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(Denver-CO) Tonight's game against the Trailblazers is H-U-G-E. Not only are the Nuggets in the national spotlight of TNT's Thursday night showcase, but if the Nuggets don't win they will be dethroned from first place in the Northwest Division and put into the position of holding just half-game lead over the Jazz of whom the face tomorrow night. Thank God Carmelo says, "He'll run to the bench," the next time George Karl sends in a sub for him!
Carmelo's insubordination aside and forgotten, the Nuggets are 2-5 in their last seven games. Before this horrendous stretch, Denver held a 3 1/2 games lead over the Trailblazers and things were seemingly on auto-pilot. But, during this slide the Nuggets have just not been getting it done. Their scoring has dipped over five points per game below their season average and they have been allowing five more points to be scored by their opposition than they have been allowing. And it doesn't take a mathematical genius to see that the ten-point overall swing against the Nuggets is killing them.
Furthermore, and as Stumble pointed out in the forum, the Nuggets' rotations have been less than savory. Linas Kleiza has proven to me that he just isn't coming out of his slump, and perhaps, has leveled off as a player in this league. Sure, last year we all had the highest of hopes for LK and I doubt any of us would have wanted to see him traded (remember the Artest deal?), but now Denver's brain trust looks brilliant for not resigning him as they will now have the option of either picking him back up for cheap at the season's end or letting him go while looking to upgrade.
This needs to open up more minutes (and I can't believe I'm going to say this but...) for Renaldo Balkman. Stumble's forum post brought what I had been already thinking to the forefront, but if LK's not going to be an offensive threat. Renaldo needs to be utilized for his defensive attributes in an attempt to try and get the Nuggets' nightly points allowed back to where this team can win.
The same principles apply to J.R. Smith and Dahntay Jones.
Let me start out by saying I really like what Jones brings to this team. He's a veteran, he's a smart player, and he doesn't try to do too much offensively. But, with all that being said, the Nuggets have not been able to score the basketball efficiently as of late, especially in the fourth quarter, and J.R. Smith could be the answer to what is ailing the Nuggets offensively. And I feel a lot of the time that J.R.'s defense gets overlooked because of how special of an offensive talent he is. Smith's D has improved by leaps and bounds this season in comparison to last and I think it's time George Karl puts his faith in what J.R. CAN DO vs. what he wasn't able to do in the past because, as the numbers show, J.R. does make this team better overall.
So, play Balkman for defense instead of Linas for offense and play J.R. for offense instead of Dahntay for defense and things just might work out.
That is, if the Nuggets can play as a team.
In all five of their most recent losses, Denver has failed to reach its season average of 22 assists. Furthermore, Chauncey Billups has not reached double-digit assists since mid January. What this team needs is for Chauncey to facilitate guys like Nene, J.R. Smith, and Carmelo getting easy buckets because it will most certainly get a favorable result on the defensive end because when guys get involved with the offensive side of the ball it gets them going on the defensive side of things too. Both areas have been lacking for the Nuggets during this slide and Chauncey handing out a few extra dimes is one sure way to try and correct this. Playing together on one end of the floor is contagious on the other.
As for the Blazers, they are a hard team to match-up with. The silky smooth play of 6'6" shooting ace Brandon Roy poses difficult match-ups for most shooting guards. He is a muscular build capable of working inside or out on offense and I think his defensive abilities are underrated. The Nuggets will also have to do a great job keeping 6'11" jumping-jack LeMarcus Aldridge off of the offensive glass where he grabs nearly half of his rebounds and the 6'9" and extremely long Travis Outlaw from getting easy buckets around the goal.
In the first meeting between these two teams at the Pepsi Center, the Nuggets held that duo to seven rebounds while winning the battle of the boards 43-32. But, up in Portland, the Nuggets were unable to win the rebounding battle and lost the game. Aldridge snagged five offensive rebounds in that meeting in the great northwest and as a result let the Blazers in scoring that night with 22 points and eight rebounds.
There have been a lot of big games this season, but down this 21-game home stretch none may be bigger than tonight's and tomorrow's. If the Nuggets can win tonight, they afford themselves a little breathing room before taking on the Jazz tomorrow. But, if they somehow manage to lose tonight and head into Utah, where the Jazz are 27-6, on a three game skid the outlook on this season may change drastically.
Go Nuggets!
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Roy averages 37 min per game and avg 22 pts per game.
Jones averages 19 min per game and avg 5 pts per game.
If you halved the amount of time Roy plays per game (which would be equal to Jones avg game play time) he would still have double the points that Jones achieves. This is the kind of guard we need.
Also, by the numbers, if J.R. played the same amount of time as Dahntey, he would score nearly double the points Dahntey scores in the same amount of time.
Balkmans numbers are actually slightly better than Jones when it comes to PPG / MPG ratio plus he is a better defender. I'll admit that the equation might shift a bit if he plays more minutes per game and more consecutive games. One plus about Balkman vs Jones is that Balkman can take a foul and move on. Jones has to badger the ref until he gets a T.