Yeah, I think scoring 168 points in a game qualifies.

This Nuggets team may not make the playoffs (in fact, I think they won’t), but nobody’s ever questioned this team’s ability to put the ball in the basket, and tonight against the pitiful Sonics, they did so for the fourth-highest regulation point total in NBA history.

It figures – I finally find something positive that I actually want to write about, and I don’t have the words. This utterly unbelievable boxscore has reduced me to sputtering and pointing with a dropped jaw at numbers like 10 (assists(!) by Marcus Camby), 60.4 (percent shooting from the field), 44 (team assists), 8 (Nuggets in double figures), 49 (fast-break points, an NBA record), and, of course, the big fat 168 sitting at the top of the boxscore.

Yes, the Sonics are terrible and quite likely could not stop an intramural team at a Division III school from scoring 100 points in a regulation NBA game. I realize that. But 168 points is 168 points. It’s not like the Nuggets are running the old Paul Westhead offense or anything (though could you imagine that offense with the guys the Nugs have now instead of the guys Westhead had when he coached the team?) – they’re built to score, but no team anywhere is supposed to score like this.

There aren’t too many teams in the NBA that could score 168 points in 48 minutes. The Knicks couldn’t do it if you locked them in Madison Square Garden by themselves for that long. Tonight, in one historical fell swoop, these Nuggets showed just how potent their offense can be and just how fun they are to watch.

And yet… I have this sinking feeling they’ll ride this wave of three straight home wins into a 2-3 road trip, further sabotaging their chances of making the playoffs in the West. Yes, even after a game like this, I’m not a believer in the Nugs. I still don’t think they have the consistency needed to make up the 1.5 game deficit they currently face over the final 16 games. But I’d love to be wrong.

The latter half of that equation manifested on Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center, when the Nuggets held off the East-leading Boston Celtics 124-118. Now, granted, Kevin Garnett wasn’t 100%, and as such, neither were the Celts. With that being said… that’s still a Boston team that thumped the Nugs in Boston back in November, and the Nugs absolutely had to turn the tables with the bottom half of the West heating up.

The win puts Denver at 13 games over .500 – a season-best. It came thanks to big time efforts from what has become a Big Four of sorts. Carmelo Anthony (29 and 7 boards) put together the sort of balanced effort that is becoming more and more of a routine, and Allen Iverson (28 and 9 dimes) did what he’s been doing since he put on the powder blues. Marcus Camby (11-13-9 blocks) damn near put up a triple-double, and Kenyon Martin added 19 and 6 rebounds.

Not since the remarkable 32-8 closing kick under George Karl in the 04-05 season have the Nuggets sustained the level of high-caliber play, confidence, and swagger that they’ve shown this season. A healthy K-Mart has been a big part of that – hell, the man has always oozed swagger, but it’s tough for that to make an impact when you’re chilling on the bench with injuries. Martin’s still way overpaid and still not the best role model on the roster, but in spite of myself, I still love what he’s capable of bringing when he’s healthy and motivated. He can score inside and finish on the break, sure, but it’s K-Mart’s defense that has been the biggest key. Camby’s a great interior defender, but Martin is the best one-on-one post defender that the Nugs have, and his presence gives the Nugs a fighting chance to slow down the Kevin Garnetts (and, more importantly in the West, the Gasols, Stoudamires, Boozers, and Duncans) of the world.

Denver’s preseason hopes for 60 wins will be dashed with just three more losses. But a 50 win campaign, aside from being just the fourth in team history and the first since 1987-88, would represent a nice accomplishment for this bunch. What’s more, it might be a requirement to be playing in the postseason. This win over Boston to start the second half puts the Nugs in the right direction, and if they can steal another home game against a tough Eastern foe (Detroit, on the 25th), they might be knocking at the door of 40 wins by the start of March.

As the West gets tougher and tougher, the Nugs will have to respond in kind. But considering that Denver has a healthy K-Mart, a full year of Iverson, and Melo’s emerging presence on the boards, it’s safe to say this is the toughest Nuggets team of the Melo Era.

