• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Nuggets whip Hornets by 58

NEW ORLEANS — Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets looked like the only ones having fun in this party town.

Anthony scored all of his 26 points in the first three quarters, and Denver thoroughly dismantled the New Orleans Hornets 121-63 on Monday night to take a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

The New Orleans Arena was mostly empty by the end of the third quarter, when Denver led 89-50 on its way to matching the most lopsided victory in NBA playoff history. The Minneapolis Lakers beat the St. Louis Hawks 133-75 in 1956.

“I wouldn’t have thought that we would win by 58 points,” Anthony said. “I never thought anyone could win by 58 points in the playoffs.”

Looking twice as quick as New Orleans on both ends of the court, the Nuggets stifled Hornets All-Star Chris Paul, whose four points and six assists amounted to one of the worst games of his career.

The Nuggets can close out the series at home in Game 5 on Wednesday night. They will if they play as well as they did in Game 4, when they led by 20 early and by more than that most of the second half.

It was the first time Paul, who did not play in the fourth quarter, had ever scored fewer than 14 points in a playoff game.

Denver held New Orleans to only 31.5 percent shooting and forced the Hornets into a franchise playoff-high 27 turnovers, which led to 41 Nuggets points.

The Hornets also recorded playoff lows in points, field goals made (17), field goals attempted (54), assists (10) and second-half points (24). Denver’s 121 points also set a Hornets opponent playoff high.

The Hornets’ previous worst playoff loss was by 32 points (96-64) to Atlanta in 1998, when the team was still in Charlotte. Denver’s previous largest playoff victory margin was 30 (141-111) over San Antonio in 1985.

-- Hawks 81, Heat 71—Mike Bibby scored 15 points, Zaza Pachulia had 12 points and 18 rebounds, and Atlanta frustrated an ailing Dwyane Wade endlessly to tie first-round Eastern Conference series at two games apiece.

It was Atlanta’s first road postseason win in nearly 12 years, a stretch spanning 13 games.

Wade scored 22 points, shooting 9-for-26 and wincing from back spasms that started at the morning shootaround, flared in the first quarter and continued from there.