Karl doesn't consider fatigue an excuse

--Nuggets coach George Karl isn't worried about fatigue coming into play during this lockout-compressed 66-game NBA season.

"I don't think about that stuff, man," Karl said. "Get that out of your head."

The Nuggets already have played three games in three nights twice this season. Through Thursday's game against Golden State, they had a stretch of six games in eight days.

"We're playing basketball, and none of that matters," Karl said of talk about fatigue. "Your body will follow your heart and your head. Fatigue is my job to figure out, not (the players') job. Everybody's going to have to be ready to play extra minutes. If you think you're tired, you'll be tired. If you think you're going to be OK, you'll be OK."

--There are plenty of folks at the Pepsi Center sad about Los Angeles Clippers guard Chauncey Billups being lost for the season due a torn Achilles, an injury that could put his career in jeopardy.

Billups is a Denver native. He played for the Nuggets from 1998-2000 and from 2008-11, when current Nuggets boss George Karl was his coach.

"I'm sad," Karl said. "I texted him and we had three, four texts back and forth."

The Nuggets had just seen Billups, and he had one of his better moments. Returning to the Pepsi Center for the first time since he was last traded, Billups had 32 points Jan. 29 in a 109-105 Clippers win.

"That's my hometown," Billups had said that weekend. "I am Denver. That'll never change. I'm going to live there when I'm done playing. My family is there. I love the town."

QUOTE TO NOTE
"We knew February was going to be hard, and now with injuries, it's going to be harder. That doesn't mean we can't figure out how to win games." -- Nuggets coach George Karl, whose team, battling injuries and having a tough February schedule, fell 109-101 Thursday to Golden State for its fifth straight loss.

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