SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A thick fog enveloped the northern California city of Sacramento for the better part of Friday and Saturday, so dense it even prevented the Nuggets’ charter from landing at Sacramento International Airport. The plane was diverted to an alternate landing spot instead.
But things were crystal clear inside Arco Arena, where the Nuggets blitzed Sacramento 118-85 on Saturday night.
Sacramento used to be a house of horrors for the Nuggets, who had lost 20 straight there at one point. But that is clearly not the case anymore as the Nuggets have won three in a row at Arco. As for this season, the Nuggets have won three straight road games and have lost two games in a row just once.
Saturday, Denver left no doubt from the start in bouncing back from a lopsided loss against San Antonio on Thursday. Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony both got the Nuggets (14-7) off to an 11-4 start. Nene scored the last two points of the start, then banged in seven more, four coming on two steals that he took coast-to-coast for dunks.
“I think it’s our defense,” coach George Karl said of the hot start. “We were just making a lot of stops, which gives us the opportunity to play in the open court.”
How hot were the Nuggets? They led by as many as 19 in the first quarter and finished the quarter leading by that margin, a 37-18 advantage after shooting 70 percent from the field. The 37 points was the most the Nuggets have scored in any quarter this season.
And they hadn’t even recorded their biggest lead by that point.
Denver led by 21 in the second quarter, and though the Kings sliced the lead to 11, Denver still led by 21 (60-39) at the half.
The second half was more of the same. The Nuggets stretched the lead to 31, managed it, and cruised to their 13th win in their last 17 games.
With the victory, Denver avoided racking up back-to-back losses, after falling to San Antonio at home Thursday.
“I think you’ve got to focus in,” Billups said. “After a loss, you’ve pretty much got to go back to the drawing board and focus in and be extremely aggressive and try to not let that thing continue to go on. We’ve been able to do that and be successful with it.”
Sacramento’s offense was stagnant and out-of-sync for much of the night. The Kings have been injury-riddled in the early season and just got back the services of forward John Salmons, the team’s second-leading scorer, who missed the Kings’ previous game with a thigh strain. He was largely ineffective, though, but stayed in and scored a number of points after the game was decided, finishing with 22 points.
The Nuggets were led by Billups, who scored 24 points. Anthony scored 16 points with seven rebounds before sitting out the fourth with ice on his right elbow.
The win came without forward Kenyon Martin, who sat out the game with a sprained left wrist.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Nugget Recap
What you might have missed
Anthony Carter played just 11 minutes through three quarters, as coach George Karl opted to go with J.R. Smith for more minutes instead. . . . Nene had four steals in the first quarter. . . . Kings guard Bobby Jackson was a late scratch. He did not play.
Final thought
The Nuggets continue to play well against the teams they should beat.
Up next
vs. Minnesota, Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
