Parker sparks Spurs past frazzled Nuggets

Tony Parker scored 22 points, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili each added 21 and the San Antonio Spurs took advantage of a rare poor performance by Chauncey Billups since he arrived in Denver to whip the Nuggets 108-91 on Thursday night.

The Nuggets had won 12 of 15 since acquiring Billups from Detroit in the Allen Iverson trade.

Billups, the former University of Colorado star, had enjoyed a wonderful homecoming up to this point, helping the franchise get off to its best start since the 1976-77 team behind David Thompson won 13 of its first 19.

The Nuggets have been better in all areas since Billups' arrival, putting a constant smile across coach George Karl's face after several years of consternation with a high-priced roster that lacked a pure point guard.

Not on this night.

Denver's dismal showing came just 48 hours after a 39-point blowout of Toronto, an embarrassment that served as the last straw in Sam Mitchell's tenure as Raptors coach. Karl lamented the firing long and hard before Thursday night's tip-off.

After that 132-93 shellacking of the Raptors, Billups declared it was just one of those games where everything worked: "Throughout the season you usually get two or three of those games," he said. "Unfortunately, you usually get two or three on the other side, those games where nothing really works."

And this game was certainly one of those.

In the first half, Billups scored just 3 points on 1-of-7 shooting and he doled out but a single assist. Billups scored nine points in the irrelevant fourth quarter to finish with 12. Carmelo Anthony led Denver with 16, and J.R. Smith had 15 points and 10 boards off the bench.

The Spurs shot 56 percent, racing out to a 61-41 halftime lead that put this one in the win column early - not a single time in their history have the Nuggets overcome a deficit of 20 or more points.

The Nuggets (55 percent) and Spurs (58 percent) were both hot in the first quarter but Denver started out the second quarter by missing 10 of 12 shots while the Spurs were still sinking most of their shots.

Reserve George Hill scored seven points in a 15-2 run San Antonio used to take control at 47-33 with six minutes left in the first half, and Denver never recovered.

They cut their deficit to 15 in the final minute of the third quarter, but Ginobili re-entered and promptly sank consecutive 3s. After Billups' bucket made it 88-74, the Spurs scored nine straight points.

Notes:@ Parker and Ginobili both missed the Spurs' 91-81 loss to the Nuggets in San Antonio on Nov. 19. ... The Spurs, coming off an 89-77 loss at home to the Pistons, snapped a two-game skid. ... Twice, Smith missed both shots on a shooting foul.