Charlotte Bobcats

Francisco Elson and Linas Kleiza helped the Denver Nuggets overcome a rash of injuries - and the Charlotte Bobcats' zone defense.

Elson, who replaced the injured Kenyon Martin in the starting lineup, scored 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the Nuggets' 100-84 victory over the lowly Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday night.

Kleiza took advantage of more playing time with Eduardo Najera out after knee surgery and added a career-high 13 points off the bench.

Carmelo Anthony led the Nuggets with 24 points and Greg Buckner had a season-high 19, but it was Elson and Kleiza's play that Denver coach George Karl said made the difference.

``I don't think we win the game without LK's first half and Francisco's second half,'' Karl said.

Raymond Felton scored 14 points and had 11 assists to lead Charlotte, two days after being banged up in a minor car crash. Bernard Robinson, Jumaine Jones and Matt Carroll each added 13 for the Bobcats.

The Nuggets needed their supporting cast to beat the Bobcats, who started a six-game road trip through the West with their fifth straight loss.

In the first half, Charlotte looked nothing like the team that has lost a league-worst 23 road games. They used a strong zone defense, forcing turnovers and off-balance shots from Denver, to build a 13-point lead early in the third quarter.

``Their zone messed us up, with our bad defense,'' Karl said. ``And then we had bad turnovers, and then we had bad rebounding.''

But the Nuggets started finding ways to overcome Charlotte's defense, while the Bobcats seemed to tire.

``Second half, I thought Andre (Miller) picked apart the zone more thoroughly,'' Karl said. ``Our defense picked up. We made them miss a lot of shots and got our transition game going.''

Anthony scored eight points and Buckner made a pair of 3-pointers during an 20-6 run to give the Nuggets a 68-67 lead with 3:36 remaining in the third.

``The beginning of the third quarter was atrocious,'' Bobcats coach Bernie Bickerstaff said.

The Bobcats kept it close until the beginning of the fourth quarter, when the Nuggets went on a 13-5 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Earl Boykins, to make 88-78 with 6:45 remaining.

``It's a good question of why we looked like two different teams in the halves,'' Carroll said. ``They simply figured out our zone.''

Charlotte scored 27 points in the second half on 10-of-37 shooting. The Nuggets grabbed 50 rebounds to the Bobcats' 40 - the first time they've outrebounded an opponent in their last 12 games.

``We didn't want it to come down to the wire with a team like the Bobcats, we wanted to put them away early, and I think we did a good job of that in the third quarter, and early in the fourth quarter,'' Anthony said.

Buckner left the court with 1:33 left when he appeared to twist his right knee after being knocked by Marcus Camby under the Nuggets basket. The team said it was a hyperextension and listed him as day to day.

The Trail Blazers seemed more concerned about trade speculation than they were with the Charlotte Bobcats.

Kareem Rush scored 28 points and Charlotte snapped a 12-game road losing streak with a 110-106 victory over Portland on Wednesday night.

``We finished this one. We made it hard though,'' Charlotte coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. ``I told the guys that they are kind of hard on their coaches.''

Ruben Patterson had a season-high 25 points for the Blazers, who have lost eight of their last 10 games.

After the game, Patterson exclaimed to those gathered outside the Blazers' locker room'' ``Bang, bang! What a way to go out, hey?''

Patterson, however, would not formally confirm a deal was in the works to move him out of Portland.

``I just want to be happy,'' he said. ``I'm tired of losing, man.''

Travis Outlaw, also mentioned in numerous rumors, said: ``You've got to wait and see.''

Portland coach Nate McMillan wasn't speculating on the eve of the deadline.

``I'm not going to comment on that but I will say we've seen this team and we need something to improve this team. We're trying to get that hustle back,'' he said. ``We're the kind of team that has to play perfect basketball to win games, especially to do it without our centers.''

The Bobcats were happy to have Gerald Wallace back, who returned from a leg injury that kept him out for 15 games. He scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Charlotte, which had lost five straight overall.

Charlotte led by as many as 15 points in the first half, but Portland whittled away at the lead, and trailed by only five at halftime.

Juan Dixon's 3-pointer with 4:15 left gave Portland a 99-95 lead, their biggest of the game. The Bobcats answered scoring the next six points and took a 101-99 lead with 2:37 to go on Rush's layup.

Darius Miles' basket tied it again, but Wallace's steal and dunk on the other end gave it back to Charlotte with a little more than a minute left.

Rush's jumper with 32.9 seconds left made it 105-101. After Brevin Knight made two free throws to extend the lead to six, Steve Blake hit a 3-pointer to make it 107-104.

Miles added a layup to move the Blazers within one, but it was as close as Portland would come.

``The shots were going down,'' Rush said. ``The first couple went down and once that happens for me the game opens up.''

Charlotte had Wallace back in the lineup for the first time after missing a stretch with a bone bruise in his right leg. Wallace was averaging 14.5 points and seven rebounds before the injury.

The Bobcats jumped out to a 38-26 lead in the first half on Rush's layup. Primoz Brezec stretched it to 49-35 with an 18-foot jumper but the Blazers narrowed the gap to 60-55 at the break.

Viktor Khryapa's driving finger-roll gave Portland its first lead of the game at 63-62 and both teams kept it close throughout the third quarter.

The Blazers were without forward Zach Randolph, who was inadvertently elbowed by Brian Cook in the third quarter of Portland's 99-82 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night. The team said he had seen a dentist earlier Wednesday and was swollen and in pain.

Randolph is averaging 18 points and 8.6 rebounds per game for the Blazers. He has 19 double-doubles this season.

The Blazers are already hurting at center, with both Joel Przybilla and Theo Ratliff inactive with injuries. The Blazers have been forced to start Ha Seung Jin, who is in his second year. Wednesday's game was his fourth career start.

Przybilla has right knee tendinitis and Ratliff, also the subject of trade rumors along with Miles, has a sprained left ankle.