After the Nuggets blitzed the Lakers 62-35 in the second half Thursday night, Allen Iverson hung around to do a live shot with Chuck, Kenny and Ernie back in the TNT studio.

Kenny Smith asked him to finish this sentence: "The Nuggets will go far in the playoffs if they . . . "

"Play defense," Iverson said without hesitation or elaboration.

In fact, he already had elaborated, earlier in the interview, with his defense-is-want-to riff, which sounds as if he's channeling Larry Brown.

This might seem odd to casual basketball fans who reflexively identify Iverson and Brown as mortal enemies from their many public skirmishes in Philadelphia. These days, Iverson speaks reverentially of the coach who accompanied him to the NBA Finals.

Similarly, when people discuss George Karl's historic conflicts with players, his public battles with Gary Payton in Seattle lead the list. These days, Payton and Karl are fast friends. Five years after a nasty breakup, Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant are blood brothers.

Such conflicts are not to be avoided or feared. They are what you hope for. Otherwise, you have a coach afraid to stand his ground, which is pretty common in the NBA today.

This is how you hope Karl and Carmelo Anthony speak of one another 10 years from now. But the truth is that Anthony, at 22, is not ready to sublimate the self. At that age, Iverson wasn't, either.

For now, Iverson is at least saying the right things - and sometimes doing them, too. He finds himself in the odd position, at 31, of joining Karl in trying to pass on basketball's immutable lessons about teamwork to younger players who like to play the way they like to play, just as Iverson does.

While awaiting Anthony's maturation, the Nuggets do have other work to do, such as designing a winner around Iverson's game. Athletic, high-scoring point guards with huge contracts litter the NBA roadside. The place where bad contracts go to cash out - Madison Square Garden - has two of them in Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis.

Steve Nash, in town tonight, averages 10 fewer points a game than Iverson and four more assists. That's why Iverson's 13 assists against the Lakers were so encouraging. Shooting 4-for-15, he had a great game. He should get a double-double every night.

The one time Iverson made it to the Finals, with the Sixers in 2001, he played mostly shooting guard on a team custom-built around him. Brown assembled a cast of complementary role players who didn't demand the ball. Eric Snow, Aaron Mc- Kie, George Lynch, Tyrone Hill, Theo Ratliff and Dikembe Mutombo played team defense, shared the ball and made the open shot just often enough.

Iverson plays more point for the Nuggets, but he still shifts back and forth, depending on the situation and whether Steve Blake is on the floor. It's Iverson who has to strike a balance between his role as a scorer and his role as a facilitator.

Against the Lakers, he facilitated. Anthony took the cue with five assists of his own. The result was a blowout.

True, the Lakers are struggling, although they played pretty well in the first half. And true, the Nuggets' record against the best teams in the West is awful. Still, the way they played against the Kings and Lakers is the way they have to play to have a chance.

Of course, for unselfishness to work, somebody other than A.I. and Anthony has to make shots. Linas Kleiza has filled the bill lately. Someone must make defenses pay for zones that collapse on Iverson and Anthony. And someone must give Iverson and Anthony a viable alternative to playing one-on-two or even one-on-three, as they sometimes do when they think it is up to them to score no matter what.

At the other end, as Iverson keeps pointing out, they simply have to care. Marcus Camby gives them an opportunity to take chances. Between Iverson's penchant for passing lanes and hustle players such as Kleiza and Eduardo Najera, they could be more aggressive defensively than they are, but they generally save their energy for the other end.

You can be a great scorer without being a great player, just as you can be a great defender without being a great player. Great players do more than one thing. It's quite possible to put together two great scorers without producing a championship contender, the Nuggets of the 1980s with Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe being one example.

Iverson and Anthony are still finding their way together, which is to be expected. When their team has shown flashes, it's played defense and shared the ball. The two stars will set this tone, at both ends of the floor, or they won't.

Iverson, at least, knows these lessons. He's lived them. And he heard them enough from Brown. If he emphasizes balance in his own game, he can lead the way. And judging by these last few games, Anthony just might follow.

So long as it doesn't jeopardize the scoring title, of course.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com