling their fingers around the Western Conference's eighth spot and earning a first-round matchup against the Lakers.

And for Denver, as with most playoff teams, there is praise and promise, scattered somewhere along with concern and compatibility.

TNT's Charles Barkley recently labeled Denver talented but also as "the most disappointing team in the league."

And the fallout from Carmelo Anthony's arrest this week on suspicion of drunk driving is yet to be ascertained.

"I think our team has to worry a little bit more about ourselves than most playoff teams," Nuggets Coach George Karl told reporters in Denver on Friday. "If we turn the light switch on and [keep] it on, we'll be fine. Sometimes it's a dimmer. I'm sure there's some sports psychologist out there who can figure it out."

It doesn't take one to figure out that something went right. It went right to the tune of 50 wins in Denver, the first time the Nuggets reached that mark since the 1987-88 season.

Largely because they can score.

The names alone of Anthony (25.7 points a game) and guard Allen Iverson (26.4 points) are enough to give an opposing coach insomnia.

They are major factors why the Nuggets won 10 regular-season games by 20 points or more.

The play of Denver's reserves -- outside threats J.R. Smith, who averaged 15.5 points in March and April, and Linas Kleiza -- will also be critical if the Nuggets are to win the series.

The Nuggets' problem is they like scoring so much, they let other teams do it at will too. Denver lost seven games by 20 points or more.

Their defense is largely centered on Marcus Camby, the league's reigning defensive player of the year, who patrols the paint and is assisted every once in a while by forward Kenyon Martin.

The team is rounded out by others who went through the regular season feigning as much interest in defense as a weekend hoopster playing at a local gym.

The Nuggets rise and fall with a risk-and-reward defense. Often Denver goes for steals and the chance at a fastbreak if it is there and often if it is not. "They probably have more talent than anyone in the NBA," Barkley said. "If they just tried to play defense, they could be scary."

Former Laker Michael Cooper, who coached the Nuggets for 14 games before Karl took over, said the Nuggets have an added dimension.

Playing in a high-altitude city, the Nuggets look to run their opponents until the other team's knees wobble. "And when they come to sea level, they try to turn it up even more," Cooper said.

But they also have the added baggage of Anthony's situation.

Compared to other stars in his draft class, including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, Anthony seems to have had the hardest time assimilating into the corporate components of the game.

Anthony apologized for his latest arrest, but he has been in several high-profile incidents since entering the NBA in 2003. He consented to a blood test in the DUI case, but the results won't be available for several days. His first court appearance is scheduled for May 14.

"Carmelo has had his off-the-court clashes in the past, but once you walk into that gym you leave everything behind you," Cooper said, before adding a small jab. "They take a bus to the gym, so it shouldn't affect him."

Instead, Cooper said, Anthony probably will be more affected by sharing the court with Iverson.

Both are scorers who thrive on one-on-one play. But because Iverson has the ball in his hands as a guard, he is able to more often create shots for himself.

"When I coached [Anthony], he was the go-to guy," Cooper said. "He's not that now. He's a second option. . . . If he's not the first option, he's a little more selfish and he's going to look to his shot and look to score. [Iverson] can come and take three or four shots and then [Anthony] is going to be looking for the next one even if it could be a bad shot."

Anthony was remorseful when he issued his apology, and at Friday's practice he appeared relaxed and focused in front of Denver reporters.

He is unflinching in his belief that the Nuggets can pull off an upset in his bid to get past the first round of the playoffs for the first time in his career.

"We're confident," he said. "We're the underdog right now. I love being in this situation."

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 10 (AP) -- Denver Nuggets coach George Karl wouldn't reveal the contents of his motivational halftime speech on Saturday night.

"I don't know if most of it is printable,'' he said.

Whatever he said appeared to have the desired effect, though. The Nuggets, who trailed by 25 points in the first half, used Carmelo Anthony's 32 points and 10 rebounds to pull out a 113-106 victory over the stunned Indiana Pacers.

Denver shot 41 percent from the field and committed 13 turnovers before the break, leading to Karl's unpleasant lecture.

"He cursed us out,'' Anthony said.

The Nuggets (4-3) outscored Indiana 57-32 in the second half to win their second straight game following three losses.

"The one thing as a player you want to find out is the type of character you have on your team,'' said Denver guard Allen Iverson, who finished with 27 points and 10 assists. "When you get in situations like that, you can learn a lot about the players on your team.''

