Nuggets share ball, shut down Howard in blowout of Magic

By Michael Kelly, for NBA.com
Posted Thursday January 14, 2010 1:37AM

DENVER (NBA.com exclusive) -- Even Superman can have a bad night, and Wednesday he had a very bad night against the Nuggets.

Dwight Howard's 30-point, 16-rebound performance against Sacramento on Tuesday got Denver's attention. Coach George Karl went as far to say Howard would be the next big man to win the league MVP.

He won't get it based on his outing against Karl's team. The Nuggets shut down Howard, holding him to eight points -- two in the second half -- and 1-for-7 shooting in a 115-97 rout of the Orlando Magic.

"They were mixing it up, they'd double sometimes and I wasn't being as patient as other nights," said Howard, who did grab 13 rebounds. "They mixed it up and kind of had me off balance."

It wasn't Howard's night of five turnovers that had Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy agitated. He was happy with Matt Barnes' game-high 28 points and Mickael Pietrus' 12 off the bench, but he was concerned with the 14 combined points from Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson.

"If we can't get Jameer and Rashard going we're going to struggle," Van Gundy said. "We're getting offense out of Matt and M.P. and J.J. [Redick]. It's our key guys that we look to. I've got to find a way to get them going more offensively or we're going to struggle offensively against good teams."

In Howard's opinion, the Nuggets are a good team.

"They are an elite team," he said. "I really like the way they play. I loved watching them play last season. I thought we were going to see them in the finals but they came up short. Chauncey [Billups] is their leader, he gets everybody involved and they feed off of him."

Billups had another solid night, scoring 24 points and dishing out five assists. Going back to his days in Detroit, Billups has consistently gotten the upper hand on the Magic, including three playoff series wins.

"Ah, Chauncey again," Howard said. "I don't know what it is about Chauncey. He just plays well against us."

Wednesday, it wasn't just Billups. Denver had six players in double figures, and Kenyon Martin recorded his 12th double-double of the season. Carmelo Anthony led the Nuggets with 27 points.

That kind of balance has allowed the Nuggets to beat the elite teams in this league. It's the teams that struggle that give them trouble. Denver has beaten the Lakers, Cavaliers and Spurs but have home losses to the 76ers and Timberwolves.

"We know a game like this we're going to go out and play," Anthony said. "I'm not really worried about that. What concerns me is when we play the Minnesotas and Golden States and teams like that. But when we play teams like that I don't really know what it is. Can't really pinpoint. But a game like this I don't really worry about."

It might help to play against a guy like Howard every night. Because he has been so dominant this season, the Nuggets focused on taking him away, and they tried to make him work on the defensive end.

In the first half the Magic were able to overcome Howard's lack of offense to take a 53-50 lead at the break. But Denver, knowing the Magic might be fatigued after playing in Sacramento on Tuesday, cranked up its game in the third quarter. The Nuggets outscored Orlando 35-19 in the frame, and then opened the fourth on a 19-4 run to put them away.

"We've got to do a better job of fighting. When they're hitting those shots and went on a big run we kind of gave up," Howard said. "That's what it looked like. We can't do that if we're talking about winning a championship. We can't blame it on a back-to-back; everybody in this league plays back-to-backs. We've got to come out with a better effort. When teams like Denver make their runs we've got to do a better job of staying in the game."

Denver, meanwhile, wants to do a better job of transferring this effort to games against lower-echelon teams.

"This shows we're ready to play against the good teams," J.R. Smith said. "We just have to do the same when we play against a lot of teams."

• Magic: Carter
• Nuggets: Balkman

• Magic: --
• Nuggets: Anthony

• Lead Changes: 6
• Times Tied: 7

• Arena: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO
• Officials: #9 Derrick Stafford, #59 Gary Zielinski, #75 Eric Dalen
• Attendance: 18475
• Duration: 2:16