Carmelo Anthony sat in the Nuggets’ locker room at Portland after the game Monday night, feet in a bucket of ice water, shoulder wrapped in ice and ice packs on each of his knees.
He was asked, “Who’s tougher, Portland or Utah?”
“We are,” Anthony said.
Another reporter chimed in.
“So, between you and Utah, you’re tougher?”
“Yeah,” Anthony replied. “I’m not going to say Utah.”
Reporter redirect.
“But between Utah and Portland?”
“Both teams are tough,” Anthony said. “They have two different styles of play. So both of them are tough. It’s going to come down to the last couple games of the season to determine it.”
If that is the case, when those last few games are played and the winner of the Northwest Division is determined, the Nuggets would like to have the tiebreakers in their favor. After an emotionally and physically draining win against Portland on Monday to finish that season series tied 2-2, tonight’s home game against Utah is another large affair.
None of it is lost on Anthony.
“We are all in the same division,” he said. “For us to come on the road and get this win (against Portland) was a big win for us. And now we got another one. It’s going to be tough. That’s another must-win for us.”
The Nuggets trail Utah by one game in the division, but are up 1-0 in the season series. A Nuggets win would put the two in a statistical dead heat, although Utah has played two more games.
Since the inception of the division beginning with the 2004-05 season, Denver, Utah and Seattle have won it once. Utah won it last season; the Nuggets the season before that.
Nuggets coach George Karl thinks his team is ready for this type of game at this point in the season.
“I think in general our guys are in a good place,” Karl said. “We have five more games left before the all-star break and most of the guys are kind of thinking that we can win all five of them. We’ve got a great game against Utah; we have 24 hours to kind of take a rest. But we’ve got to go back to work against probably the hardest team in the NBA right now.”
Utah has won nine consecutive games and 15 of its last 17. The hot stretch has completely erased a tough December in which the Jazz lost 11 of 16 games. Meanwhile, the Nuggets have won three straight and seven of their past 10.
The Nuggets won the first matchup Jan. 17, 120-109. After tonight’s game, the final two games in the series are in Utah on March 8 and April 12.
Allen Iverson has been in playoff races before and says that while he’s keeping an eye on what Utah and Portland are doing, he’s still more worried about how his Nuggets are playing.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t pay attention to those guys and see if they won or lost,” Iverson said. “But I’m just concentrating on what we do, night in and night out. If we take care of our own business we won’t have to worry about what they’re doing.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
UTAH AT DENVER
7 p.m. tonight, Altitude, KKFN 950 AM
Spotlight on Deron Williams: On Monday, the Utah guard faced New Orleans guard Chris Paul intent on showing he, not Paul, should have been on this season’s all-star team. His 29 points and 11 assists blew away Paul’s six points, six assists and four turnovers. On the season, Williams is having his best as a pro, scoring 19 points, 9.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
NOTEBOOK
Nuggets: Center Marcus Camby, who has missed the past two games with a left knee contusion, said he is “shooting to play” tonight. “I want to play — I don’t want to sit out games,” he said. “I know how important I am to this team.” . . . The Nuggets did not hold a formal practice Tuesday, but players did come and go for individual work and treatment. . . . With a win tonight, the Nuggets would have 21 home wins, just two fewer than they had all of last season. Denver did not win its 21st home game a year ago until April 6, the 75th game of the season.
Jazz: Do-everything forward Andrei Kirilenko missed Utah’s game against New Orleans on Monday with flu-like symptoms. He is likely to play tonight against the Nuggets. . . . Utah’s franchise-record 14 3-pointers vs. Hornets eclipsed a record it set against the Nuggets with 13 shots made from behind the arc in a game Dec. 7, 1995. . . . Kyle Korver, a New York Giants fan, won more than just happiness at his team’s Super Bowl victory. He fleeced betting teammates as well. “I’ll be paying for everything in cash for a little while,” Korver told The Salt Lake Tribune.
Chris Dempsey and Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
