Get to know me: Allen Iverson scored six points in his first six minutes of action. AP

A quarter-by-quarter look at Allen Iverson's first game with the Denver Nuggets, matched up against the Sacramento Kings.

First Quarter

• Iverson doesn't start. With Marcus Camby sidelined with a broken finger, the Nuggets field a lineup of Nene at center, Earl Boykins and Yakhouba Diawara at guards, along with Eduardo Najera and Linas Kleiza at the forwards. Well, at least five countries are represented. Iverson can be seen on the Nuggets sideline getting a tutorial on the Denver offense from assistant coach Mike Dunlap (who sort of looks like Mark Metcalf).

• Ron Artest is still out for the Kings with his sore knees, but rest assured -- somewhere, somehow, he's heckling Mike Bibby.

• The Denver crowd unleashes a huge standing ovation at the 3:25 mark as Reggie Evans rips off his warm-ups and makes his way onto the court. A.I. also enters.

• Iverson touches the ball for the first time at the 3:11 mark of the first quarter, and fires a bounce pass in transition to Evans. He'll learn.

• The first Iverson/Boykins Dribble-O-Thon takes place with two minutes to go in the first, as they manage to keep the ball in their hands for all but three of 24 seconds in a fruitless possession. A TV timeout soon after allows George Karl to run his first play for A.I. -- a screen and roll with Kleiza that ends with Allen nailing a 15-footer in the lane. A.I. finishes the first quarter with four points, making both his field goals; but he's obviously looking to pass first, and Allen's quite winded after playing eight and a half minutes.

Second Quarter

• Iverson spends the break discussing court spacing with Boykins, but he barely gets off the ground for his first shot of the quarter, a three-pointer from the left corner, which is blocked by Quincy Douby. He misses his first two free throws as a Nugget before notching his first assist on a two-handed transition pass to Diawara for a lay-in. The Kings have been running a zone for most of the quarter, and A.I. kept finding open pockets in the lane to drive into, but he's not looking for his shot enough.

• Iverson brings the crowd to his feet after penetrating the zone with a nifty misdirection and crossover dribble (nifty, I say!); driving left and finishing right off the glass for his fifth and sixth points. He follows it up with a gorgeous lob pass on the next possession to DerMarr Johnson for a dunk. Reminds of when Larry Brown used to call plays for A.I. to hit Larry Hughes or Jumaine Jones with the same pass. I wonder if Karl and Brown ever get together. You know: talk shop, pick each other's brains.

• Sacramento ends the first half up 52-45. The Nuggets aren't out of sync; the team just isn't that great. The second unit, which starts, isn't starting caliber. Also, they've been unlucky with tip-ins and open jumpers. Klieza and Najera combine to miss 10 of 11 shots in the half, all seemingly on short chippies and missed three-pointers. A.I. isn't dominating the ball, and it isn't if his new teammates look unsure of what to do when he's out there -- they're making the right cuts and missing tons of shots ... 32 percent shooting in the first half for Denver; Iverson plays 15 minutes, scores seven points on 3 of 4 shooting, and has three assists. Had the Nuggets made their open shots, he could have finished the half with seven or eight dimes. The bulk of Sacramento's lead is built on transition buckets off of missed shots.

Third Quarter

• Karl more or less dumps the pretense, and starts A.I. in the second half. The Nuggets have obviously worked on some zone-busting plays over halftime, but they're just as dependent on role players like Nene and Najera nailing looks close to the basket. Luckily for Denver, the shots are starting to fall. Iverson hits two early-possession three-pointers late in the third quarter to give Denver its first lead at 69-67, and the crowd is clearly enjoying themselves. Unable to score off of Denver's long misses, Sacramento slows down a bit, but their half-court offense is picking up.

• Iverson scores 12 in the period, and the Nuggets are +11 in the quarter, up 77-74.

Fourth Quarter

• The Nuggets return to bobbling Iverson's passes, unable to do anything with the easy looks. But by now the Kings are starting to miss some easy shots around the rim, as well as short-arming free throws. Playing on the back end of a back-to-back, Sacramento is starting to wear down. Nuggets color man Scott Hastings is at his petulant best, needlessly calling out referee Luis Grillo for not calling the game to Hastings' specifications.

• Iverson, even with the game on the line, is not straying for his modus operandi: he's looking to find cutters and find the open man, in spite of all the missed lay-ins and jumpers. The zone continues to bother Denver, the team isn't playing out of control, and it just doesn't have the talent around Iverson to do much in the face of the Kings defense. Any time a good pass (usually from Iverson) found someone for an open look, chances are the shot wasn't going in. And we're talking layups. We're talking Nene. He makes $10 million a year, and he misses layups.

• Meanwhile, the Kings are moving the ball, catching the Nuggets on its heels as they scurry back after long rebound misses, and Sacramento found its second wind along with its touch from the outside. Story of the game: Sacramento hit its open shots, Denver did not.

• And in case you didn't notice it during the course of this breakdown, Iverson didn't take a single rest after sitting for the game's first 8:35. Though his legs didn't have the same spring we saw in Philadelphia, he didn't seem winded (save for a slow start); even in the face of a hectic week, thin air, and Denver's ultra-fast pace. This won't last, obviously Iverson was working off of adrenaline -- but it was remarkable to watch as the game droned on.

Ruminations

• Final line: 39 minutes, 22 points on 9 of 15 shooting, 10 assists, 2 turnovers. Iverson missed 4 of 6 from the line, but hit two of his three long-range attempts.

• Allen's obviously torn. You don't just waltz into somebody's arena and start chucking up shots; but if he doesn't start dropping 30 soon, the Nuggets are in trouble. And yet, you have to admire his insistence on trying to find the open man. He had 10 assists tonight, but could have had twice as many. Outside of Iverson's field goals, Denver shot 32.9 percent.

• Still, if A.I. can learn to win with these guys, and be Denver's playmaker when Karl goes to his bench, this team can turn into something special. Just imagine Carmelo Anthony leading things off, finishing the game, while Iverson and his bench cronies extend the lead midway through the second quarter and early in the fourth. Iverson just had a two week vacation, and he doesn't like to be taken out of games anyway, so why not ride him? Still, the role players have to hit shots, inside and out, for Denver to circle the wagons during Anthony's 15-game suspension.

• So what do you think? Are the Nuggets going to fall flat on their faces before Anthony comes back? Or is just a temporary blip on the way to the Finals?