| 14 March 2009
(Denver-CO) I'm as late as I've ever been posting thoughts about what should be considered the routine job of beating the Oklahoma City Thunder, 112-99, and by now you've probably read enough about an otherwise ho-hum match-up. So, I'll just add a couple of points about the game and file it away in the archives.
1. The Nuggets had handed out 18 assists in the first half alone. It's been a struggle since the All-Star break for Denver to manage to even hand out their pre All-Star break average in the assist column, but against the Thunder the assists were like a a hot knife through butter. The aforementioned 18 dimes produced 22 made field goals in the first half and really set the mood for Denver accumulating 33 assists overall by this game's conclusion. All the unselfish basketball led to seven Nuggets scoring in double-figures with the only Denver player not reaching ten points for the game being Anthony Carter and that's only because he was too busy setting everyone else up. AC led the way for the Nuggets in the assist department with a dozen dimes.
2. The "slumping" Denver Nuggets showed themselves in the second quarter when after building a nice 19-point lead over the Thunder clocked out, albeit just for the second half of the second quarter, to allow the Thunder to bring the game back down to a manageable 9-point halftime deficit. I thought for sure this game was headed towards blowout city when the Nuggets were squashing the Thunder 42-23 with under seven minutes to play in the first half, but thankfully the Nuggets went back to work in the second half.
3 "The Perfect Stranger" - Renaldo Balkman played his best game as a Nugget and perhaps his best game as an NBA player. "Balky" recorded his first double-double as a Nugget with 14 points and 14 rebounds - eight on the offensive glass. He added three assists, two steals, and a block.The Nugget coaching staff have to realize that these stats aren't going to be an every night occurrence out of Balkman, but the energy and defense that he supplied will be and Karl needs to find a way to extract that out of him more regularly.
Go Nuggets!
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