Denver Nuggets 97, Portland Trailblazers 94
The Nuggets won this game in the 4th quarter when they outscored the Blazers 35-27. The Nuggets held the Blazers to 34.6% shooting from the floor which was a big reason for the win last night. Carmelo Anthony played out of his mind in this game as he finished up with 41 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Anthony hit an amazing 18 of 19 free throws last night as the Blazers just couldn’t handle defending him at all. Chauncey Billups also had a good game despite only shooting 5 of 14 from the floor as he finished with 22 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists. No other Nuggets player besides Anthony or Billups scored more than 7 points in this game. The Nuggets are now 2-0 on the season.
Carmelo seems to be on a mission this year and showed that last night. Everyone talks about LeBron, Kobe, and Chris Paul as the favorites for MVP, but I would not be surprised at all if Melo holds up the Maurice Podoloff MVP trophy at the end of the season. I give a lot of the credit to Chauncey Billups for changing Melo’s mentality, as Billups has made the Nuggets such a better team ever since he joined them last year.