Afflalo gets back on target

In an empty Pepsi Center, hours before he brought a sellout crowd to its feet, the Nuggets' Arron Afflalo could only smile at his coach, who reminded his (sometimes) sharpshooter of the previous game against New Orleans.

"We joked about it," George Karl said of Afflalo's 0-for-6 3-point shooting on Dec. 18. "I told him — maybe you should have someone cover you."

Afflalo missed a bevy of open looks that night, and in Saturday's 116-110 overtime win, Afflalo was again open due to double-teams on Carmelo Anthony. But this time Double-A shot with confidence, hitting a career-high five 3s, two in overtime.

"Two huge 3s," said Karl, whose team has won six straight.

Anthony missed a 9-foot putback at the regulation buzzer, and in overtime the Hornets swarmed him, notably on a jumper when he landed awkwardly on his left ankle and left the game after making two free throws. He's day-to- day, with Denver's next game Monday night against Charlotte.

Though New Orleans (23-20) entered Saturday ninth in the Western Conference, the Hornets were 9-3 in January, one of the hottest teams in basketball, along with the Nuggets and (sure enough) the Bobcats.

But the Hornets were on the second game of a back-to-back, playing at the Pepsi Center and without injured forward David West (17.7 points per game). A Denver loss would have looked bad, yes sir. But the Nuggets (29-14) ultimately won their second overtime game in four outings.

Asked of the win's importance, Afflalo said: "It's just the way we won it. Even in Golden State (on Wednesday), how we continued to fight when it didn't look good, that shows signs that we're improving from within as a team. And that's all you can ask for — for your competitive spirit to last an entire game and to keep pushing. We'll continue to get wins if we play that way."

Anthony scored 30 points but on 9-for-28 shooting — maybe a typical Melo shooting line from 2005, but not 2010.

As for the ankle injury, it occurred with 1:13 left in overtime and Denver up 113-106, following Anthony's two free throws.

"The ankle feels better than I thought," Anthony said. "It looked pretty bad at first. We'll see how it is tomorrow."

Saturday's win was weird because at the end of regulation, Denver was just 8-for-24 from 3-point range (33.3 percent) and 21-for-30 from the foul line (70 percent).

But Denver dominated the glass against the weary Hornets, and by the final buzzer, Denver had 61 boards to the Hornets' 37, and 20 offensive rebounds, tying a season high.

An observer didn't need to look at a stat sheet to know this, but rather at the carnivorous rebounding of Kenyon Martin (game-high 14) or Chris Andersen (13 in 24 minutes), who soared in the air to grab the ball with the ease of Brandon Marshall against the Colts. Birdman finished with seven defensive rebounds and six offensive; Melo had six offensive boards as well.

"I think rebounding is a stat that can sometimes be a bit tilted," Karl said, "but tonight it was pretty important to us."