SORE ANKLES

After alternately describing his sore ankles as akin to "walking on pins and needles" as well as "walking on eggshells," Josh Howard got to the point Tuesday night when nothing else needed to be said.

Early in the second quarter of the Nuggets' 117-105 victory in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals, the Dallas Mavericks' 6-foot-7 forward left the game, never to return. The good news for Mavs fans is that Howard, who starred throughout Dallas' 4-1 opening-round series win over San Antonio, will have three days for treatment before play resumes Saturday in Texas.

"It's not good," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said when asked about Howard's health. "He's been playing hurt since the third week of the season. ? We obviously need him, but if he can't go, we'll need someone else to step up."

Home cooking. As was the case with New Orleans after Denver won the first two games at home against the Hornets in the opening round, Dallas left the Pepsi Center saying nothing extraordinary had been accomplished by the Nuggets .

"They held serve. We wanted to win at least one game, but they did what they were supposed to do - now we have to go home and do the same," Carlisle said. "Our margin for error is not great, but there are things that we control that we can do better.

"Denver has been the better team for the first 96 minutes, but we feel we're better than the scores have indicated."

The best policy. After Game 1 of the series, Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki spoke of the difficulties he had in dealing with the Nuggets' defense, particularly Kenyon Martin, Nene and Chris Andersen. The admission led to the Dallas all-star being roasted at halftime by the TNT broadcasting team of Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Chris Webber.

Those three, all former NBA players, were incredulous that a player, particularly a star like Nowitzki, would admit that he could possibly be stopped by any defender, and that doing so was a sign of weakness on Nowitzki's part.

Despite the defense, Nowitzki still scored 28 points in Game 1. On Tuesday night, he led all scorers with 35 points.

Anthony Cotton, The Denver Post