After beating two teams with virtually no playoff hopes to start their season-long eight-game road swing, the surging and fully healthy Denver Nuggets should get a more difficult challenge Saturday night in New Jersey, where the Nets seek a fourth straight victory.
Denver, which has won four straight and seven of its last eight, had its regular starting lineup and a full complement of players in Friday's 124-103 rout of Washington. Its 34-16 record is the franchise's best through 50 games since joining the NBA in 1976.Starting point guard Chauncey Billups, who missed Wednesday's 114-113 win at Oklahoma City due to a sprained right ankle, had 16 points and three assists, while forward Kenyon Martin - sidelined two games with strep throat - added 11 points and seven rebounds as the Nuggets shot 56.3 percent while handing the Wizards their Eastern Conference-leading 40th loss.
"Games like this are dangerous. You come in, and a team that's wounded, that's beat up, that's not been very successful - they're just going to play. They're going to play loose, so I think you've got to impose your will on a team like that," Billups said. "When you get them down, you've got to keep them down."
Carmelo Anthony added 23 points, eight rebounds and six assists while playing just three quarters in his fourth game back since missing 10 with a broken bone in his right hand. He's averaged 27.3 points on 50.7 percent shooting since his return and noticed the difference in his team.
"That gave us an uplifting spirit, too, to have everybody back. And it was good to just finally relax in that fourth quarter," Anthony said. "If we call ourselves one of the better teams in the Western Conference - or the NBA - these are the games we've got to come out and make a statement from the beginning."
The Nuggets now turn their attention to the Nets (23-27), who have not won four straight since a five-game run from Dec. 28, 2007-Jan. 5, 2008. The Nets also enter Saturday's game following an easy victory over the Wizards, 115-88 on Wednesday.
Devin Harris hit 10-of-17 shots and scored 26 points as New Jersey shot a season-high 61.3 percent, including 12-of-22 from 3-point range. It was the Nets' highest shooting percentage in a game since making 61.5 percent in a 128-120 win at Indiana on April 5, 1992.
Denver, which is 6-7 in the second game of back-to-back sets this season, is among the league leaders in field goal defense at 44.3 percent.
Vince Carter scored 20 points on Wednesday while rookie Brook Lopez posted his third straight double-double - a season high - with 12 points and 12 boards. The 7-footer has averaged 19.7 points and 13.7 rebounds during that streak, but faces a stern challenge from Denver's frontcourt of Martin, whom the Nets selected with the first overall pick in 2000, and Nene, who has averaged 10.3 rebounds during Denver's current winning streak.
Martin had 17 points and eight rebounds in Denver's 125-114 win at New Jersey last season and averaged 19.0 points and 7.8 rebounds in six lifetime games against his former team.
New Jersey had won 14 of its last 15 home games versus Denver before dropping the last two.
