It's the Non-Elite Teams the Nuggets Worry About

DENVER -- It's good for Denver that teams such as Minnesota, Detroit, Sacramento and Philadelphia aren't in line to make the playoffs. As for the likes of the Lakers, Orlando and Cleveland, bring them on come spring.

The Nuggets crushed the Magic 115-97 Wednesday at the Pepsi Center, making them 3-0 this season against other teams from last season's NBA Final Four.

Granted, all the games have been at home. But the Nuggets walloped the Lakers by 26 points and beat Cleveland last Friday without star forward Carmelo Anthony. Denver also has wins this season over Atlanta, San Antonio, Phoenix and Portland back when the Trail Blazers didn't have every other player on the roster in a cast.

But the Nuggets (25-14) have home losses to Minnesota and Philadelphia. They've dropped games at Sacramento twice, Detroit, the Clippers, Milwaukee, New Orleans and Memphis.

As Ricky Ricardo would say, "Ai yi yi yi yi!''

"We know a game like this we're going to go out and play,'' said Anthony, who scored 27 points Wednesday. "I'm not really worried about that. What concerns is when we play the Minnesotas and the Golden States. ... When we play teams like that, I don't really know what it is.''

Hey, at least the Nuggets nipped Golden State at home last week. But it took Warriors guard Monta Ellis committing the dumbest play in the NBA this season when he fouled J.R. Smith on a desperation three-pointer with 0.4 of a second remaining, and Smith hit two fouls shots for a 123-122 win.

"I'm very proud of how we approach statement games, games that have a higher degree of importance in the NBA. ... I just like to get to the point where we don't have to be shameful of our intensity."
- Nuggets coach
George Karl At least Nuggets coach George Karl knows he doesn't need to roll out his finest pep talk when a top team comes around. He can save them for games against New Jersey. Then again, even Denver is incapable of losing to the Nets, having beaten them twice.

"Pride. Urgency. I don't know what word you'd use to describe it,'' Karl said of his team stepping it up against the NBA's elite. "I'm very proud of how we approach statement games, games that have a higher degree of importance in the NBA. ... I just like to get to the point where we don't have to be shameful of our intensity.''

That only happens, though, against the dregs of the league. Earlier this season, Denver actually allowed Minnesota center Ryan Hollins to score 19 points, more than three times his average.

But Orlando center Dwight Howard plays for a very good team. So was it any surprise the Nuggets shut him down to the tune of eight points on 1-of-7 shooting?

Anthony, who played with Howard on the 2008 gold-medal Olympic team, said he's never seen the big fellow silenced like that before.

"They were mixing it up,'' Howard said. "They'd double sometimes and I wasn't being as patient as other nights. They mixed it up and kind of had me off balance.

"(The Nuggets) are an elite team. I really like the way they play. They have matchup problems for anybody. ...They're a tough team. I loved watching them play last season. I thought we were going to see them in the Finals but they came up short. ... Hopefully we won't see those guys in the Finals."

Orlando in the Finals again? That's worth snickering about the way the Magic has been playing lately.

Orlando (26-13) has dropped five of its last seven games, including losses to Chicago, Indiana and Washington. That would sound like Nuggets Syndrome except the Magic can claim few recent quality wins. Other than a victory last Saturday over Atlanta, Orlando hasn't beaten a team currently in the top five of either conference since November.

Recent play by forward Rashard Lewis hasn't helped. With six points Wednesday, Lewis has been in single digits in five of his past seven games.

"When I've got guys that are playing below the level I think they should be playing at for a long period of time, I put a lot of that on myself, whether it be motivating or getting them in a better situation or whatever it is,'' said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. "But we clearly need him playing at a higher level.''

Lewis has a solution. How about some shots? In five off the past seven games, he's had less than 10 field-goal attempts, including going 3-of-9 Wednesday.

"When you got guys coming off the bench getting more shots than you do, there's not a lot I can really do,'' Lewis said. "I feel like I have to make every shot to have a good game. I got to go 8-for-8 or 8-for-9 in order to have a good game.''

The Magic also has been without Vince Carter the past 3 ½ games due to a sprained left shoulder. While Van Gundy and Carter haven't put a timetable on a return, it doesn't sound imminent. Carter wouldn't say a lot while he was walking out of the Pepsi Center, but he did wince after he was asked how he felt and said, "Not good. Not yet.''

The only good game a Magic player had Wednesday came courtesy of forward Matt Barnes, who scored a game-high 28 points. Orlando had a difficult back-to-back, playing at Sacramento on Tuesday and not getting into Denver in the wee hours of the morning. It really showed in the second half when the Nuggets overcame a 53-50 deficit by scoring the first 12 points after intermission en route to blitzing the Magic 65-44 in the second half.

But the Nuggets weren't celebrating the win as much as one might think. When a player was asked about beating a top team, the answer invariably led to why the Nuggets play so well against the league's elite and often so pedestrian against other foes.

"I never really worry about it when we're playing against teams like Orlando and really good (Northwest) Division teams and stuff like that,'' said guard Chauncey Billups, who scored 24 points. "But it's the other teams that I worry about. We lack a little focus or feel like we can turn it on any time and win the game. That's what has really hurt us a lot this season.''

Forward Kenyon Martin put it quite succinctly.

"We need to stop playing down to the level of our competition and treat everybody the same night in, night out,'' he said.

At least it's good for Denver that bad teams only make the playoffs in the East. And the Nuggets won't have to worry about that.

Anthony is confident enough about his team's playoff prospects he assured his wedding next summer to fiancée LaLa Vazquez won't be scheduled for during the Finals. Anthony had told FanHouse last October his marriage to the MTV personality was "coming soon'' and "could be'' this summer, and Vazquez confirmed Wednesday on The Wendy Williams Show it definitely will and will be held in New York.

"We've been working on this for years,'' said Anthony, engaged to Vazquez on Dec. 25, 2004. "I probably got the longest engagement ever. A lot of people say, 'How do I make it that long?'''

It was so long ago Minnesota, Detroit and Sacramento were still among the league's elite, so it was no big deal losing to them. But it is now.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter @christomasson