Only fitting, then, that in Melo’s second appearance of the day on the ESPN family of networks, he would continue to make it look easy. Anthony poured in a career high 49 points on 19-for-25 shooting in Denver’s 111-100 win over the overmatched Wizards at Pepsi Center.

Anthony scored 29 in the first half, carrying the Nugs into the locker room with a 56-47 advantage. A late three pointer pushed him past his previous career high of 45 points (which he got in a game that I was at, against Allen Iverson and the 76ers in December of 2005), and two free throws got him to 49. Melo’s teammates did what they could to get him to 50, but the Wizards double-teamed him in the final 90 seconds and denied Melo’s bit for the highest scoring night in the NBA this season. (That honor still belongs to Iverson, who poured in 51 against the Lakers in December.)

It’s been quite a year for Melo, who continues to improve all aspects of his game. He’s averaging 7.2 rebounds per game, which would be a career-high if he keeps it up. His assists are also up over three per game, as he’s become a much more unselfish player since Iverson’s arrival. He’ll start his first All-Star game in a week in New Orleans, and he’s got the Nuggets to 30 wins in the fewest games (49) since the 1984-85 season, when it took Doug Moe’s Nuggets 47 games to hit the 30 win mark.

We still don’t really know what these Nuggets would look like at full strength. Injuries to Nene and Chucky Atkins have denied the Nugs a chance to find that out for an extended stretch. But thanks to Melo’s scoring and rebounding, and a resurgence from Kenyon Martin, who’s playing his best basketball in a Nuggets uniform, the Nugs are in position to return to the playoffs for the fifth straight year and possibly win the Northwest Division in a tight three-way tussle with Utah and Portland. How the Nugs close in the final three games before the All-Star break – three road games at Cleveland, Miami, and Orlando – will be huge for building momentum for the stretch run.

It’s become apparent over the last season and a half that I was completely wrong about LK. Tonight against the Jazz, Kleiza put up a career high 41 points to go with nine rebounds in a 120-109 Nuggets win, and the transformation from the doughy banger that Kleiza was in college to the multi-faceted reserve ace he has become in the NBA is complete.

Kleiza was not the only story from Denver’s convincing win over a conference rival that appears at this point to be a clear third banana in the Northwest behind the Nugs and the surprising Trail Blazers. Marcus Camby’s 24 rebounds and 11 blocks were awe inspiring as well. But Linas Kleiza scoring 41 points deserves to be the lead, because I honestly figured he’d struggle to score that many points in his entire NBA career.

The rumor when the Nugs acquired the rights to Kleiza in a draft-day trade was that the team would send him to Europe for a year for seasoning, presumably to get stronger in the paint. Linas played the 4 at Missouri, but wasn’t nearly strong enough to play that position in the pros. I figured Kleiza’s softness would be further exposed in Europe if the Nuggets sent him there, and that we’d never see him stateside again.

But Kleiza stuck around. And there is no harder worker currently on the Nuggets roster. Kleiza is frequently the last player to leave the practice court, constantly working on his outside shooting. He has made his game more well-rounded, and his recent tendency to drive with the basketball instead of just loitering around the perimeter shows an increased confidence in his own offensive ability. Couple that with his work ethic on defense, and Kleiza has become the most valuable reserve on the Nuggets roster.

He may never score 41 in a game again, but the Lithuanian has become a legitimate NBA player, and he’s helped the Nuggets to eight games over .500 and a first-place tie in the Northwest. Now all the kid needs is a better nickname – no, Chris Marlowe, “The Lithuanian Liquidator” does not qualify. In fact, that’s the worst nickname ever. I’m partial to “Linas the Menace” myself.

(An update on Nene: the Nuggets Brazilian center had a tumor removed from his right testicle region this week. The Nugs are still awaiting tests to see if the mass is cancerous.)

