--Backup point guard Chucky Atkins might be working his way back into coach George Karl's good graces. Atkins provided a spark Friday night against Philadelphia with eight points in the fourth quarter. The outburst came after he sat on the bench for most of the first three quarters.
"I thought Chucky gave us great minutes," Karl said. "That was the spirit that we kind of needed to get into the game." Atkins, the subject of trade rumors over the past several weeks, played a season-high 18 minutes Tuesday night and figures to get back into the regular rotation after his late-game performance Friday. Those minutes likely will come at the expense of swingman Renaldo Balkman, who looked out of sorts Friday. Balkman sat out the second half against the Sixers after missing all three shots and committing two turnovers in less than seven minutes of action.
--Swingman Dahntay Jones remains a fixture in the starting lineup, but he's not always on the court in the fourth quarter. He made the most of crunch time Friday night without touching the ball.
With the Nuggets leading by one point with nine seconds remaining, Jones entered the game with the difficult assignment of guarding Sixers G/F Andre Iguodala. Jones did his job, forcing Iguodala into a traveling violation that effectively ended the game.
Proving that he is not one-dimensional, Jones scored nine points in the first quarter Friday, hitting two three-pointers and converting a traditional three-point play. He is now 3-for-3 from behind the arc this season.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Got 12,000 last night. My high score ever was like 90,000, so I've lost my talent. I'm losing a lot of cities early in the game." -- Nuggets coach George Karl, on the 1980s arcade game Missile Command, which his son Coby gave him for Christmas.
