NUGGETS DESTROY HORNETS IN NEW ORLEANS FOR 3-1 SERIES LEAD

While some NBA teams struggle to just win on the road, the Denver Nuggets displayed some serious ‘killer instinct’ against the New Orleans Hornets in ‘The Big Easy’ on Monday night.  The Nuggets simply obliterated the host Hornets, winning by an astonishing final score of 121-63.  The 58 point beatdown tied the largest margin of victory ever in an NBA playoff game (the Minneapolis Lakers beat the St. Louis Hawks 133-75 in 1956) and gave Denver a 3-1 series lead with game five back on the Nuggets’ home court Wednesday night.

The Nuggets led 36-15 after one quarter and kept pouring it on throughout.  Even with their starters on the bench, the Denver reserves outscored New Orleans 33-13 in the fourth quarter.  Seven Denver players scored in double figures led by Carmello Anthony’s 26 points—all scored in three quarters before he left the game.  Chauncey Billups added 17, reserve forward Linas Kleiza scored 14 and Nene scored 12 as did Dahntay Jones and reserve guard J.R. Smith.  Reserve Chris Anderson’s 11 points rounded out the Nuggets’ double digit offensive attack.  The Hornets were led by David West with 14 points, while James Posey added 12 and Peja Stojakovic 10.  The other 9 Hornets *combined* managed only a total of 27 points and New Orleans shot a woeful 31.5% from the field.

After the game, Nuggets’ coach George Karl suggested that this may have been the best played game of his lengthy basketball coaching career:

"Every coach talks about playing a playoff game, every possession having value, every possession having intensity to it. I thought my team, probably in my career, I've never seen a team probably do that on every possession -- do what they were supposed to do and play the game the right way -- as much as they did tonight."

“I don't think I've ever had a team play defense like that. Defensively, when you play this well, offense just happens."

Hornets’ guard Chris Paul expressed his disappointment, but urged perspective:

"Every time we tried something, they countered. We didn't play well and they executed their game plan to perfection. ... Understand that while it was embarrassing and they beat us pretty bad, it still was only one game."

Nuggets’ leading scorer Carmello Anthony said that the margin of victory was as much surprising as exciting:

"I wouldn't have thought that we would win by 58 points. I never thought anyone could win by 58 points in the playoffs."

Game five will be back in Denver on Wednesday night, where the Nuggets were 33-8 during the regular season.  The three Nuggets victories in the series have all been by double digits, while the lone Hornets win was a two point nailbiter.  Should game six be necessary, it’ll be back in New Orleans on Friday night.  After tonight’s game, however, that won’t seem like much of a disadvantage to the Denver Nuggets.