The Nuggets and Nene are not required to release the player’s exact condition, but if the quotes from players and head coach George Karl are any indication, it would appear to be serious.

This news put a bit of a damper on Denver’s win over Orlando last night, as you might imagine. I’ll give you an update as soon as news becomes available.

Wait. It gets better.

The Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs with a tremendous defensive effort.

It gets even better.

The Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs despite only 17 points from Carmelo Anthony, mainly because Melo hauled in nine boards, dished out six assists, only turned the ball over twice, and contributed defensively – to sum up, he played a complete basketball game.

It gets better.

The Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs in a game where Manu Ginobili’s disgraceful flop act was nowhere to be found. (And yes, I fully understand that Manu’s presence makes the Spurs a much better team. But still.)

It gets better still.

The Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs with 14 blocks, including seven from Kenyon Martin.

Hold on… still getting better.

The Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs because Martin, Marcus Camby, Eddie Najera, and Nene beat the holy crap out of Tim Duncan in the post and frustrated him into a 7-for-20, four-turnover performance. (I’m not sure there’s a team better equipped to put the clamps on Timmy than a healthy Denver frontcourt, because they’ve got four physical bigs to throw at him. K-Mart wouldn’t even let Duncan get that chintzy little jumper off tonight.)

It’s hard enough to improve on the simple fact that the Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs. But it was how they won that is the most encouraging part of this win. Go ahead and add tape of this game to the stack of tapes I’d show these Nuggets players when I wanted to prove to them what they’re capable of with 48 minutes of committed, end-to-end basketball.

Nights like this one seem like a proper occasion to reaffirm my affection. The Nugs hammered the Bucks at Pepsi Center Wednesday night, 125-105, in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated. Denver, now 17-11, maintained their lead in the Northwest Division thanks to some superlative performances, namely a 10-block(!!!) night for Marcus Camby (part of a triple-double) and the fourth-straight double-double for Carmelo Anthony (who didn’t have that many double-doubles all of last season – he’s got seven this year).

The Nugs are 12-4 at Pepsi Center, which sounds about right for a team that seems to save its best for the home crowd. Wednesday night, a capacity crowd saw the very best of Denver Nugget basketball. It wasn’t particularly thrilling as far as blowouts go – in fact, Denver’s constant fast-break lay-ups became so routine as to be boring by the third quarter. Still, it was another step in the right direction for a Nuggets team that is finally getting healthy. Nene played in his first game after missing 22 contests with a thumb injury, meaning that the Nuggets can finally run the lineup they’ve wanted to run since training camp (Atkins-Iverson-Melo-Nene-Camby) once Nene and Chucky Atkins are back to full ramming speed.

Like I said, I do not always enjoy watching Nuggets basketball. But this is generally no fault of the individual players. In fact, wins like this one make me realize that, at least as far as I’m concerned, this is one of the more likeable teams of the Melo Era.

My favorite Nuggets team of all time is still the squad from Anthony’s rookie year. The 2003-2004 team overachieved all year on their way to a playoff appearance. A hungry Anthony played all year like he had something to prove. Andre Miller ran the point with a steady hand, Nene continued to grow at power forward, and the bench – Jon Barry, Chris Anderson, Ryan Bowen, and Earl Boykins – brought consistent energy and effort on a nightly basis. I loved those guys (particularly “The Birdman” – I can’t wait until his suspension ends in late January). But in recent years, the Nugs have been marred by players with poor attitudes (K-Mart, Vo Lenard post-knee injury, Ruben Patterson) and their star player’s inconsistent full-court effort.

That doesn’t seem to be the case with these Nuggets. In fact, when they’re all healthy and together, there’s not a bad apple in the bunch (not even J.R. Smith, who has every right to be sullen and pissed off at George Karl for killing him repeatedly in the press but instead plays hard when he does get off the bench). Even K-Mart is smiling – always a good sign.

