The Nuggets only shot 37.8% from the floor last night but they still outscored the Rockets 59-43 in the second half to pull away with a win. Al Harrington led the way for the Nuggets last night with 28 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal in 29 minutes off the bench last night. Carmelo Anthony filled up the stat sheet with 24 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocked shots in this game. Chauncey Billups only shot 1 of 8 from the floor but he still finished up with 13 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal in this game. Nene (12 points, 12 rebounds), Arron Afflalo (10 points) and J.R. Smith (10 points) also pitched in offensively for the Nuggets last night. The Nuggets are now 2-1 on the year.

The Nuggets played hard tonight but it just wasn’t good enough to prevail in the Big Easy. Carmelo Anthony led the way for the Nuggets in this game with 24 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. Chauncey Billups only shot 5 of 14 from the floor but he still finished up with 20 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. J.R. Smith pitched in with 12 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal in 21 minutes off the bench. Al Harrington (11 points) and Arron Afflalo (10 points) all had decent offensive games offensively tonight. The Nuggets are now 1-1 on the year.

The Nuggets suprisingly played great defense last night holding the Jazz to 38.6% shooting from the floor! Carmelo Anthony led the way for the Nuggets in possibly (probably) his last season opener with the Nuggets as he finished up with 23 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists last night. Arron Afflalo was also very solid last night with 22 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals as he shot 3 of 5 from behind the three point line. Chauncey Billups was only 2 for 10 shooting from the floor last night but he still finished up with 14 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals. Nene only played 23 minutes for the Nuggets last night but he still finished up with 13 points and 4 rebounds. Shelden Williams only shot 3 of 11 in his first start for the Nuggets and he finished up with 8 points and 16 rebounds. The Nuggets are now 1-0 on the year.

The Nuggets were 53-29 last season but this year is going to be tougher for them. I think at some point this year the Nuggets are going to deal Carmelo Anthony and that coupled with the injuries to Chris Andersen & Kenyon Martin make me think that a bet on the under for Nuggets wins is the play here. The Nuggets are also 30-1 to win the NBA Championship and even Carmelo Anthony wouldn’t make a bet on that.

59-year old George Karl has beaten cancer once again and he is returning to lead the Nuggets. Karl led the Nuggets to a 53-29 record during the regular season but the Nuggets got beat 4 games to 2 in the first round of the playoffs. Karl has now been the head coach of the Nuggets for six years and he has a regular season record of 278-172 (61.8%) and he is 15-26 (36.6%) in the playoffs. Karl will be without Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen due to injury early in the year and that’s going to be tough. Even tougher will be dealing with Carmelo Anthony who doesn’t want to be in Denver any more. George Karl has a career record during the regular season of 986-671 (59.5%) and he is 74-93 (44.3%) during the playoffs. Hopefully Karl will stay healthy all season long so he can add to his career totals in a positive way in 2010-11.