Nuggets win in Karl's return to bench

Easier said than done.

With the Nuggets battling through the expected fatigue of playing their fifth game in seven days, Karl was as vocal as ever during Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Wizards.

“I’ve got to do a better job with the mouth,” he said after watching his team ultimately wear down the Wizards for a 97-87 victory at the Pepsi Center. “The mouth hurt a little bit.”

More than halfway through radiation and chemotherapy treatment for throat and neck cancer, Karl is about 15 pounds lighter than he was a month ago, and the toughest part of his recovery is yet to come.

He is eating his meals through a tube, and his mouth is filling with sores that make it painful to talk and swallow.

His voice got slightly raspier and quieter with each timeout Tuesday, but he took charge in the huddle and drew up plays as normal in his first game since March 7. Karl stayed in Denver while the Nuggets went 3-1 on an important late-season road trip.

“He’s looking a lot smaller, but it was good to see him,” Denver point guard Chauncey Billups said. “I think we all missed his voice, missed his leadership. It’s good to get him back.”

Assistant coach Adrian Dantley has guided the Nuggets to a 4-1 record in the five games Karl has missed since the All-Star break. Dantley and the other assistants likely will handle the coaching duties when Denver closes the month with a five-game road trip. Karl is hoping to be on the bench at home Thursday and Saturday.

“That’s the plan,” he said. “I don’t know if I should be on the priority list or if I should let them (the assistants) coach it.”

The Nuggets were unsure if Karl would be on the bench against Washington until they walked into the locker room around 5 o’clock. About three hours later, he was doing his best to motivate them through a sluggish first half.

“Let’s wake up!” he implored during a timeout with 2:56 left in the second quarter. “We’re not playing very good basketball, but we’ve got to go out and win this game.”

The message finally sunk in after halftime. Trailing 45-39 at the break, the Nuggets outscored the Wizards 58-42 in the second half. Washington never got closer than nine points in the final four minutes.

“We manned up,” Carmelo Anthony said. “We stuck together and we won the game.”

One night after scoring 45 points in a tough loss to Houston, Anthony scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help the Nuggets avenge a Feb. 19 loss to the Wizards. J.R. Smith added 17 points – with 13 coming in the fourth quarter – to lead another strong effort by the Denver bench.

Reserves Joey Graham (eight points, four rebounds) and Anthony Carter (seven points, four assists) also made nice contributions to compensate for the absence of high-energy forward Chris Andersen, who sat out with a sprained ankle and broken finger.

“We picked up the pace a little bit,” Graham said. “I know the starters were a little tired from the game last night, so it was up to the bench to come in and play hard.”

It wasn’t pretty, but Denver played hard enough and well enough to beat a struggling Wizards team that got 23 points from Andray Blatche, 16 from Al Thornton and little else. At 46-22, the Nuggets remain on pace to win 55 games, which would set a team record.

As Karl told his players before the game, winning is as effective as radiation and chemo in his battle against cancer.

“I don’t even want to pretend to know what he’s going through, but winning kind of makes everything better,” center Johan Petro said. “Just trying to do that as much as we can. We need it, but he probably needs it more.”

The Nuggets have never won a conference title, let alone an NBA championship. Karl went to the NBA Finals in 1996, and he beat prostate cancer after being diagnosed in 2005. Maybe everything will come together in 2010.

“Hopefully we can keep this thing rolling and win a championship for him, and then he can be completely healed,” Graham said. “That’s the plan.”