DENVER -- There was Rex Chapman, sitting on the Washington Bullets' bench in street clothes, the team's leading scorer a late scratch because of a sore groin. Don MacLean probably was back home watching the game on television, having left here Friday with two sore knees.
But even had they played, they may not have made a difference against the Denver Nuggets. Not with the performance the Nuggets got from Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Dikembe Mutombo in last night's 111-89 win before a sellout crowd of 17,171 at McNichols Arena.
Abdul-Rauf, unhappy with his role as a backup this year, scored a season-high 31 points. Mutombo wreaked havoc defensively with 15 points, six blocks and countless intimidations. The one-two punch from Denver's smallest and tallest players -- and a 67-28 advantage in bench scoring -- gave the Nuggets (10-6) their fourth straight win.
The Bullets (6-9) scored their fewest points of the season.
"Mutombo's illuminating presence was No. 1," said Bullets coach Jim Lynam, pointing out what went wrong last night. "But maybe that should be No. 2. The little man [Abdul-Rauf] is No. 1. He got loose. And when he did, he shot it."
Abdul-Rauf, who was fined after skipping Thursday's practice, hit 13 of 18 shots from the field -- including five of seven three-point tries -- in 26 minutes. He came off the bench in the first quarter and had 14 points, 12 of them coming in a 16-0 run at the end of the third quarter that broke the game open.
In his previous six games, Abdul-Rauf had shot just 30.8 percent from the field (16-for-52). The five three-pointers matched his career high.
"This was one of those days I was in a zone," Abdul-Rauf said. "It's been a long time since I played that much. I'll never be content playing less amount of minutes. Every player should have that attitude."
Washington, which began the four-game trip with an overtime win in Dallas on Thursday, was led by Calbert Cheaney's 17 points. Chris Webber got 15 points, 10 rebounds and six assists -- but came up on the short end of the Fab Three reunion of former Michigan teammates Webber, Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose.
"He got the best of it tonight," Webber said of Rose, who tied his season high of 14 points.
With the injures to Chapman and MacLean, both Cheaney and rookie Anthony Tucker were in the starting lineup. It was the first start for Tucker, who had four points and three rebounds early, and his layup with 6:47 left gave the Bullets their biggest lead of the game, 12-8.
But just like that, the Bullets dug themselves a hole. After Tucker's layup, Washington ended the quarter missing 10 shots in a row the rest of the quarter. And they were scoreless after Webber's two free throws with 5:18 left. Washington hit just five of 22 (22.7 percent) from the field in the quarter.
At the same time, Abdul-Rauf was unstoppable, scoring 14 of Denver's last 19 first-quarter points and giving the Nuggets a 29-14 lead.
"We just couldn't get back in transition," Cheaney said of that stretch that basically summed up the game.
Mutombo, the league's leading shot blocker, clogged the middle all game.
"I respect him to the utmost," Webber said of Mutombo. "He's the best big-man blocker in the league."
Mutombo figured he had to have a big game, with the Bullets getting low-post scoring lately from Webber and Kevin Duckworth (nine points, eight rebounds). But the 7-foot-2 former Georgetown star was upset, he said, because he felt the officials were egged on by the Bullets' bench to call illegal defense against him several times.
"I turned around and told some of them to shut up, to let the guys play," Mutombo said. "I felt I had to challenge all the shots because they don't have too many people to shoot the ball from the outside -- they put the ball on the floor and go to the basket."
Denver also got a big night from former Maryland center Brian Williams, who had 11 points, seven rebounds and a career-high five blocks. The Nuggets are 4-0 since he replaced former Dunbar star Reggie Williams (injured list with sprained right knee) in the starting lineup.