“It’s not over, we’re still on the road man,” Billups said. “We are moving on to bigger and better things and hopefully we can remain successful.”

Karl said it’s not too early for the Nuggets to believe they can be champions.

“I think our team is a good basketball team, a very good basketball team. And I have a feeling that we’re not going to be messed up by the next round. We’re going to make a team beat us,” Karl said. “We can live with that. But we’re not going to give it to anybody. We’re going to go after it.”

Karl said that for all Anthony’s accolades, including an NCAA championship at Syracuse as a freshman in 2003 and a gold medal at the Beijing Games last summer, Wednesday was a red-letter day in Anthony’s career because he was named to the All-NBA team and won another playoff series.

“These two awards tonight solidify how good he is,” Karl said.

“You can start to put ’Melo in that group of winners and not just great players,” Billups suggested.

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Pain on the skating rink, flying high on the hardwood, upsets on the football field, and more. more photos

Before the game, the NBA said it wouldn’t punish anybody over the ugly incidents that occurred on and off the court in the games in Dallas, which included Mavs owner Mark Cuban throwing a fit after a non-call helped Denver win Game 3, when he also yelled at Kenyon Martin’s mother.

Cuban, who skipped Game 5 to attend an awards ceremony in Las Vegas, had written in his blog this week that the Nuggets’ families and friends could sit in his private suite “when the series returns to Dallas.”

The Nuggets won’t be going back to Texas. They have bigger plans, thanks to Anthony and Billups.

Notes: Carlisle arrived an hour before tip-off after serving as a pallbearer at Chuck Daly’s funeral in Florida. ... Billups improved to 17-4 in closeout games in his career. ... Anthony bruised his left thigh in the third quarter but stayed in. He said he’ll be fine for the next round.

Also on NBCSports.com Rosenthal: Steelers’ struggles could sink their playoff hopes Circling the Bases: Halladay to Cubs? That’s unlikely College Football Talk: Weis to resign? That’s ‘not happening’ Opinion: So far, Nowitzki is NBA’s MVP  |  Fan Ranker Twitter: Follow us @nbc_sports

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