Makes sense.
Last season, Marcus Camby won the NBA’s award for best defender, and, as Nuggets coach George Karl said, “He’s now better than he was last year.”
Camby is a front-runner for the award, thanks to his league-best 3.7 blocked shots per game. He led the league the past two seasons, with 3.3 both times.
“He covers up the middle of the court better than anyone in basketball,” Karl said.
Camby entered Saturday averaging 13.3 rebounds per game, most of any player in the Western Conference, second in the league to Orlando’s Dwight Howard (14.5). The Hornets’ Tyson Chand- ler was third with 11.9.
“He’s a tremendous rebounder. He and Dwight Howard are the two guys who are incredibly dominant rebounding the ball, especially defensively,” Karl said. “We’ve won a lot more games this year with our defense than we did last year.”
If Camby does win the award in back-to-back seasons, he will be the fourth player since the 1996-97 season to do so — Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning and Ben Wallace (twice).
Chucky sighting.
After arduous rehabilitation following sports hernia surgery, reserve guard Chucky Atkins found himself buried on the bench, in part because fellow reserve J.R. Smith had been playing so well. Atkins got rare extended minutes in the first half Saturday, logging five scoreless minutes.
In the previous four games, Atkins played a total of two minutes.
3s for No. 3.
Playing in his 12th NBA season, Denver’s Allen Iverson is shooting 35.4 percent from 3-point range, which is the best of his career.
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
