FanHouse CarmeloAnthony

DENVER -- Two guys sat in front of a locker at the Pepsi Center on Sunday night who have combined to win four NBA scoring crowns.

The stars on hand were Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony. OK, it must be said Iverson, a Memphis guard who sat out Sunday's game due to injury and was visiting his old Denver teammate, has four titles to none for Anthony.

But just wait. Anthony might be this season's scoring king.

True, the Nuggets forward has played just three games. But the race isn't close. He's averaging 37.7 points to 31.3 for runner-up Kobe Bryant of the Lakers.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

It's not every day that we get to see a player hit for 40 points or more in an NBA game. So on Sunday, when we had three different players meet or surpass the mark, it's definitely something worth discussing.

Especially when two of them did it in the same game.

The NBA season is a mere two days old, but the dunk I'm about to show you that Carmelo Anthony threw down over Paul Millsap on Wednesday is in fact, the dunk of the year.

'Melo said after the game, "Once I got the steal, I knew it was just me and him,'' Anthony said. "I wasn't going to lay the ball up. I was going to try to dunk it. If he'd have blocked it, he'd have blocked it. It went the opposite way."

But don't take my word for it: after watching the video, you can read what Dwight Howard and Quentin Richardson had to say about it, via updates they made to their respective Twitter pages after seeing the sensational highlight.

DENVER -- Midway through Wednesday's game, Denver coach George Karl suddenly stopped writing "Rookie'' on his coach's board and instead wrote "Ty.''

Could it be that Ty Lawson, in his very first NBA game, dispelled the myth that Karl doesn't have an appreciation for rookies?

"Things might be changing,'' Lawson said. "Every day up until (Wednesday) he wrote 'Rookie.' But he changed it to 'Ty.' I don't know what that means.''

What it means is Karl has got himself one heck of a rookie. Lawson scored 17 points and handed out six assists to help the Nuggets to a 114-105 opening-night win over Utah at the Pepsi Center.

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With the start of the 2009-10 season looming, NBA FanHouse walks through the Valley of the Most Likely; we shall fear no topic.

Madison Square Garden is the crown jewel of NBA arenas. It's the oldest building in the league, and has hosted a ton of special moments throughout its history. Many of those moments likely helped shaped the hoop dreams of many of the league's current stars.

Of course, no one had a greater influence on making MSG a special place to play than Michael Jordan (sorry, Knicks fans). Since Jordan, every NBA player has wanted to come to the Garden and put on a show.

DENVER -- If you Google Gunnar Peterson, you get articles such as "How Kim Kardashian Got Thin'' and "Want J. Lo's Body?''

But what about Melo's body?

Kardashian proudly notes she dropped from 128 to 113 pounds thanks to Peterson, the Beverly Hills, Calif., celebrity trainer. Meanwhile, Denver forward Carmelo Anthony says he dropped from 240 to 228 with the help of Peterson.

But Kardashian isn't leading all NBA players in the preseason in scoring. Neither is Jennifer Lopez.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Timberwolves spent the offseason loading up on point guards as if they were stocking a fallout shelter during the Cold War.

They drafted Ricky Rubio with the No. 5 pick, Jonny Flynn at No. 6 and Ty Lawson at No. 18, although Lawson soon was shipped to Denver. Then, with Rubio electing to remain in his native Spain, they signed free agents Ramon Sessions and Jason Hart and traded for Antonio Daniels, although Daniels won't join the team.

The chaos has settled, and Flynn has become Minnesota's starter. The reviews so far are mostly good, and credit Flynn for realizing how difficult it is to learn to become an NBA point guard.

DENVER -- Defending champion Spain is planning to have its best players for next year's World Championships in Turkey. The nation's top point guard is recommending that the Americans do the same.

"I think they've got to do that,'' Jose Calderon of the Toronto Raptors told FanHouse. "You cannot just play for the Olympics. I think that, if you want to be on the team, you've got to be in all the good tournaments, and that is a good tournament.''

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how many members of America's 2008 gold-medal Olympic team will return for the World Championships. Several top players, namely Cleveland's LeBron James, Miami's Dwyane Wade and Toronto's Chris Bosh, are wavering about committing.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

Denver's previous coach wasn't bashful about title talk.

"To win a championship, you've got to talk championship,'' Michael Cooper said on several occasions as members of the media attempted to keep from snickering.

Let's just say Cooper, who compiled a 4-10 interim coaching stint before being silenced in January 2005, didn't do much more than talk championship.

Now, the guy who replaced Cooper is doing a lot of such spouting. But nobody is snickering.

"I believe this team can win a championship,'' said George Karl, who has led the Nuggets to five straight playoff berths since taking over.

DENVER -- For the first week, J.R. Smith just stared at the walls. Finally, he got a radio and listened to sports talk shows.

Eventually, though, there was so little to do in jail that Smith found himself perusing a chemistry book that was sitting around. Not that Smith claims he now knows his periodic table of elements.

The Denver Nuggets guard spent 23 days in jail in July after pleading guilty to reckless driving for a June 2007 accident that killed his passenger and good friend.

"Oh, by far," Smith said Friday when asked if it was the most humbling experience of his life. "I was in protective custody. They wouldn't let me interact with anybody. I was on 23-hour lockdown. I was pretty much in there by myself. The whole time you definitely see the difference between freedom and not being free."