Indiana, meet Mr. Clutch

It's a good news/bad news game, but its mostly good.

Let's start with the good news.

The Nuggets have secured their first ever winning record in a 7 or longer game road trip, the first in franchise history. Also, it will be their first winning road trip of any length since 1994-1995. And the road trip isn't over yet. We're 4-1 with two left - Memphis and New Orleans.

Carmelo Anthony added to his growing reputation in the NBA as "Mr. Clutch" by hitting his 7th career game winning shot - his fourth this season. With 18 seconds left, and the game tied at 99, Andre Miller received the inbound and found Melo who was isolated on Granger about 18 feet from the basket. Melo executed a jab step with about 5 seconds to clear the little space he needed, then rose up over his defender and confidently lofted a shot that found nothing but the bottom of the net.

With 2.2 seconds left, Peja did his hero impression from beyond the three point line, but with Buckner defending on the play, his shot rimmed closely but harmlessly off.

Camby continued his stellar defensive play, with 7 blocks, many of which turned into Nuggets fastbreak opportunities, and 13 rebounds. Andre Miller helped Melo on the offensive end, adding 21 points to Melo's team leading 31, and passed out 9 assists.

Can't forget the new guys. Patterson may have had his best game as a Nugget thus far - 14 points, but efficiently done on 4-7 shooting and hitting 6-8 free throws. He was his ever-active self on the defensive end. Evans had a now-typical performance, grabbing 9 boards in just 21 minutes of play and getting physical with and Pacer he came in contact with on both ends of the court.

And now the bad news.

Kenyon Martin again didn't suit up - this time with the active Nuggets medical staff saying that he has tendinitis flaring up in his left knee.

And the shocker is that Earl Boykins fractured his hand at 7:45 left in the 4th quarter. Little was said about this during the local broadcast of the game, but I saw it happen when Tinsley drove the lane and Earl had contact with him during the play. Earl was shaking his hand, but stayed in the game for several more minutes, not realizing that his hand was broken until later. The early diagnosis from the Nuggets is that he will be out 5 weeks. Bench scoring will take a huge hit, but hopefully Eisley is up to the task. Eisley was signed to a second 10 day contract earlier in the day.

Game Summary written by: aswitzer

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