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The Denver Nuggets won their seventh straight before heading on the road for a four game road trip.
The Denver Nuggets lead the Memphis Grizzlies 62-47 at the half Sunday night in Denver, CO. A win by the Nuggets will be their seventh straight victory and will be head coach George Karl's 999th win.
The Nuggets got out to an early lead and held it, leading 33-16 at the end of the first quarter. A three pointer by Al Harrington with eight minutes left in the half extended the lead to 20, 42-22 and since then the teams have basically just traded buckets.
Through 24 minutes of play the Nuggets are led by Nene who has scored 13 points. Arron Afflalo has added 12, Chauncey Billups nine, Carmelo Anthony and Gary Forbes eight a piece. Nene also lead the team with 5 rebounds.
Memphis is led by Rudy Gay and his 10 points. Mike Conley has added nine while Xavier Henry has seven points. Zach Randolph leads the Grizzlies with six rebounds.
Two streaks are on the line as the Denver Nuggets host the Memphis Grizzlies Sunday night at the Pepsi Center.
The Nuggets (12-6) are currently riding a six game winning streak -- which extends back to a November 20 victory over the New Jersey Nets. The Nuggets have also won 23 of the past 24 home games against the Grizzlies (8-12) outpacing Memphis by an average 11.4 per game.
During the current win streak, Nuggets forward J.R. Smith has started to emerge as a go-to player, averaging 23.7 points per game over the past three games. Smith is also averaging 28 points over the past two games against the Grizz.
The Nuggets are paced by Carmelo Anthony and his 23.3 ppg and 8.1 rebounds per game. Chauncey Billups leads the team with 5.2 assists per game.
The Nuggets leading shot blocker, Chris Andersen, the Birdman, is questionable tonight after bruising his back during Friday night's win over the Los Angeles Clippers. Bird, who missed the first 13 games of the season due to injury, told denvernuggets.com
"I knew I was tipping over, so I tried to brace. I'm the Bird, not a cat."
A Nuggets win will bring head coach George Karl one win away from the 1000 win milestone. Karl, who sits at 998 career wins, would be the seventh coach to reach the plateau.
Memphis has a good nucleus of young talent, but in today's NBA it takes talent and experience to win.
Rudy Gay, the fourth year pro out of Connecticut, leads the team with a 21.6 ppg average. The other starters are rookie Xavier Henry, second year pro Marc Gasol and third year man Mike Conley. Combined they have one more year of experience than their man in the middle, Zach Randolph, in his ninth year.
The Nuggets are expected to start Melo, Billups, Nene, Shelden Williams and Arron Afflalo.
Tip is at 6 p.m. MT and can be seen on Altitude.
Grizzlies Vs. Nuggets: Denver Defeat Memphis, Wins Seventh Straight, Karl With Career Win 999
Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl is one win away from career victory number 1000 after the Nuggets defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 108-107 Sunday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver, CO.
Karl, who now has 999 wins, will go for the milestone win on Tuesday night against the Charlotte Bobcats in North Carolina. The win was also the seventh in a row for the Nuggets and seventh straight over Memphis (8-13).
This game, which seemed out of reach after the Nuggets (13-6) were leading by 17 after one quarter and 15 at half, became a close contest in the second half. Memphis took a lead late in the third quarter, but the Nuggets were able to come back and hold off Memphis for the win.
The Nuggets were led in scoring by Nene who poured in 27 points. Arron Afflalo contributed a career-high 25 points, while Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony were relatively quite adding 11 and 13 respectively. Nene also led the Nuggets in rebounding with 11.
The Grizzlies were paced by Rudy Gay and his 24 points. Mike Conley added 19 points, Zach Randolph 18 and Xavier Henry 17 in the loss. Randolph also led Memphis with 12 rebounds.
The Nuggets should be favored to defeat the Bobcats on Tuesday, but should they lose, Denver will play the following night against the Boston Celtics. Even with a string of losses, it appears unlikely that Karl's 1000th win would come at home, as the Nuggets are on the road for four games taking them from Charlotte to Boston then to play the Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks. The Nuggets are next home on December 14 when they face the Orlando Magic.
Dec 05 8:39p by Evan Pfaff - 0 comments