Denver, Billups prevail over hapless Twolves in Minnesota

Every indication out of the Mile High City suggests that the Denver Nuggets are more than happy with the trade that sent Alan Iverson to Detroit for Chauncy Billups.  While Detroit has struggled as they try to integrate AI into their offense, Denver has hit the ground running with their new star.  Behind a season high 27 points from Billups, the Nuggets routed the hapless Timberwolves in Minneapolis to improve their record since the trade to 10-3.

Minnesota started reasonably well, and even led by 6 after the first quarter at 31-25.  Things went downhill in a hurry for Minnesota from that point, as Denver would outscore them in the second and third quarters by a 62-39 margin to make the outcome a foregone conclusion before the midway point of the second half.  The third quarter, with Billups keying a 14-0 run en route to a 27-16 frame, was by his estimation the team’s best since he became a Nugget.

Nuggets head coach George Karl found very little wrong with his team’s performance:

"We got a lot of steals. The ball just flowed. We got layups. We got open shots. Everybody seemed to be part of the offense and there seemed to be a continuity to it."

Despite his offensive heroics, Billups insisted that he’s just a supporting cast member for Carmello Anthony:

"Carmelo is one of the best players in the league. I'm just here trying to help him get better and walk him through the gates. He's our star player.”

On the other end of the court, Minnesota coach Randy Wittman found plenty of things to criticize about the play of his struggling TWolves:

"We have to put the ball on the floor in those situations. They've got Nene and Martin, their bigs running out on our perimeter guys. You don't want to settle and bail them out with jump shots and I thought we did that tonight."

Minnesota did have several solid individual performances, including a season high 25 points from Randy Foye.  Al Jefferson had 20 points and 13 rebounds, with Kevin Love adding 18 points and 12 boards for his first career double/double.

Denver has now beaten Minnesota in seven straight and 12 of 15.  The loss dropped the TWolves’ record to 4-11 while Denver improved to 12-6.  Minnesota will hit the road for their next three games, traveling to Charlotte, Orlando and New Jersey.  Denver will host Houston, Toronto and San Antonio before traveling to Sacramento next Saturday for a game against the Kings.