EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Carmelo Anthony was having a miserable night. The Nuggets superstar was missing layups and looked more like Marc Anthony, and the Nets actually looked like they could keep this game interesting.

Then came the second half and one of the many things the Nets have proven through five games is they are not a second-half team. Another is they should stop talking about defense if they're not going to play it.

The unbeaten Nuggets are explosive, but allowing 44 points in the third period is not playing defense.

That awful third quarter led to another lopsided result for the Nets, who were buried, 122-94, by Anthony and the Nuggets on Wednesday night at Izod Center. The Nets are 0-5, matching their worst start in franchise, set in the 1996 season.

"We can't come out in every third quarter and basically let the other team do whatever they want," Eduardo Najera said. "We have to learn to stay patient. It's not going to happen overnight."

If the Nets don't win at Philadelphia on Friday, they could go a little while before their first win. They play Boston on Saturday, host the 76ers next week and then are at Orlando and Miami on back-to-back nights next weekend.

This was a game at halftime, one the Nets led 51-50. But it got away from them in a hurry behind a ridiculous third-quarter barrage led by Chauncey Billups and Anthony.

You were just waiting for the explosion. Anthony, the NBA's leading scorer, was 1-for-11 with six points and Billups scoreless at the half. They had 11 and 12, respectively, in the third period, when Denver outscored the Nets, 44-26.

"We knew going into halftime that Carmelo and Chauncey were going to lead the charge and that's exactly what they did," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said.

"Every time they scored we didn't have an answer again," Rafer Alston said. "That's been the trend for us – when teams make a run, when things aren't going our way, we tend to drop our heads instead of fighting through our tough times."

The Nets have led three of their games at halftime and have been outscored by 62 points in the second half of those three games.

Anthony finished with 22 points, on 8-for-24 shooting. Ex-Net Kenyon Martin had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Billups finished with 12 for the 5-0 Nuggets.

Chris Douglas-Roberts led the Nets with 19 points, but had just two after halftime. Najera, who started for the first time as a Net in place of the injured Yi Jianlian, had 14 points and seven rebounds.

The Nets scored just 68 points in their prior game that featured a seven-point third period. It appeared they could be heading for a similar third when they opened Wednesday 0-for-2 with four turnovers. It led to a 9-0 run that put Denver up, 59-50.

The Nets surpassed seven points easily, but couldn't stop the Nuggets. It got so bad that Martin, the Nets' former enforcer, canned a three – his second of the game – and backpedaled down the court with a big smile on his face.

Anthony and Billups came to life in the third period and helped the Nuggets to a 94-77 lead heading into the fourth as the Nets fell apart again.

"I think all we have to do is understand that we have to raise our intensity without even saying that they're going to raise theirs," Frank said. "As a veteran team. they understand different moments. They wanted to try to hit us in our mouths early. They did and we just had too many breakdowns. But it's obviously an area of concern."



(c) 2009, North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Visit The Record Online at http://www.northjersey.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.