Nuggets move forward without Martin

The next three weeks figure to be meaningful for the Nuggets as they try to fortify their standing in the Western Conference without rugged power forward Kenyon Martin.

“This is big. This is as big as it gets for us at this point in the season,” point guard Chauncey Billups said. “Everybody’s kind of jockeying around trying to stay in contention for home-court (advantage). We’ve been up and down on the road this year and this is a good time for us to get back solid and take care of business on the road.”

The Nuggets (42-21), who are vying with the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks for the top four seeds in the West, open a four-game trip Wednesday night at Minnesota. They have three home games next week before a five-game trip to close March.

“We can’t control what other teams do,” Denver coach George Karl said. “If Dallas wins 20 out of 25 games, we’ve just got to put a good number on the board. I don’t think you get crazy right now. If we can get 10 or 11 wins on the board in March, I don’t think anyone’s going to be that far ahead of us or that far behind us.”

The Nuggets, 3-1 so far in March, will be without Karl and Martin as the road trip begins. Karl is receiving treatment for throat and neck cancer and hopes to rejoin the team this week in New Orleans or Memphis.

Martin accompanied the team on the trip but remains out indefinitely while receiving platelet-rich plasma therapy on his left knee. The process calls for injections of a patient’s own blood to stimulate healing in damaged tissue.

“That’s one of our anchors and that’s bad news for us. But the good news is there is light at the end of the tunnel for us, and we can live with that,” Billups said. “We just want him to get healthy. We’re going to stick by him for the duration.”

Without Martin, 7-foot center Johan Petro likely will start against Minnesota, allowing Nene to play at power forward, known technically as the ‘4’ position, which also happens to be Martin’s jersey number. Petro grabbed 10 rebounds in his first start of the season Sunday against Portland.

“Frenchy stepped up,” small forward Carmelo Anthony said. “Malik (Allen) is going to play some minutes in that 4 position. If it comes down to it, I might play a little bit of 4. I don’t want to, but I might have to.”

Anthony appears to be recovered from the fatigue that overwhelmed him in the first two weeks after the All-Star break. He is averaging 31.3 points on 34-of-58 shooting in the past three games, but he wants to improve his rebounding numbers while Martin is sidelined.

“Rebounding’s a big key for us from here on out,” he said. “For me personally, that’s something I want to focus on.”

With the right focus over the next few weeks, Denver's playoff seeding should become more clear.