"Apologies to Doubleday, Naismith and others, inventors of fine sports indeed, but couldn't they have jazzed up the position titles a little? First baseman? Yeah, we get it, the man near first base. Center? Yeah, the gentleman standing in the center of the offense.

But then there's power forward. Oooh. That's a fun one. That's a position you want to claim when chatting up the ladies at happy hour. It's suggestive. Power forwards are the bad boys, up to no good in the trenches; small forwards are the nice guys, watching from the safety of the perimeter.

The upcoming Nuggets-Jazz series features two of the baddest (complimentary, of course) power forwards in the league — Denver's mauling Kenyon Martin and Utah's bruising Carlos Boozer.

Each is a linchpin to his team, and each enters this series, which begins Saturday at the Pepsi Center, banged up.

Martin took it easy on his left knee during Thursday's practice, and Boozer sat out Utah's final game Wednesday, but told ESPN.com that he's playing "no matter what" against Denver, despite a strained oblique muscle on his right side. How these two play through pain will be vital to their team's success. "