Portland, Ore. – Ruben Patterson wouldn’t believe it until he saw it himself – Trail Blazers tickets for his return to Portland, all with his picture, and old jersey, on them.
“You’re lying,” he said. “Oh, that’s funny.”
The cosmic coincidence happened because the Blazers printed their tickets before the season began.
A fired-up Patterson returned to the Nuggets’ starting lineup Monday after a three-game absence. He was greeted by cheers by the sparse Rose Garden crowd.
Before the game, Portland coach Nate McMillan got in a dig on his former player when asked how Voshon Lenard felt about facing Denver for the first time since coming to the Trail Blazers in the Patterson deal.
“He was pretty much his normal self,” McMillan said. “I think he’s fired up just to be getting the opportunity to play. … He didn’t come to us like Ruben did and say, ‘Start me,’ and negotiate some deals with the coach to start before the game.”
The always-taciturn Lenard said only that he was “cool” before the game. He also kept walking when Nuggets coach George Karl greeted him.
“If we had lost, I would have been so devastated, I would have kicked Carmelo (Anthony) in his head,” joked Patterson, who had a season-high 21 points.
Old man Camby
If Nuggets center Marcus Camby can hang on for another eight days, he will capture his second NBA blocked shots title. He entered Monday averaging 3.32 blocks per game, ahead of Utah’s Andrei Kirilenko, who was at 3.2. Camby had four blocks against Portland.
Should Camby win that race, he would tie former Indiana guard Reggie Miller for an odd league record – the largest gaps between statistical league titles. The 32-year-old Camby won his first blocked shots crown with Toronto in 1997-98. Miller won free-throw percentage crowns in 1990-91 and 1998-99.
Saying the title means less to him than Denver’s record, 10-year veteran Camby added: “I’m just happy I’m still able to do it at – I don’t want to say at such an old age. I wouldn’t call myself that old, but I am getting up there a little bit.”
Footnotes
Forward Kenyon Martin (left knee) did not play Monday and said he probably would not play Wednesday at Utah. … Denver athletic trainer Jim Gillen said it would be at least two to three weeks before guard Julius Hodge could recover from the three gunshot wounds he suffered Saturday.
