| 21 February 2009
(Boulder-CO) I’m not sure what to call last night’s 17-point loss to the Bulls. It could be labeled as a loss the Nuggets were due for or maybe a loss of focus. It’s also possible that Denver overlooked the Bulls while thinking ahead to the Milwaukee Bucks, but any of these options are possibilities as to why the Nuggets lost to Chicago, 116-99.
In the first quarter there was no foreshadowing of the eventual collapse. Denver jumped out to a, 31-19, lead with a minute remaining in the quarter. Chauncey Billups and Kenyon Martin were working the dribble-rub off to perfection and I think that play with Billups is a play that the Nuggets can substitute Kenyon for Nene, Carmelo, or J.R. Smith with equal effectiveness. And with some very stiff team defense overall, and I especially felt that despite all of his offensive inadequacies, Dahntay Jones did a great job on Ben Gordon. Gordon scored just five of his eventual season-high 37 points in the first quarter. Offensively, Chauncey led the way for the Nuggets with ten first quarter points and four assists while Carmelo looked sharp on the boards with four caroms in the first twelve minutes of action.
The Bulls came charging back into this game with a 9-2 run in the first 2:45 seconds of the second quarter to cut the Denver lead to just three, 33-30. This run was started with five Nugget turnovers over said stretch and from that many funky offensive possessions it was easy for Chicago to regain the momentum of the game.
However, basketball is a game of runs and the Nuggets pulled it together with an 8-0 run of their own sparked by a fabulous stretch of play by Nene. Big Brazil scored eight of the next twelve Nugget points capped off by a rim-rocking posterization of Tyrus Thomas following a complete annihilation of Derrick Rose’s transition lay-up attempt. Up to this point in the game Nene was a perfect 8-8 from the field, but his impact, much like the Nuggets’ focus, was going to disappear. The Bulls once again made a run to close the Nuggets’ margin to just one, 48-47, with 2:30 seconds to play in the half after an 11-1 run. The half would conclude with the game tied at 54 and after the way the Nuggets closed out the first 24 minutes it should have been clear that the Nuggets weren't going to show up for the second 24 minutes of this game.
There’s not much to say about the play in the second half other than it was uninspired. It looked as if the Nuggets were just waiting to flip the switch as they have been lured into thinking they can in the past, but against the Bulls they couldn’t get out of their own way. Denver turned the ball over five times in the first ten minutes of the third quarter and failed to hand out a single assist over that stretch while falling behind by ten, 78-68. Furthermore, the Nuggets were outscored by 16 points over the duration of the second and third quarters and despite finding somewhat of a pulse late in the fourth were not able to overcome their selfish offense to eek out a victory.
It was nice to finally see Linas Kleiza help the team in the fourth quarter, but his giddiness after making his first three in over two weeks was nothing more than fool’s gold. The Nuggets were able to knot the game twice in the fourth quarter, once at 83 and again at 87, but everyone wanted to be the hero and the lack of ball movement and penetration halted any kind of momentum the Nuggets tried to mount. Missed jumper after missed jumper opened the door for the Bulls to gore this game wide open with a 10-0 run after the Nuggets pulled even at 87 and it was enough for Chicago to salt their victory away.
The Nuggets problems in this game were numerous. Denver was outscored 22-4 in fast break points, Kenyon Martin was hampered by back spasms of which kept him out of the second half, the Nuggets shot just two pertinent free-throws in the fourth quarter (LK did shoot two consolation attempts with the game already way out of reach), Carmelo looked slow and anguished due to all the nagging injuries he’s battling, and Nene scoring only two points in the second half didn’t help the Nuggets’ chances. But more so than any one of the excuses in the long list provided it was the Nuggets’ inability to play as a team offensively that led to them being outscored 62-45 in the second half that is the true sum of all the aforementioned.
The Nuggets were led (if you can call it that) offensively by Chauncey Billups’ 25 points and six assists. One area that I thought would improve for Mr. Big Shot when Carmelo returned from the broken hand was his assist average, but that hasn’t ever materialized. In fact, Billups hasn’t handed out more than six assists once since Carmelo’s return and is averaging just 3.7 dimes per game so far through the month of February. Nene scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half before becoming the invisible 6’11” man in the second and Carmelo, as I eluded to before, looked off a beat scoring just 12 points on a dreadful 5-18 from the field. As a team, the Nuggets were badly outrebounded by the Bulls 45-36 overall.
I don’t want to toot my own horn, but “toot-toot”. I said back in the forum before this 8-game trip started that I was worried a loss would materialize in these last three games. I said, “I personally think that the Nuggets will go 6-2 with a loss to the Magic because it's the tail-end of back-to-back games and another against either the 76ers, Bulls, or Bucks in the last three games in five nights.” I may have been wrong about the Magic because of underestimating how much Jameer Nelson’s injury would play a role in that team’s success, or lack thereof, but my premonition that there would be a loss of focus down the stretch came true. Now, I just hope the Nuggets can regain their focus before tomorrow’s daytime tip off with the Bucks.
Go Nuggets!
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