Nuggets Squeak By Lowly Kings, 101-97
ugly win over weak opponent weasels Denver into 1st place in Northwest Division
What do the the words Beno and Udrih have in common with one another? They both instill fear within the Nuggets brass, sly recollections of the ever awful Brooks Thompson era were widely reported from the "couple of thousand people" who piled out of the Pepsi Center on Saturday night, again in a state of perplexed acceptance as the Nuggets played another sub par game against an unforgiving sub par opponent. The dismay and disbelief instilled upon the Nuggets faithful, as they watched Beno Udrih, that's right I said - BENO UDRIH - come ever too close to beating the Nuggets on their own home court. When you start making Beno Udrih look like anything but a journeyman level player, you have some issues. Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking.
But alas, the Nuggets were able to just edge by their heavily under dogged opponent, who entered the night as one of the worst teams in the NBA. Given all of that, its hard to come to terms with how the Nuggets struggled to subdue an extremely challenged team. Forget that the fatigue and injury weary Sacramento Kings played the previous evening. Forget that Brad Miller gooned his way into six fouls and subsequent disqualification, by the midway point of the fourth period. Forget that the Kings were without their undisputed team leader, Mike Bibby, who sat out due to injury. Forget that the Kings were minus their leading scorer from a year ago, Kevin Martin, who is sidelined for the next six weeks with a groin injury. Forget all of those facts and still tell your selves that the Nuggets only managed a four point win. While we tried to forget all the reasons stacked against the Kings favor, we were also forced into forgetting Carmelo Anthony, who was completely derailed by Ron Artest and his splintering defense. Especially considering their two best players were never apart of the equation in last night's game, you really have to credit the Kings for giving it a hard fought, gutsy effort. Despite all the adversity, the Kings came within a possession at stunning the Nuggets on their own home court. Ironically, perhaps even sadly, even after playing such a dismal, wretched excuse of a game, the Nuggets found themselves rewarded at the end of the day. The reward coming in the form of a Northwest Division lead, which was the result of Utah's second straight road loss. So the Nuggets weaseled their way into the first place spot, don't expect it to last if this team keeps on letting weakly oriented opposition, dictate the way of things on their home court. Pattern behavior. Pattern mediocrity.
Adding on to the Nuggets list of concerns, is the injury status of Eduardo Najera, [seen left] who suffered a knee injury when he colided with Kings rookie, Spencer Hawes. Najera left the game and did not return.
There have been two consistent entities that the Nuggets have been fortunate enough to rely upon in the last handful of games, those entities being Kenyon Martin and Allen Iverson. The latter of whom finally came back down to Earth, if you even want to call it that, after having two monstrous back-to-back performances. Iverson managed to have an outright, solid game. One Nuggets 
analyst, pointed out that Iverson's last three games, have been his best stretch of three games since he started wearing the powder blues. Kenyon Martin was dominant over the depleted Sacramento front line. In the fourth quarter, Kenyon really asserted himself, playing physical and coming up with key offensive possessions, Martin led the way to this Nuggets victory. Almost jokingly, that same Nuggets analyst who surveyed Iverson's week of production, went on to throw out the notion that perhaps his last three games, were the best for Martin's injury riddled Nuggets tenure. Either way, it is becoming unmistakable, just how much Kenyon has to offer. He and Iverson are a fantastic compliment to each other. On the court, both Iverson's and Martin's aggressive nature, and style of play, are playing well off one another. Remember, that this is the first time those two have really shared the court as teammates. Tip of the hat to Iverson and Martin - Wag of the finger to Anthony Carter, who, in the second half, scattered more bad, errant shots than Dick Cheney and Bobby Knight at a winner-take-all laser tag tournament. By the way, did anyone else see a blatant disparity in how the refs handled Brad Miller's egregious elbow cheap shot, delivered at the expense of Anthony Carter's skull, the way they handled Carmelo's moment of "Latrell Spreewell-choke-hold-glory?" Call me crazy, but something tells me that if it was Carmelo Anthony supplying the blatant cheap shot to the exploded cranium of a outsized opponent, he would have been tossed out faster than a set of Beno Udrih Rookie cards. So the annoying trend continues for the Nuggets. They specialize in giving up far too much against road weary, fatigue chastised teams. The Nuggets might have been in a "caught looking forward" situation, as they prepare to take on the reputable, New Orleans Hornets, who upset the Nuggets in their second home game of the season, holding the high-scoring Nuggets team to a mere 88 points, which stands as the second lowest scoring output of this season. The Nuggets and Hornets tip it off @ 7 P.M. on Wednesday night. Beno Udrih, folks, Beno Udrih. Now that's frightening.
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