06 May,2009 01:22 PM IST | | AFP
Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets saved their best for last yesterday, engineering a fourth-quarter blitz to beat Dallas 117-105 and take a 2-0 lead in their NBA playoff series.
Anthony finished with 25 points for Denver, who dominated the final 12 minutes of the fourth quarter in the best-of-seven quarter-final series.
"We didn't come into this game thinking we were going to blow Dallas out," Anthony said. "We knew we were going to have to work hard."
Germany's Dirk Nowitzki scored 35 points for Dallas who now face the difficult task of having to win four of five against the Nuggets.
Anthony scored 15 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, Nene scored 25, J.R. Smith had 21 and Chauncey Billups 18 for the Nuggets, who won for the 15th straight time at the Pepsi Center, where they haven't lost since March 11.
"I just tried to tell myself not to feel anything. Just get some easy baskets and don't work so hard," Anthony said.
The series shifts to Dallas for game three Saturday.
"It's kind of shocking we have three days off," said Nuggets coach George Karl.
Dallas is 17-1 at home since the All-Star break, but that one loss was to Denver.
"They've held serve," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "We go back to Dallas and we've got to do the same. We've got a few days to regroup and work on some things."
The Nuggets, whose six postseason wins have come by an average of 24.8 points, broke open a back-and-forth game by starting the fourth quarter on a 16-2 run, sparked by Anthony's 10 points, to take a 102-85 lead.
"We're just an explosive team in that way," Billups said. "That's just kind of what we do. That's who we've been all year."
Dallas didn't score until Brandon Bass's basket at the 8:36 mark, and then they went another 2 1/2 minutes without another point until two free throws by Nowitzki.
"I think the second and third quarter, Dallas was the better basketball team today," Karl said. "But then there's just a character of our team to get tough in the fourth and for some reason we make a lot of threes in the fourth."
After getting pushed around in the opener, the Mavericks said they had to stand up to the bullying in game two and they tinkered with their starting lineup, replacing Jose Juan Barea with Antoine Wright.
They wanted to attack the rim more, but Josh Howard's two sprained ankles sent him to the bench after six scoreless minutes.
Kenyon Martin, who was slapped with a 25,000 dollar fine for a hard foul on Nowitzki in the opener, was whistled for a double technical when he was grabbed by Ryan Hollins around his waist and tried to wrangle free.
