| 23 February 2009
(Denver-CO) I’m not sure where to even begin when looking at the, 120-117, loss to the Bucks. The Nuggets played piss-poor defense through the whole game. Even if they were able to put together one decent quarter on the defensive end I think they would have won this contest. An area offensively that I think the Nuggets are slouching in is passing. When this team is playing at its best they’re sharing the ball and getting easy looks. Last night, despite scoring 117 points, the Nuggets only handed out 21 assists and turned the ball over 24 times. To me, that’s a clear indication of too many people trying to do too much individually.
In the first quarter, Charlie Villanueva scored 16 points and tossed in 65-foot heave at the buzzer. The Bucks scored 36 points in the first quarter on the back of Villanueva’s charge, but for the Nuggets to allow that many points to a team that doesn’t even average 100 nightly was a sad display of defensive execution.
Then, as if they were unaware of Villanueva’s hot hand, Denver proceeded to allow him to hit another jumper and ANOTHER three bringing his total before exiting the game with two fouls to 21 points in the first 14 minutes of play. Honestly, Scott Hastings summed things up perfectly when he said someone on the Nuggets should have put him on his can just to send a message. However, the good news from the second quarter is Denver finishing on a 10-1 run in the final minute of the half after Dahntay Jones hit a half court Hail Mary of his own to put the Nuggets up by three, 72-69, at the break.
Denver never readjusted their defense in the second half. Points were still being scored by Milwaukee at a dizzying pace and the Nuggets seemed content with just keeping pace with the Bucks offensively. The game knotted at 90 apiece with three minutes remaining in the third before the quarter ended tied at 96. And despite the defensive disregard shown by the Nuggets, their real problem up to this point were all their turnovers. The Nuggets had coughed up the rock 20 times through three quarters of play.
The fourth quarter was where I really expected the Nuggets to take care of business, but four more turnovers, a couple at the worst times possible, left the Nuggets a little short as their individualistic offense sputtered amounting to just 21 points in the quarter. The crescendo of this individual offense came with 33 second to play in regulation and the Nuggets down by three. I’m not an NBA coach, but with 33 seconds to play I would think the last thing on George Karl’s mind was for J.R. Smith to dribble the ball five times in the same spot, pick up his dribble, and then hoist a heavily contested three with 22 seconds still on the clock. What should have been executed was an immediate drive to the rim in hopes of either scoring a basket and fouling or getting a traditional three-point play, but that empty possession as a result of J.R. Smith’s bad decision all but sealed the deal for the Nuggets. And what makes this loss even worse is with 45 seconds remaining to play, Nene and Richard Jefferson collided knee-to-knee. Nene did not return to the game and had to use crutches to get to the team bus afterwards and with the back spasms being suffered by Kenyon Martin (who did not play in this game) and the nagging injuries being played through by Carmelo Anthony the frontline of the Nuggets is all of sudden looking badly dinged up.
In the first quarter, Charlie Villanueva scored 16 points and tossed in 65-foot heave at the buzzer. The Bucks scored 36 points in the first quarter on the back of Villanueva’s charge, but for the Nuggets to allow that many points to a team that doesn’t even average 100 nightly was a sad display of defensive execution.
Then, as if they were unaware of Villanueva’s hot hand, Denver proceeded to allow him to hit another jumper and ANOTHER three bringing his total before exiting the game with two fouls to 21 points in the first 14 minutes of play. Honestly, Scott Hastings summed things up perfectly when he said someone on the Nuggets should have put him on his can just to send a message. However, the good news from the second quarter is Denver finishing on a 10-1 run in the final minute of the half after Dahntay Jones hit a half court Hail Mary of his own to put the Nuggets up by three, 72-69, at the break.
Denver never readjusted their defense in the second half. Points were still being scored by Milwaukee at a dizzying pace and the Nuggets seemed content with just keeping pace with the Bucks offensively. The game knotted at 90 apiece with three minutes remaining in the third before the quarter ended tied at 96. And despite the defensive disregard shown by the Nuggets, their real problem up to this point were all their turnovers. The Nuggets had coughed up the rock 20 times through three quarters of play.
The fourth quarter was where I really expected the Nuggets to take care of business, but four more turnovers, a couple at the worst times possible, left the Nuggets a little short as their individualistic offense sputtered amounting to just 21 points in the quarter. The crescendo of this individual offense came with 33 second to play in regulation and the Nuggets down by three. I’m not an NBA coach, but with 33 seconds to play I would think the last thing on George Karl’s mind was for J.R. Smith to dribble the ball five times in the same spot, pick up his dribble, and then hoist a heavily contested three with 22 seconds still on the clock. What should have been executed was an immediate drive to the rim in hopes of either scoring a basket and fouling or getting a traditional three-point play, but that empty possession as a result of J.R. Smith’s bad decision all but sealed the deal for the Nuggets. And what makes this loss even worse is with 45 seconds remaining to play, Nene and Richard Jefferson collided knee-to-knee. Nene did not return to the game and had to use crutches to get to the team bus afterwards and with the back spasms being suffered by Kenyon Martin (who did not play in this game) and the nagging injuries being played through by Carmelo Anthony the frontline of the Nuggets is all of sudden looking badly dinged up.
This was a game that the Nuggets needed to win. After dropping a very winnable game against the Bulls just two nights earlier I expected the Nuggets to regroup and demolish an outmatched Milwaukee squad that they had already defeated once this year. Instead, Denver came out and completely laid an egg defensively, allowed Charlie Villanueva to score a season-high 36 points, and turned the ball over 24 times while not playing like a team offensively. The loss was a major step back in my assessment and it comes at a terrible juncture of the season seeing how the Nuggets have the Celtics tonight, the Hawks on Wednesday, and the Lakers on Friday in a three-game home stand this week.
About the only thing we can hope for is for the Nuggets to regroup defensively. Good defense leads to easy offensive scores in transition and from there the Nuggets will almost surely fall back into form. Because if they don’t, these next three games are going to be very sobering for a team that was riding high going into the All-Star break.
Go Nuggets!
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