Feelings Harden at the Garden

(Boulder-CO) Well, what happened tonight was nothing short of plain stupidity by both teams, just in case you're going to try and get it twisted, and nothing shy of embarrassing. With one minute and change remaining J.R. Smith was out on a break-away when Mardy Collins put an excessively hard foul on the streaking Smith. It was around the neck, on the rise of J.R.'s jump, and at a completely moronic juncture of the game. Shame, shame Mardy, and might I also add tisk, tisk.

What followed made me just as angry as the initial incident. J.R. reacted, understandably, and gave Collins a piece of his mind, instead of just acting with class, and gets tangled up with Nate Robinson (another genius) who came in pushing and shoving J.R.. Robinson and Smith then go tumbling into media and spectators while both men were throwing punches and grappling! And before you knew it, a full-scale fiasco broke out with all ten players on the court at that time being ejected by Dick Bavetta and crew. It got real ugly, folks and hopefully the kids weren't watching. Nate Robinson, Mardy Collins, Jared Jeffries, David Lee, and Channing Frye were tossed for the Knicks and J.R. Smith, Carmelo Anthony, Andre Miller, Marcus Camby, and Eduardo Najera were ejected for the Nuggets. Kudos to Dick Bavetta for handling the situation with poise and a full sense of command. I agree with his decision to eject everyone for the altercation.

Tonight, a valuable lesson was learned for the Denver Nuggets. That lesson was that when everyone chips in, in one way or another, the Nuggets will win. No one Nugget dominated the ball, or the game, but it was actually quite a pleasant surprise to take, hold, and close out a lead regardless of its fashion. The Nuggets got a much needed victory to close out this five-game road trip 2-3. With tonight's 123-100 trumping, the Knicks are win 13 for the Nuggets overall.

Carmelo finished with a game-high 34 points and rounded out his stat line with seven rebounds and four assists. Andre Miller was also impressive with his twelve points and ten assists for a nice double-double. The chairman of the boards and the block party coordinator was Marcus Camby. The Nuggets big man swatted seven shots and cleared a team-high nine rebounds.

This was a good win for the Nuggets minus the fracas. They extended to an 82-56 lead in the third quarter by committing to the defensive end and disrupting the Knicks offense. Give the Knicks credit though because they did battle back valiantly until about six minutes remaining in the forth quarter. However at that point the Nuggets put a couple of buckets on the scoreboard and shut the door on the Knicks efforts.

And boy did I wish that it could have ended like that. Now both teams are going to have to sort out short rosters for the next couple of games due to suspensions and are going to be the topic of every sports high, or more applicable, LOW-light real for the week to come. This mess brought back memories of the most recent brawl at the Detroit Palace and the most infamous Kermit Washington and Rudy Tomjanovich incident in its scale of chaos. The whole floor was disgraced with players chasing each other and coaches and trainers trying to stop them. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Two wrongs don't make a right and I am sorely disappointed in both teams for tonight's ugly display.