Nuggets

To Antonio McDyess, the game meant nothing. He performed as if it meant everything. McDyess had 25 points, 10 rebounds, six blocks and four steals as the Nuggets, playing for the first time since the school shooting in suburban Denver, beat Golden State, 96-84, last night. The Nuggets postponed Tuesday's game against Portland because of the tragedy that resulted in 15 deaths. Denver players wore black patches on their jerseys to honor the victims. "I thought about it all week," McDyess said.

Gentlemen, start your engines. The Denver Nuggets bring their revved-up offense to the Spectrum tonight to take on the Sixers. Actually, the term "revved-up" is mild when describing the Nuggets. Denver makes The Flash look like a slowpoke. So far, the Nuggets' fastbreak has scored a lot of points, but that hasn't translated into a lot of wins. Denver, it seems, can run but it can't hide from the fact that other teams manage to keep up. The Nuggets are 3-14 overall and 0-8 on the road.

The Denver Nuggets spanned the age spectrum in the backcourt yesterday, signing rookie Mark Macon and reaching agreement with 37-year-old Walter Davis. Former Temple star Macon, the eighth choice in the NBA draft, signed a reported five-year deal worth about $7.5 million hours before the Nuggets were to play at Golden State in the season opener. The deal is believed to include payments both to the Mark Macon Foundation, which will benefit needy people both in Denver and his home state of Michigan, and the Mark Macon Endowment Fund, which will provide financial assistance for needy students at Temple.

The Denver Nuggets took care of their top offseason priority, agreeing to terms with center Marcus Camby on a multiyear contract. The deal will be signed July 14 after the NBA's moratorium on free-agent signings is lifted, Camby's agent, Rick Kaplan, said. Terms weren't disclosed. "Marcus thinks the franchise is headed in the right direction," Kap-lan said yesterday. "From the time he first arrived in Denver to where the franchise is now, it has improved exponentially, and he thinks it's only going to get better.

The Denver Nuggets are considering offering a tryout this week to former NBA rebounding champion Dennis Rodman. "We might bring him in for a day for a tryout," general manager Kiki Vandeweghe told the Denver Post for a story yesterday. "We're just looking around. We've kind of kicked the idea around a little bit. " Rodman, 42, hasn't played in the NBA since the 1999-2000 season with the Dallas Mavericks. But the Nuggets are looking for another veteran big man, and the 6-8 Rodman has played on five championship teams.

If this were a presidential election, the TV networks long ago would have declared the Washington Bullets the winner in the June 1991 trade that brought them veteran guard Michael Adams from Denver for the No. 8 pick the Nuggets used to select Temple guard Mark Macon. Denver coach Dan Issel acknowledged that Macon has not fared well in a few key precincts, but pointed out that the polls have not closed. "We have not given up on Mark. Far from it," Issel said before the Nuggets fell, 88-80, to the Sixers last night at the Spectrum.

Brandon Roy had 26 points and 11 assists and Channing Frye scored 20 points as the Portland Trail Blazers beat host Denver, 116-105. Allen Iverson had 38 points for the Nuggets, who have lost two straight after a three-game winning streak. Carmelo Anthony struggled from the field again and finished with 19 points on 6-for-17 shooting, and Kenyon Martin had 14 for the Nuggets. Travis Outlaw had 17 points for the Blazers, who got their first win in Denver since Feb. 26, 2003, to snap the Nuggets nine-game home winning streak against Portland.

Hispanic activists in the Denver area dropped a boycott of the Nuggets and team officials said yesterday they will make coach Dan Issel apologize publicly to Latinos for an insulting ethnic remark. The announcement was made after a group of about 25 Hispanic activists met with top officials of Kroenke Sports Enterprises, which owns the Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche. Several Hispanic leaders said Issel made a heartfelt apology to the group at the start of the meeting and that it was widely accepted.

The Denver Nuggets had two reasons to celebrate, as they beat visiting Dallas to tighten the playoff race and welcomed back Nene from cancer treatment. Carmelo Anthony scored 32 points and sparked the decisive run in the third quarter of the Nuggets' 118-105 win over the Mavericks last night. Allen Iverson added 31 points for the Nuggets, who won their fourth straight and temporarily moved into a tie with Golden State for the eighth and final playoff spot. The Warriors beat Portland later last night.

The Denver Nuggets, as they are wont to do, came into the Spectrum running and gunning, but they got hit last night by a much bigger barrage than they offered. The 76ers racked up their highest point total of the season, burying the Nuggets, 149-131, and clinching a playoff spot in the process. Seven Sixers scored in double figures, as the team won its sixth straight game and handed the Nuggets their fifth consecutive loss. "You never expect to score this many points," said Charles Barkley, who scored a season-high 38 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Even after nearly a quarter-century on NBA benches, Denver coach George Karl can't remember the last time he was this nervous for a big game. With a third straight victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, his Nuggets would become just the ninth team to escape a three-games-to-one series deficit. Game 7 is on Karl's 61st birthday, too. While the Nuggets are rolling, the Lakers are reeling. Denver blew out Los Angeles in Game 6 after taking a huge lead in Game 5. Ty Lawson scored 32 points, fellow spark-plug Corey Brewer added 18 and the free-wheeling, too-young-to-scare Nuggets forced a Game 7 in their first-round playoff series with a dominating 113-96 win Thursday night.

