It's quitting time even though the Nuggets don't quit

DENVER -- Looks like they got the right matchup, after all.

Remember all those weeks of speculation about who the Lakers would play in the first round, with Houston as the preferred option and Phoenix and Dallas as the booby prizes?

Instead, they wound up with this kindergarten with hops, an inspired choice even if the Lakers didn't exactly choose.

The Nuggets always look dangerous from a distance as they did this season, winning 50 games with Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, the NBA's highest-scoring tandem, averaging a combined 52 points.

The Nuggets then fall apart in the playoffs when Anthony gets double-teamed, presenting him a choice between passing the ball . . . or holding it longer.

This makes five playoff appearances in Anthony's five seasons, in which the Nuggets have played 24 games and lost 20.

Monday night they played their best game of the series -- now they stop quitting -- and still lost, 107-101.

Before that, it was more like a TV sitcom than a playoff series.

Take Coach George Karl's inspirational message before Game 3 when he told his players that trailing, 2-0, was a new challenge for them.

"I told the team we haven't been through this. We've always been 1-1," said Karl,

How about two years ago when they were 0-2 against the Clippers?

"I try to forget that year," said Karl.

And well he might.

That was way back in the mists of time -- 2006, actually -- when Karl had to suspend Kenyon Martin during the series for going off on him.

That was the series in which Anthony, double-teamed 17 feet out on one occasion, tried to dribble out of it, retreating all the way to the midcourt line with the two Clippers still on him before finally giving up the ball.

Anthony outdid himself in this series, capped by his five-for-22 shooting in Game 3, after which he said his teammates and coaches had "quit," which would have been a full-fledged crisis anywhere else.

Here, it was just "Saturday."

The off day between Games 3 and 4 was devoted to a discussion of the Nuggets' problems.

"Put up or shut up, Melo," said a Denver Post headline.

"Zookeeper Karl isn't the problem"

In a Rocky Mountain News poll, 36% of respondents said this was Anthony's fault, 25% blamed Karl, and 23% said no one was to blame since the Nuggets "won 50 games and are going to lose to the best team in the conference."

"You know, we're a team of emotion," said Karl before the game. "We've been a team of emotion most of the year.

"I think it's magnified because you're in the playoffs but we've had similar situations that we handle. . . "

You mean, Carmelo has accused his coaches and teammates of quitting before?

"All it is is looking in the mirror and figuring out what it is you can do," said Iverson after the game. "You've got to start with yourself first.

"That's my main thing. I'll evaluate my season and I'll talk to our coaches and I'll find out what I can do first to make us a better team, whether it be not scoring as much, whether it be not playing as much -- [grinning] I'll probably have a problem with that one -- whatever I have to do to make us better."

Iverson is 32. Anthony is 23. For the Nuggets' sake, it would be good if they don't have to wait nine years to get on the same page.