Let’s call it what it was — the grittiest victory of the Nuggets’ season.
Denver — which defeated Portland 97-89 — entered Monday’s game a loser of three-straight, all to teams with winning records.
Then came Monday’s game, the first of a rare home-and-home, back-to-back series against the TrailBlazers — who entered Monday tied with Denver for first place in the Northwest Division.
Oh, and Denver played without forward Carmelo Anthony, their “No. 1 option” as Chauncey Billups called him. Anthony is out for the next two games, resting his injured right elbow.
In Anthony’s place, J.R. Smith got the start in part, as coach George Karl said, “to see how he plays with Chauncey and the starters.”
Smith scored 15 points, including a key 3, and two Nuggets notched double-doubles — Nene (19 points, 11 rebounds) and Billups (19 points and 10 points).
But Linas Kleiza was the X-factor, finishing with 17 points off the bench. Karl often talks about how well Kleiza runs the floor. With 48.4 seconds left, Kleiza epitomized this asset. Up four points, Billups got a rebound and heaved it perfectly to Kleiza, who stormed ahead of two defenders, en route to an emphatic dunk.
The Nuggets did just a splendid job of keeping Brandon Roy from being Brandon Roy. Entering Monday, the fewest points Roy had scored in the past five games was 29. On Monday, he finished with just eight points on 3-for-11 shooting.
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
