Once again the Denver Nuggets came crashing down out of first place in the Northwest Division, this time with the weight of the sprained left ankle of Carmelo Anthony.

You have to wonder when this will end for the Nuggets. That’s not to say Anthony’s loss is expected to be very long. It certainly looked bad when he landed on Kobe Bryant’s right foot and rolled the ankle after sinking a jumper from the wing. And the hope is he could be back by the weekend, but it’s more about the cumulative effect of what keeps happening to the Nuggets than the 17-point loss Monday night or the rolled ankle that ended Anthony's night in the second quarter.

They just haven’t gained any momentum because coach George Karl just hasn’t been able to keep players healthy.

It would be an exaggeration for him to cry poor, that’s for sure. Anthony is the fourth-leading scorer in the NBA and hasn’t missed a game until he very likely sits out Wednesday’s home game with the Hawks. Allen Iverson is the third-leading scorer in the league at 27.2, with 6.9 assists and 2.1 steals playing in all 40 games so far, while Marcus Camby leads the league in blocks at 3.92 and is second in rebounding at 14.3 in 39 games.

They’ve even gotten stellar play off the bench from explosive scoring Linas Kleiza and rugged Eduardo Najera.  But even Najera sat out Monday’s loss with elbows the size of cantaloupes (well, small ones), and Kleiza has missed some games.

More reflective of the situation is it was the first game back for the embattled Kenyon Martin, after sitting three games with a staph infection of the, uh, derriere. That hit K-Mart while he’s trying to keep from injuring any part of his legs coming off microfracture surgery on both knees over the past couple of seasons. Nonetheless, he has managed to average 9.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.43 blocks in 26.5 minutes in 30 of the 40 games after playing just 58 of 164 the previous two years.

Of course, Martin’s story pales in comparison to the adventures of Nene, their even more injurious big man. He tore a ligament in his thumb the first week of the season, came back just after Christmas, and sat down soon thereafter to have surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his testicle. He’s played in 12 games, and that’s after playing 120 games out of a possible 246 the past three seasons.

And that’s before we even get into the plight of the point guards they brought in this season to relieve Iverson of ballhandling duties – Chucky Atkins and Anthony Carter. Atkins was their free-agent signing and the expected starter, but suffered a strained groin in training camp. He sat until December, then played in all of nine games before it worsened into a sports hernia (including the groin and abdominal muscle) that required surgery. He isn’t expected back until at least March. Carter has played in 25 games, but first had to overcome a broken hand from training camp.

So what is this about … being a Mile High? Has the karmic flow changed through the Rockies, affecting the ecosystem and the water?

There doesn’t have to be a reason, only a result. And that’s where Karl comes in as a veteran coach. The Nuggets should still win the Northwest Division, if only because the disappointing Jazz just don’t seem to have it this year, and the first-place Trail Blazers are awfully young to maintain this pace all season.

But even more to the point, Monday’s loss gave Karl a lot of perspective. It was the first regular-season game in which he coached against his son Coby, a second-round draft choice of the Lakers, who has spent the bulk of the season in the Developmental League. Within the past two years, both Karl and Coby have had successful cancer surgery. It's brought them much closer together and by the end of the night, they were just happy to be on the same floor.

That would be the best reason of all for George Karl to be confident the karma will come back around for the Nuggets by the spring.  His stolen moments with his son gave him plenty of positive feedback during a game that otherwise would have really hurt.