Troy Murphy had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Mike Dunleavy scored 17 and Jermaine O'Neal added 15 points and 12 rebounds for the Pacers (3-3), who lost their seventh consecutive game to the Nuggets.

"In the second half, we made bad decisions and took bad shots,'' said Indiana forward Danny Granger, who scored 13 points. "We have to figure out a way to close out games.''

Denver chipped away at the deficit in the second half, getting within 93-92 following Marcus Camby's jumper with 8:23 left in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets took their first lead, 95-94, since early in the first quarter on Iverson's 3-pointer.

Indiana regained a 101-97 advantage after O'Neal's dunk and free throw with less than 4 minutes left, but the Nuggets reeled off the next 12 points, capped by Iverson's 3, to secure the win.

"We just kept fighting,'' Anthony said. "If this isn't a confidence-booster, I don't know what is.''

Denver's Linas Kleiza scored 12 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter to help complete the comeback. His two free throws gave the Nuggets a 104-101 lead with 1:18 remaining.

"He knocked down some big shots,'' Anthony said.

The Pacers raced out to a 21-12 lead in the first quarter following Dunleavy's layup. They extended the advantage to 46-31 on Murphy's two free throws to end the period.

Indiana scored the first eight points, including six by O'Neal, of the second quarter to open a 23-point lead. Denver's first point of the period came on Anthony's free throw with 7:25 left in the half.

Indiana took its biggest lead, 63-38, on Dunleavy's free throw two minutes later.

"A story of two halves,'' Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said. "I knew they would come back because they have two of the greatest players in the world.''

Denver began the third quarter on a 10-0 run, which included three straight 3-pointers from Yakhouba Diawara, to cut the deficit to 74-66. The Nuggets got as close as 85-80 later in the period following a 9-0 spurt.

"I think (Diawara) gave us a big boost in the second half,'' Iverson said. "He gave us some momentum, and then we rode the wave off of him.''

Notes: Pacers C David Harrison received a technical foul for arguing a call in the second quarter. ... Indiana's 74 points in the first half was a season high. ... The Pacers have lost three in a row after starting the season 3-0. ... Nuggets F-C Nene missed the game with a torn ligament in his left thumb. He's expected to miss six weeks. ... Pacers F Ike Diogu didn't play with a torn left calf muscle. ... Denver snapped a three-game losing streak with a win at Washington on Friday. ... The Nuggets completed a four-game road trip, finishing 2-2.
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DENVER, Nov. 8 (AP) -- Denver Nuggets power forward Nene is expected to miss up to six weeks because of a torn ligament in his left thumb.

Nene was injured in Denver's 119-93 loss at Boston on Wednesday night. He saw a hand specialist in Denver on Thursday, and the team said Dr. Carlton Clinkscale will operate on the thumb Friday.

The Nuggets, who have lost three straight games, have been hit hard by injuries for the third straight season. They have three points guards who are out: Michael Wilks (hamstring), Anthony Carter (broken hand) and Chucky Atkins (groin) and are monitoring minutes for power forward Kenyon Martin, coming back from a knee operation last year. Martin isn't playing in back-to-back games and is limited to about 18 minutes a game.

Nene made a successful comeback last season from a knee injury that wiped out almost his entire 2005-06 season.

BOSTON, Nov. 7 (AP) -- Hard to believe, but Boston's newest Big Three thinks it can play even better.

Paul Pierce scored 26 points, Kevin Garnett added 23 points and 13 rebounds, and the Celtics shot 72 percent during an overpowering first half en route to a 119-93 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night.

"We are just scratching the surface on what we can do,'' Pierce said. "We enjoy seeing the next player make a great play and no one cares who gets credit.''

Boston improved to 3-0 overall and has won both its home games by an average of 24 points. Ray Allen scored 22 points and is shooting 63 percent since joining the Celtics.

"They (Garnett, Pierce and Allen) like each other,'' Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "They've all decided that they don't need anything individually and it is all about what's best for the team.''

The Celtics barely broke a sweat in building a 77-38 halftime lead. Boston had multiple uncontested layups, dunks and an array of dazzling passes, outrebounded Denver 25-9 and dominated essentially every statistic on the box score.

