ON THIS visit by the Nug gets, nobody threw a punch. Then again, for most of three quarters, practically nobody got a hand up, either.
Both teams kept their pledge to be on their best behavior by playing their worst defense. Denver shot 56 percent in scoring 66 points in the first half, New York 55 percent in scoring 60. This time, could they get mad at each other for both running up the score?
Fortunately, memories proved as short as Renaldo Balkman`s arms were long. In an early-season contest between one team of gargantuan offensive talent that has to tighten up its defense to finally make a long playoff run and another club that has to finally get some stops to halt speculation about the end of its Director of Basketball Operations, Head Coach and Chief Excuse Maker, it had looked like last shot was going to win.
Instead it was the last two blocks that won it, Balkman making the first on Carmelo Anthony with 26.8 seconds to go, one possession after having fed Eddy Curry to put New York up by five. (...)