James Harden scored 15 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter as the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder rallied for a 103-97 win Saturday night to sweep the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks out of the playoffs in four straight. The Thunder trailed by 13 points with 9 minutes, 44 seconds left before Harden scored seven in a row, and nine in a 12-0 run over the next three minutes. Oklahoma City finally took the lead, and kept it, after Russell Westbrook stole the ball from Dirk Nowitzki and passed to Serge Ibaka for a two-handed slam that made it 92-91 with 5:17 left.

Kobe Bryant scored 31 points, Andrew Bynum posted the Lakers' first playoff triple-double in 21 years with an NBA postseason record-tying 10 blocked shots, and Los Angeles controlled the tempo in a playoff-opening 103-88 victory over the visiting Denver Nuggets on Sunday. Bynum, the Lakers' all-star center coming off his best regular season, also had 10 points and 13 rebounds while blocking 11 percent of the Nuggets' 90 shots. While Bynum had the Lakers' first playoff triple-double since Magic Johnson in the 1991 NBA Finals, fellow 7-footer Pau Gasol added 13 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists for the playoff-tested Lakers, who never trailed while forcing the NBA's highest-scoring team to play Los Angeles' preferred half-court style.

AFTER WINNING five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, Derek Fisher chose the West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder as the team where he wants to go for No. 6. Fisher signed with the Thunder for the remainder of the season on Wednesday, not quite a week after he was traded to Houston by the Lakers and subsequently bought out of his contract instead of playing with the Rockets. Fisher, who picked jersey No. 37, the same as his age, had five points in 19 minutes in last night's 114-91 win over the visiting Los Angeles Clippers.

WITH THE TWO starting centers felled by injury, it figured that guard play would be important in last night's 76ers-Denver Nuggets game. What wasn't figured on, at least not by the Sixers, was that castoff Andre Miller would be the difference. Miller, not re-signed by the Sixers after the 2008-09 season so the team could give drafted point guard Jrue Holiday the keys to the organization, stung his old team to the tune of 28 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in just under 39 minutes in a 108-104 overtime win by the Nuggets.

Former 76ers guard Andre Miller is one of the more easygoing players in the NBA. He laughs a lot, and very rarely does Miller have a negative word to say about anyone, especially his old Sixers teammates. But anyone who saw Miller almost single-handedly end the 76ers' home winning streak at six games Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center might think that Miller has nothing but loathing and malice in his heart for a team he played just a little over two seasons for before leaving via free agency.

Some predictions, thoughts and even confessions to help prepare for one of the great days on the calendar, Fantasy Football Draft Day. LOOKIN' GOOD Observations from last year's fantasy section that we made sure the bosses saw: - Pittsburgh running back Rashard Mendenhall was a live sleeper. What happened: Mendenhall finished seventh in rushing (1,273) and only Arian Foster (16) had more rushing TDs (13). - Houston running back Arian Foster will use the final two games of 2009 as a steppingstone for 2010.

THE FORMER Shell showroom at Trump Marina will once again be alive with the sound of music. That's the word from Tilman Fertitta, CEO of Landry's Restaurants Inc. which on Tuesday assumed ownership of the Marina, which will now be called Golden Nugget Atlantic City. Fertitta told us that entertainment will play a significant role in his new gaming hall's marketing strategy - a 180-degree turn from the recent past when the Shell had only been in regular use during the summer because of the Marina's ongoing financial problems.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Kevin Durant scored 23 points, Russell Westbrook added 21 and the Oklahoma City Thunder built a huge first-half lead on their way to a 106-89 victory over the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 on Wednesday night. The first-round playoff series shifts to Denver on Saturday night with Oklahoma City leading two games to none. The Thunder relied heavily on their all-star duo in Game 1, getting a combined 72 points from Durant and Westbrook. But they got contributions from everyone to build a 26-point lead early in the second quarter of a dominant victory.

The day started out badly for the Los Angeles Lakers when the microphone didn't work for the national anthem singer, but he sang anyway with a heckling crowd drowning him out. And things got progressively worse for the two-time defending NBA champions. Danilo Gallinari scored 22 points, Kenyon Martin scored six of his 18 in the final 3 minutes, 24 seconds, and the visiting Nuggets hung on for a 95-90 victory yesterday that extended their winning streak to six games. "We just didn't get the game under control, especially in the fourth quarter," Lakers center Pau Gasol said.