Allen Iverson led the Nuggets with 22 points, but Carmelo Anthony was held to only 11 on 3-of-13 shooting. Denver dropped an emotional game on Tuesday in New York, 119-112, after blowing a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and has lost three straight overall.

"It's a game we never had a shot in,'' Iverson said. "They jumped right on us and we were never able to take care of business.''

Iverson appeared to be the only Nuggets player fazed by the huge early deficit. After Eduardo Najera picked up a technical early in the second quarter with Denver trailing 50-25, Iverson barked to referee Scott Wall, "We're down 25, isn't that enough?''

Rivers returned for Boston after missing a game due to the death of his father.

"Doc has been preaching to us about repetition,'' Garnett said. "We knew Denver could put up 150 points if they wanted to, but we want to be known as a defensive team.''

Garnett, who also chipped in with seven assists, gave Boston its biggest lead of the game at 91-50 when he converted an alley-oop dunk from Pierce with 4:30 left in the third quarter.

Boston shot 65 percent for the game and has won 16 of the last 18 home games against the Nuggets.

Boston jumped ahead 38-22 after the first quarter behind 28 points from the trio of Garnett, Allen and Pierce. The Celtics extended the lead to 47-22 with a 9-0 run to begin the second quarter.

"I don't remember getting down by that much even on the bad teams in Toronto,'' Nuggets center Marcus Camby said.

Boston recorded its franchise high of 85 points in a half two separate times, both against the Nuggets.

Notes: San Antonio has the NBA record for highest field goal percentage in a game, shooting .707 against Dallas on April 16, 1983. ... Camby had only eight rebounds after totaling 70 through the first four games. ... Kenyon Martin had four fouls in the first half. ... Celtics forward James Posey and Nuggets forward Nene left the game with injuries and did not return.

NEW YORK, Nov. 6 (AP) -- Zach Randolph had 22 points and 17 rebounds, three other players scored more than 20 points, and New York erased a series of double-digit deficits to beat the Denver Nuggets, 119-112, Tuesday night.

"Coming in, you knew it was a big game,'' Randolph said.

Seemingly on the verge of being run off the floor, the Knicks instead blew by the Nuggets with a fourth-quarter rally, then held on behind huge plays from Randolph and Eddy Curry in their best outing since being paired together.

"I think that's what Isiah had in mind when he brought Zach in here,'' Curry said. "I had a lot of fun tonight. This is probably the most fun I had in a basketball game.''

Jamal Crawford led the Knicks with 25 points and Curry added 24, nine in the fourth quarter. Stephon Marbury had 21 points and nine assists, and Renaldo Balkman led a spirited bench effort with 11 points.

"Our whole team, I like the tenacity that we played with. I like the intensity that we played with,'' Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said.

Allen Iverson scored 32 points and Carmelo Anthony had 24 for the Nuggets, who led by as many as 15 and were still ahead by 10 going to the fourth quarter before dropping their second straight.

"It's early in the season and we did a lot of good stuff, but not good enough to beat a team that was hungrier than us in the fourth quarter,'' Nuggets coach George Karl said.

Iverson briefly had to leave the floor after bloodying his lip defending Marbury with under 2 minutes left.

Down 92-82 to start the fourth, the Knicks tied it at 102 on Curry's bucket with about 5 minutes left. After a final tie at 108, Marbury put New York ahead for good with two free throws with 2:32 remaining, then Curry blocked Marcus Camby's shot on the other end and the Knicks stayed ahead from there.

"We had this game and we just gave it away tonight,'' Anthony said. "We had it in our hands and we couldn't maintain the lead. That was a team that played hard every possession. Maybe we took a couple of possessions off and they capitalized off that.''

New York outscored Denver 37-20 in the final 12 minutes.

Robinson and Smith entered during the same stoppage with 3:56 left in the first quarter, with Smith making his season debut to loud boos following a three-game team suspension for an incident at a nightclub.

The Knicks shot 70 percent in a fast-paced first quarter, and still trailed 37-32. Linas Kleiza made all five shots and scored 12 points, Iverson had 11 in his first action at Madison Square Garden since late in the 2005-06 season, and the Nuggets shot 67 percent.

The lead grew to 50-35 when Eduardo Najera dribbled the length of the floor for a layup, bringing out the first boos directed toward the Knicks at home this season. But New York fought back to tie it at 60 before Denver ran off the final six points of the half.

