Denver’s Yakhouba Diawara received a pass in transition, and the only thing in his way to an uncontested dunk was — teammate Allen Iverson. You see, Iverson had stolen the ball from a helpless Chicago Bull, tossed it to a streaking Diawara, but was right in his teammate’s path. And so Iverson, perpetually quick, dodged Diawara, opening a clear path to the basket.
These were the biggest concerns Tuesday night for the Nuggets, who were steps ahead of the Bulls all game.
The Nuggets scored 72 points in the first half, the most in any half this season, winning 112-91 at the Pepsi Center.
With the victory, the Nuggets (8-3) are off to their best start since 1985-86, when they began the season 9-2 and finished 47-35, advancing to the Western Conference semifinals.
Nuggets coach George Karl said the Bulls (2-8) are arguably the best perimeter passing team Denver has played this season. But when the Bulls aren’t hitting from the outside, they’re stuck because they don’t have an inside offensive presence. Karl said the plan was to keep a defender on sharpshooter Ben Gordon often. The result was an abysmal shooting night for Gordon, who finished just 2-for-14 from the field for six points.
Iverson strained his left hamstring at practice Monday, and at Tuesday’s shootaround admitted that the pain was “scary.” But any fright that Iverson wouldn’t be Iverson was put to rest in game’s first minute, when he stole the ball after a Bulls’ inbound pass and jetted to the basket for a layup. Iverson scored 20 points in the first half and finished with 22 points in 34 minutes.
Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, who missed the morning shootaround with a migraine, scored a game-high 26 in 30 minutes.
