Garbage, Rubbish, and Trash

(AP Photo/Gregory Smith)

(Boulder-CO) I’ll tell you what, Nuggets Nation, this game was about as pitiful as it gets. Yea, I know Nene just underwent surgery this morning to remove a testicular tumor. Yea, I know Kenyon Martin has a staph infection on his buttocks. Yea, I know Eduardo Najera is hurting with a hyper-extended elbow, but I don’t care! The guys who played tonight in the Nuggets, 104-93, loss to the Hawks should be embarrassed of themselves for reasons ranging from laziness to out and out stupidity.

In the first twelve minutes of the game, Denver came out absolutely flat and allowed the Hawks open shots, uncontested lay-ups, easy penetration, and anything else they wanted to do offensively. Adding insult to the injured, pun intended, Atlanta connected on 18 of their first 26 shot attempts and scored 65 points in the first half when all was said and done. More alarming is how this is the second game in a row that the Nuggets have allowed more than 60+ points in the first 24 minutes of basketball and to make matters worse it has been to two Eastern Conference teams that typically don’t score a lot of points.

Things were just being given to Atlanta and the halftime stats are gruesome if you’re a Nuggets fan. The Hawks shot 62% from the field in the half in comparison to the Nuggets only making 36% of their attempts. Atlanta had outscored Denver 24-18 in points in the paint, 17-6 on the fast break, and 19-11 off the bench. The Nuggets were just being dragged up and down the floor and looked as if they could have mailed this one in at the half down by 21 points, 65-44. Their effort was garbage. Their team play was rubbish. And the Denver Nuggets looked like trash overall.

I even thought about turning the game off in trade for some kind of reality fix-up show, but instead stayed true not knowing what the second half might bring.

And in the second half, the Nuggets did pull a few things back together and actually managed to win the third quarter from the Hawks, 23-17. It was at this point that the Atlanta Hawks just looked scared to play the game. Granted, the Nuggets couldn’t rebound a lick and the Hawks didn’t really need to score many more buckets as they would run out two or three full shot clocks nursing their humongous lead countless times, but the game just had a terrible level of competitiveness. The Hawks could have easily put the Nuggets down by 30 or maybe even more in my assessment, but they were playing down to the level of the struggling Nuggets and it was honestly making me wish I would have been watching something else.

I digress for the sole reason of not losing readers and bring you to the only way this game could have gotten any worse for the Nuggets Nation. It was bad enough the Nuggets had come into this game after losing to a sub-par Charlotte Bobcats squad the night before and put out this kind of effort, but just when the last spark of hope was flickering as if to start a small fire the officiating crew baited the trap and Allen Iverson and J.R. Smith landed square on the trigger.

With the score, 101-93, and only 90 seconds remaining, Allen Iverson was attempting to receive an inbounds pass from J.R. Smith on the sideline and Anthony Johnson blatantly pushed AI out of bounds and down to the floor with no whistle being blown. The ball went out of bounds and AI picked himself up in disbelief that there was no call. The turnover gave the ball back to the Hawks and Anthony Johnson would turn it right back over on a discontinued dribble (a “carry” for the average fan) whistle and what ensued enraged me. Once again the ancient looking Anthony Johnson pushed AI causing Iverson to lose control of the ball out of bounds and, once again, John Goble choked on his whistle. Would the Nuggets have won the game with either play having a whistle blown? Probably not, but the calls were blatantly missed and AI lost his cool getting two quick techs and the early shower in a fit unbecoming of a player who tonight moved past Larry Bird and Gary Payton and into the NBA’s 21st All-Time scoring position with 21,789 career points.

And in a display even more ridiculous, J.R. Smith acted like a baby and was also tossed immediately following Iverson's ejection!

Not only had the Nuggets lost a game by playing sloppy and uninspired basketball, AI had been tossed, and J.R. Smith had acted like a fool and erased the savory taste in my mouth left by his play before the unneeded tantrum. And I’m sure George Karl wasn’t happy about Smith’s actions either… Karl had a look on his face like a father who has to go into the principal’s office for something so utterly stupid that it disrespects the family’s good name; just disgusted.

Here’s the rest of the box score if you want the individual stats from tonight’s excuse for a Nuggets game. Things seem to be going to hell in a hand basket right now for the Nuggets and I can barely stand to watch.