By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

At the 4:12 mark of the first quarter of Denver’s 129-116 not-as-close-as-all-that win over Golden State Saturday night, Warriors forward Anthony Randolph sank a pair of free throws. Twenty-seven seconds into the fourth quarter, swingman Linas Kleiza continued the uninterrupted stream of Nuggets heading to the basket with yet another layup.

In the less than 29 minutes worth of game time between those events, the Nuggets outscored the Warriors by a 97-51 count.

97. To 51.

I don’t want to belabor the pain by delving too deeply into the 3-on-nothing breakaways off turnovers, the tip jams with teammates fighting each other to get credit for the basket, Carmelo Anthony doing whatever he wanted plus six other Nuggets in double-figures.

Just consider that Denver shot 36-for-59 in that stretch (61.0 percent), with the following breakdown of baskets:

Dunk – 10
Layup – 9
3-pointer – 9
Jumper – 5
Tip – 1
Hook – 1

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Another perusal of the Warriors-Nuggets videotape makes one thing clear: There was plenty of bad defense to go around for Golden State in its 123-105 loss to Denver on Monday. Before the Warriors shucked their man-to-man scheme for zone late in the third quarter, the Nuggets scored an obscene 52 of their 90 points in the paint.

Was forward Rob Kurz the worst individual defender on the Warriors that night? No. That would be rookie Anthony Randolph, who was burned twice — allowing a dunk and a layup — in his two on-ball confrontations before being yanked for good.

Was I too hard on Kurz, as some have suggested? I don’t think so. My point was that Don Nelson continually touts Kurz’s ability to be in the right place at all times as one of his key virtues, and I didn’t think that ability was in evidence against the Nuggets.

I will give Kurz credit for his block on Carmelo Anthony as the Nuggets star tried to take him 1v1 from the top of the key. But I didn’t notice previously that he had last-man-back responsibility on Kenyon Martin’s second cherry pick bucket (which featured a 75-foot pass from Chauncey Billups).

And I stand by the assessment that Kurz was too far away from Martin on the alley-oop play early in the second half; instead of staying put on the left block, he went midway up the lane and a couple feet out, allowing Martin to score practically without moving. There were several other instances where a teammate failed to pick up Martin on a cut (Kelenna Azubuike whiffed on a play with about 4 minutes left in the third quarter, the next-to-last play before Nelson finally abandoned the man-to-man and went zone). But this was a situation where Martin didn’t even need to cut to score, and I fault Kurz for that.

Here’s the reason why I care: As the only power forward on the roster with 3-point range, I could easily see Nelson playing Kurz over Randolph and Brandan Wright. That’s good for Kurz’s development, and bad for Randolph’s and Wright’s.

And when you look at how much growth seems possible for each of those three players, that’s the wrong equation for a team that needs to be building for the future.

– Geoff

The pairing of Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony is at an end, closing out a chapter in Denver basketball history that lasted less than two years and will be mostly remembered for its 1-8 record in playoff games.

So with Iverson moving east to Detroit in exchange for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess, are the Nuggets getting over on the Pistons, or vice versa?

Well, the deal does fit the Nuggets’ biggest priority: Salary reduction.

The Nuggets save some $8 million in the short term; Billups ($11.1 million) and McDyess ($6.8) represent more than $4 million in savings over Iverson’s cost ($21.9 million), which is doubled because the Nuggets are — even with this cost-cutting move — slated to go several million over this season’s luxury-tax threshold of $71.15 million.

The deal could get even sweeter if the team is able to negotiate a favorable buyout with McDyess, who reportedly won’t play anywhere but Detroit.

But unlike Iverson and his soon-to-expire deal, Billups is on the books for another $25.2 million in ’09-’10 and ’10-’11 combined (there’s also a player option for $14.2 million in ’11-’12) and McDyess — unless a buyout is reached — will pull down $6.8 million next season.

So, in exchange for some short-term relief, the Nuggets have cast their lot with a 32-year-old point guard who has never led an up-tempo attack before in his life.

As Rod Tidwell told Jerry Maguire, “Well, this was another way to go.”

On the positive side, this deal means the Nuggets won’t have to play Anthony at power forward nearly as much, something I’ve advocated against. And it could very well make them better, at least for this season.

But does anyone really see a Billups-Anthony duo getting any farther in the Western Conference playoffs than the Iverson-Anthony-Marcus Camby trio did in 2007 and ’08?

No, me neither.

For the Pistons, this deal makes great sense, since Detroit — as I reported back in June for the Contra Costa Times — has been looking to get rid of Billups for months to clear the decks for Rodney Stuckey’s ascendency.

If the Pistons are able to re-sign a bought-out McDyess later on this season, that would make it pretty much a Billups-for-Iverson straight-up deal. (Yes, the Nuggets will also get young center Cheikh Samb, but that’s

If Iverson works out and leads Detroit back to the NBA Finals, the Pistons would love that, obviously. But even if he doesn’t, the Detroit…