I like all of these guys. I like Anthony Carter, a high-school dropout who worked his way into community college and into the NBA – he’s a poor-man’s Andre Miller with a better jumper, if that makes any sense. I like Atkins, a hard-worker who is going to be huge for this team once he gets his shooting stroke back. I like Linas Kleiza, the last man off the practice court, whose confidence grows with every game (witness the cold-blooded game winning jumper he hit to beat the Kings last Sunday).

And how can you not love the singular abilities of Allen Iverson, the balls-out effort you can count on from Eddie Najera, and the intimidation factor that Camby and Martin supply?

But you know what I’d really love? I’d love it if the Carmelo Anthony I’ve seen the last few nights is the sign of a real change in his approach. Melo is working noticeably harder on defense and on both sides of the glass, and it’s paying off in the numbers. The Nuggets will only be as good as Anthony is this season, and if he’s bound and determined to outwork his opponent, he’s so talented that he should be able to dominate games.

A committed Anthony, added to what I believe to be the most solid core the Nuggets have had in a long, long time, could very well mean the Nugs can with a straight face resolve to make a deep playoff run in this coming new year.

But after tonight’s thrilling 112-111 double OT win over Houston at the Pepsi Center, I can’t help but feel like the Nugs grew up a bit. It was not the prettiest effort – in fact, the game really shouldn’t have gone into any extra sessions after the Nugs took a seven-point lead with less than two minutes left. But in tonight’s game, everybody on the floor for the Nuggets dug deep, playing through pain, foul trouble, and horrendous shooting woes (among other obstacles) on their way to a hard-earned win.

After a 2-for-17 (two for freaking seventeen!!!) performance in the first half, the last thing I thought I’d be doing is singing Carmelo Anthony’s praises after this game. But Melo found his stroke in the second half on his way to a game high 37 points. It’s not the 37 that brings a smile, though – it’s the 16 in the rebound category, a career high, that serves as the greatest encouragement.

Even when his shot wasn’t falling (understatement of the year) in the first half, Melo was playing hard at both ends of the floor. This is something that doesn’t happen nearly often enough for Anthony to truly reach ‘superstar’ and ‘leader’ status. When a true star isn’t filling up the hoop, he plays harder in other aspects of the game. The goal isn’t just to score, but to help the team win any way you can. Melo, it seems, doesn’t quite get that yet. Tonight, however, was a different story. Melo attacked the glass and stayed active on the defensive end. This Nuggets team won’t make the leap from good to great until Anthony shows he can bring that sort of all-around effort every single night.

There’s more love to be handed out:

-Anthony Carter hits the tough game-winning shot. I like his headiness in a reserve role.
-Chucky Atkins had some big buckets in the OT in his first game of the season. Once he gets into a rhythm, I think he’ll be a welcome addition.
-Eddie Najera (who is inexplicably leading the Nugs in three-point shooting percentage) gave his usual great effort.
-Marcus Camby literally lifted himself off the deck after a painful fall and played on, grabbing 18 rebounds.
-Allen Iverson did Allen Iverson things pretty much all game long. I don’t mention it often enough, but I freaking love this guy. He’s just so good.

Tonight’s not a night to scrutinize. The Nugs battled their asses off for a change and have a nice win to show for it.

On the other hand - nights like tonight make me think they could be. But it all comes back to a consistent high level of effort, something these Nuggets just haven’t seemed capable of this season. That’s why they’re 12 and 8, and that’s why a win like tonight’s leaves me more confused than elated.

There are problems with this team that have needed fixing for THREE YEARS. And they’ve never gotten anywhere close to a solution. They force shots. They stagnate on offense. Their best player won’t play hard all the time. They get sloppy on defense with the frequency of snowfall on the Continental Divide.

I can’t decide if the Nuggets are a good bad team or a bad good team. I’m leaning towards the latter. Whatever it may be, they sure as hell aren’t a Western Conference threat. After Dallas rips them a new one tomorrow night, the Nuggets will be 11-9.

The preseason predictions from the players about a 60-win season get more and more hilarious every time this team lays another egg. It’s so hilarious I want to throw up.