Jazz Hoping For Rebound Win Against Nuggets In Game 2

(Sports Network) - Reeling from the loss of their starting center, the Utah Jazz hope to bounce back tonight, when they visit the Northwest Division champion Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of their best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinals series.

Denver took a 1-0 advantage in the set on Saturday when Carmelo Anthony poured in a playoff career-best 42 points and the Nuggets pulled away for a 126-113 win over injury-riddled Utah at the Pepsi Center.

The Jazz lost much more than a game, however. Already without forward Andrei Kirilenko (strained left calf) for this series, Utah lost the services of Mehmet Okur in the second quarter with a left Achilles injury.

Denver's J.R. Smith scored 18 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter in the Game 1 victory for the Nuggets, who came into the series as the No. 4 seed and the Northwest champs thanks to Utah's home loss to Phoenix on the final night of the regular season. Smith made four three-pointers in the final quarter.

Last year, the Nuggets shed the moniker of consistently losing in the first round. This is Denver's seventh straight year in the postseason, but the Nuggets have gone past the first round just one time in that span. They made the conference finals last year before losing to the eventual world-champion Lakers in six games.

"'Melo was great," said Denver guard Chauncey Billups, who had 15 points and eight assists. "I could just see it early from the stuff he was hitting. He wasn't really hitting the rim. I didn't want to go to him too much because against a team like that you need two, three or four guys in double figures to be able to win."

Nene added 19 points, Arron Afflalo 12 and Ty Lawson 11 for Denver.

Assistant Adrian Dantley continues to handle the head coaching duties for Denver in place of George Karl, who is recovering from throat and neck cancer treatments.

Deron Williams had 26 points and 11 assists for the Jazz, who are trying to avoid their second straight first-round exit in the postseason.

Carlos Boozer started Saturday's game despite a strained right oblique muscle. He finished with 19 points and eight rebounds for Utah. C.J. Miles had 17 points, while Paul Millsap ended with 15 points and 10 rebounds for Utah

"I was proud of the fact that our guys played hard," Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan said. "We made some mistakes defensively. When you give up that many points it's difficult to win. But I was proud that we hung in there knowing we were shorthanded at times."

Sloan will use either Kyrylo Fesenko or Kosta Koufos to replace Okur in the lineup tonight.