Alex English. He raised the bar as high as his retired number hangs in the Pepsi Center rafters. The Nuggets’ all-time leading scorer — by 5,000-plus points. He scored bunches in bunches.
Now an assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors, English was at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night. What he saw was himself.
“The fact that he can score reminds me of me,” English said of Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony. “Just watching him, he looks stronger than ever. He looks confident.”
The Nuggets (8-3) torched Toronto 130-112 in a shootout reminiscent of English’s glory days in the 1980s — “One of those Doug Moe games, huh,” suggested Anthony, who scored a game-high 32 points.
Back in the 1985-86 season, English tallied the highest scoring average in the Nuggets’ NBA history with 29.9 points per game. Eleven games into this season, Anthony is at 29.9.
“We were different talents,” English said. “He has a stronger body, he’s a 3-point shooter, he can drive to the hole. I was plain and simple with what I did. He’s got a little more flash than I do.”
The scintillating Anthony hopped to the hoop early and often Tuesday, shooting a remarkably efficient 12-for-15 (and 8-for-10 at the free-throw line). Did we mention he did so in just 30 minutes? And after missing the shootaround because of a migraine headache? Melo was unreal.
“I had the after-effects. They don’t just go away,” Anthony said of the headache. “There were some points in the beginning of game where I felt it. But my legs could work. As long as I can run up and down the court, I’m good.”
Anthony also tallied five assists, included two pretty passes to Nene (20 points and 10 rebounds).
The Raptors (5-6) stuck around thanks to Denver’s light-switch defense, but Nene’s manhandling of Chris Bosh helped the Nuggets pull away. Bosh, averaging 27.7 points, finished with just 13. Nene smothered the big man, and as the two banged in the low post, braids flailed, as did Bosh. By the fourth quarter, a flustered Bosh slammed the basketball after a foul and was called for a technical foul.
“Keeping Bosh under control, you don’t do that without having a consciousness defensively. He’s been incredible,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “Tonight, maybe they went away form him some, but it seemed like he never had a personality in the game.”
Nuggets guard J.R. Smith, perhaps unsettled by all the attention he has received for his defense, was back to his scoring ways, torching Toronto with 14 points in the second quarter alone and finishing with 29. He hit 11-of-17 shots.
“J.R. does incredible things,” Karl said, “but I still think offensively we have to become fundamentally together. We try to hit home runs way too often and not just take the single or double that’s right there in front of us. . . . Swinging for the fences is not always the best thing to do, when you sometimes have two strikes on you. There are good home run swings, but too many times we make it a ‘me’ game instead of a ‘we’ game.”
At halftime, with the game tied 64-64, Denver decided to dedicate more attention to defense. The result was a 33-25 third quarter win, if you will, complemented by “the best passing quarter we’ve had all year,” Karl said. Denver tallied 13 assists in the quarter, including eight by Chauncey Billups (10 total), who didn’t make one turnover in the quarter.
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
