Melo, J.R. shoot down Raptors Daniel Williams, DDN Staff Writer Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony celebrates a score over the Toronto Raptors as teammate J.R. Smith, left, reaches to congratulate him yesterday. Reuters photo.

The Denver Nuggets may not always be lock down defenders, but it won’t matter on nights like last night as they badly outscored the Toronto Raptors 130-112.

The Nuggets displayed their firepower with huge offensive outings from Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith Ń who combined for 61 points in last night’s victory at the Pepsi Center.

Denver looked as though they were going to have another letdown against an inferior Eastern Conference foe early in the game.

The Raptors opened up two different double-digit leads in the first half behind the hot hands of Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon, but Melo’s consistent scoring kept the Nuggets competitive as Toronto kept hitting buckets.  

At one point, Toronto went on a quick 12-0 run, angering Denver head coach George Karl. 

So Karl inserted J.R. Smith into the game, and Smith went off.

In only 12 minutes of first half action, Smith scored 18 points, and his defense helped Denver chip away at the Raptors’ lead.

Then in the closing seconds of the half, Nene hit a streaking Melo for a lay-up, tying the game 64-64. But then things went horribly wrong for the Raptors. Big shots they made in the first half stopped falling in the second half and they just didn’t have the horses keep up with the Nuggets.

Denver almost immediately established they were going to take the game over in the third quarter, and Nene and Chris “Birdman” Andersen starting hitting the boards hard.

Nene and Kenyon Martin added 35 total points, as the Nuggets opened up a 10 point lead, which quickly turned into a 20 point lead.

But it was Melo’s 32 points and five assists and Smith’s 29 points that fueled the Nuggets and fired the loud home crowd.

The Nuggets wanted to secure last night’s win before playing a game/road back-to-back this weekend vs.  the L.A. Clippers at home on Friday night and the Bulls in Chicago on Saturday.

The now 8-3 Nuggets sit atop the Northwest Division.

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