"Last year we would have lost this game by 15 points,'' Knicks reserve David Lee said.

The Nuggets quickly restored the double-digit lead in the third, and again back came the Knicks, tying it at 82 behind a flurry from Crawford during an 11-1 spurt. The Nuggets then scored 10 straight to take a 92-82 cushion into the final period.

Notes: Denver F Kenyon Martin sat out so he could play Wednesday at Boston. The Nuggets aren't using him in back-to-back games while he works his way back from knee surgery. ... The game featured three of the top four picks from the deep 1996 NBA draft: Iverson (No. 1), Marcus Camby (No. 2) and Marbury (No. 4). Thomas drafted Camby while he was an executive in Toronto. ... Randolph is the first Knicks player to open a season with three straight double-doubles in points and rebounds since Patrick Ewing 15 years ago. ... The Knicks have sold out their first two games at MSG for the first time since the 2001-02 season.

DENVER, Nov. 4 (AP) -- David West and the New Orleans Hornets made up for their slow starts, something the Denver Nuggets couldn't do.

West missed his first eight shots before settling in and leading the Hornets over the Nuggets 93-88 on Sunday night, sinking two crucial baskets in the fourth quarter to help quash Denver's comeback as the Hornets improved to 3-0.

"On a night when he wasn't making shots he did some other good things for us on the defensive end and rebounding the ball,'' Hornets coach Byron Scott said of his power forward who had 17 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

"It's not always about making shots,'' Scott said. "Sometimes you are going to have to win them ugly. This was one of those games where neither team played particularly well and neither team shot the ball well.''

The teams combined to miss 20 of their first 24 shots.

"Our training camp was all about improving our defense,'' said Chris Paul, who scored 15 points despite shooting 3-of-11 from the floor. "Our defense was a reason we didn't make the playoffs the last two years. We could always score with the best teams in the league. We just couldn't make defensive stops.''

They made plenty of them in crunch time.

"When it got to three minutes left, we realized we were only up by six or so,'' Paul said. "(Tyson) Chandler was screaming at us in the huddle that we don't have to score any more. We have to do it on the defensive end.''

The Nuggets (2-1) haven't started a season with three straight wins since 1985-86.

Paul had 15 points, 11 assists, eight boards and four steals for New Orleans. He sank three of four free throws in the final 29 seconds after the Nuggets trimmed an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to 90-88 on Nene's putback with 46 seconds left.

Allen Iverson scored 23 points for Denver and Carmelo Anthony added 20, but they were a combined 16-for-49 from the field. Marcus Camby pulled down 21 rebounds for the second straight game for the Nuggets.

"Strange game,'' Denver coach George Karl said. "I never thought my team could be as slowed down as much as they slowed us down. We made them miss a lot of shots, had a lot of opportunities to run and no one wanted to run.''

The Hornets did. They outscored Denver 22-11 on fastbreaks.

The Nuggets lost their third point guard when Michael Wilks strained his right hamstring in the second quarter and didn't return. Wilks was re-signed after Denver lost Anthony Carter to a broken right hand and Chucky Atkins to a severe groin strain. Carter is expected to be out four to six weeks and Atkins six to eight weeks. So, Iverson ran the point and logged 46 1/2 minutes.

"It's tough when three of your point guards are injured and not playing and A.I. is playing the point all the time and you also don't have the ability to put another ball-handler on the court,'' Karl said. "And the conditioning of my team is not great. The injuries, the limited minutes on Kenyon (Martin) and Nene.''

Karl said he might put 'Melo at the point, but Anthony said Wilks expects to be back soon.

At one point in the third quarter, the Nuggets' lineup consisted of four forwards and Iverson, and Denver trimmed a nine-point deficit to 71-69 before Chandler outjumped Nene and scored on the putback to give the Hornets a 73-69 lead after the third, and they never trailed in the fourth quarter.

"Our offense was throw-up bad,'' Karl said. "I mean, it was bad.''

West made just 7-of-23 shots for the Hornets, who won their first four a year ago and can match their best start by beating the Lakers on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

Notes: J.R. Smith completed his three-game team suspension and likely will be activated for the Nuggets' return to Madison Square Garden, where he was at the center of the fight. ... New Orleans C Hilton Armstrong missed the game because of a viral infection.