Welcome Back Dahntay

It was one of those games that leaves you cringing, and by the end of the game the fans left in the Pepsi Center were cringing.

However, for how bad the Nuggets played it didn’t matter they were still playing the Indiana Pacers.

It’s not that the Pacers have bad players; Danny Granger is a top-five small forward, Brandon Rush still has a lot of potential and same with Roy Hibbert. Their coach Jim Lynam doesn’t use them right. Use former Nuggets stopper Dahntay Jones for example. Jones is a shutdown defender for a playoff team – of course in Indiana he is used as well just another player.

You could tell this was just one of those games that the Nuggets didn’t take seriously. George Karl seemed pretty

content on trusting his bench more than he usually does. Chauncey Billups toyed with the Pacers, occasionally pulling up for contested 3-pointers.

The bench rewarded Karl with a great performance, Anthony Carter played well (12 points, 7 assists), Chris Andersen recorded a double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) and JR Smith actually played in control (20 points, 8 assists). Now if they can just continue with that same effort on the road.

• Jones played 22 minutes and scored five points and grabbed eight rebounds against his former team.
• His son was decked out in his old home jersey, while his mom wore his Indiana jersey
• For some strange reason Lynam didn’t play Mike Dunleavy until midway through the second quarter. He also finished with five points.
• Josh McRoberts caught many people off guard by dunking on Chris Andersen, the former Duke star finished the game with 10 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Next up for Denver is a tough matchup with Brandon Roy and Portland at home on ESPN.