page_title: Denver Nuggets
section_title: 2006–2008: Anthony and Iverson
hierarchical_section_title: Denver Nuggets / Franchise history / 2003–2013: George Karl in charge / 2006–2008: Anthony and Iverson
caption_attribution_description: Allen Iverson of the Denver Nuggets
context_page_description: The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, but changed its name to Rockets before the first season. It changed its name again to the Nuggets in 1974. After the name change, the Nuggets played for the final ABA Championship title in 1976, losing to the New York Nets.
  The team has had some periods of success, qualifying for the ABA Playoffs for all seasons from 1967 to the 1976 ABA playoffs where it lost in the finals. The team joined the NBA in 1976 after the ABA–NBA merger and qualified for the NBA playoffs in nine consecutive seasons in the 1980s and ten consecutive seasons from 2004 to 2013. However, it has not made an appearance in a championship round since its last year in the ABA; as such, they are also the only of the four surviving former ABA teams to have never reached the NBA Finals.
context_section_description: On December 19, 2006, the Nuggets traded Joe Smith, Andre Miller and two first-round draft picks of the 2007 NBA draft to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ivan McFarlin and superstar Allen Iverson (McFarlin was waived immediately following the trade's approval). The moves gave the Nuggets the top two scorers in the league at the time in Anthony and Iverson, who were both scoring over 30 points per game at the time of the trade. On January 11, 2007, Earl Boykins, Julius Hodge and cash considerations were traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, in exchange for point guard Steve Blake. With Iverson, many considered the Nuggets as one of the elite in the West. However, chemistry was an issue, as the Nuggets finished the season with the 6 seed, giving them a first round matchup against the San Antonio Spurs. In the playoffs, the Nuggets took Game 1 and home court advantage away from the Spurs. However, as had occurred in the 2005 playoffs, the Spurs bounced back to sweep the next four, as the Nuggets were eliminated in the first round in five games for the fourth straight year.
  On March 16, 2008, the Nuggets scored 168 points in a 168–116 home win over Seattle SuperSonics. It was the third-most points scored for a regulation game in NBA history (The Nuggets and the Pistons hold the spot for most combined points scored in a game which was over 360 points total.)
  They finished the 2007–08 NBA season with exactly 50 wins as well as finishing the first half of that season 25–16 (50–32 overall record, tied for the third-best all-time Nuggets record since the team officially joined the NBA in 1976), following a 120–111 home victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in the last game of the season. It was the first time since the 1987–88 NBA season that the Nuggets finished with at least 50 wins in a season. Denver ended up as the 8th seed in the Western Conference of the 2008 NBA Playoffs, and their 50 wins marked the highest win total for an 8th seed in NBA history. It also meant that for the first time in NBA history, all eight playoff seeds in a Conference had at least 50 wins. The Nuggets faced the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers (57–25) in the first round. The seven games separating the Nuggets and the Lakers overall records is the closest margin between an eighth seed and a top seed since the NBA went to a 16-team playoff format in 1983–84. However, the Lakers swept them in four games, marking the second time in NBA history that a 50-win team was swept in a best-of-seven playoff series in the first round. It was Denver's fifth straight first-round loss.
caption: Allen Iverson helped Denver to their first 50-win season since 1988.
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