| 18 March 2009
(Denver-CO) It wasn’t pretty, but the Denver Nuggets somehow managed to defeat the Grizzlies, 111-109, after trailing for 47 minutes in Memphis. And in a race as close as the Northwest Division is shaping up to be with just a dozen games remaining in the regular season any win, artistically pleasing or not, is worth its weight in gold.
The Denver Nuggets never cease to amaze me. In a game against the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that has won only 17 games this season and averages an NBA-low 93 points per game, they manage to fall behind, 8-1, in the first two minutes of regulation. Denver fell asleep on defense twice allowing easy dunks for Rudy Gay and after a miscommunication on an outlet pass by Carmelo Anthony with Chauncey Billups gave a fan in the third row a souvenir chest pass it was looking like the road monkey was still hanging all over Denver‘s back. And it should come as no surprise with their flat start defensively that the Nuggets were struggling to find any continuity offensively while falling behind, 19-10, midway through the first quarter.
I swear, when this team is playing well. They’re as good as any in the league. But when their not… it can be tough basketball to watch.
Thankfully, and with a couple of substitutions, Denver’s energy wasn’t flat for long. The Nuggets were able to cut into the Grizzlies’ lead bringing the game within two, 28-26, after the insertion of J.R. Smith, The Birdman, and Renaldo Balkman pumped signs of life into this team offensively. But, torrid Memphis shooting kept the Nuggets at bay, 35-26, at the end of one quarter of play. The starters just didn’t bring any kind of defensive intensity. Memphis shot 58% from the field in the first quarter led by Rudy Gay’s 5-7 shooting to lead all scorers with 12 points in just as many minutes.
And I think I speak for all of the Nuggets Nation when I say, “Thank God for Renaldo Balkman.”
In his first four minutes of action off the bench he scores four points, grabs three rebounds, blocks a shot, and comes up with a steal. In fact, had it not been for Balkman providing at least minimal defensive resistance I’m not sure the Grizzlies wouldn’t have scored more than 44 points with still eight minutes remaining in the first half. Just think about that for a minute… The Nuggets allowed the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that averages just 93 points per 48-minute basketball game, to score nearly half that in under a third of this game! I digress, but only because complaining about it doesn’t do a damn bit of difference.
Denver did manage to win the second quarter, 27-24, to enter halftime down by just six, 59-53, but to win the game they were going to have to do a better job on the defensive end and taking care of the basketball. The Grizzlies came back down to earth offensively in the second quarter after shooting 14-24 from the field in the first, but even a 9-24 shooting display in the second kept them in the lead. This was largely in part to Rudy Gay. Gay scored 19 first half points on 8-12 from the floor.
But the defense wasn’t the only reason why the Nuggets were trailing at half. More so than the flat defensive effort was the Nuggets turning the ball over nine times that really stubbed their toe. Memphis capitalized on the nine miscues for twelve points in the half while the Nuggets actually shot a better percentage than the Grizzlies, 48-47% overall, but the nine turnovers told the underlying story of the half with Memphis attempting nine more shot attempts (go figure) in the half.
They say the first three minutes of the second half is when a lot of games are won or lost. After the Nuggets closed the gap to just two points, 59-57, just a minute and a half into the third period I thought things were turning around for Denver. Their defense had a little pep, the offensive onus was being spread around, and the overall energy of the team was perky after intermission. Little did I know that the Grizzlies were going to counter with a 14-4 run to re-establish a twelve point advantage by the midway point in the third quarter while taking back control of the momentum of this contest.
The Denver shot selection was poor to say the least after the Nuggets scored six of their first eight points in the half on extra passes resulting in lay-ups. Jump shot after jump shot, bad possession after bad possession the Nuggets just didn’t have anything resembling a team oriented offense in play. Credit J.R. Smith for keeping the Nuggets alive in a game where Denver just refused to tighten things down defensively too. The Prodigy scored eleven points in the third quarter, including three, three-pointers, to keep Memphis from turning this contest into a laugher.
Unfortunately, the same two facets of the game that killed the Nuggets in the first half were never remedied in the second. Denver turned the ball over four times in the third quarter and Memphis once again capitalized on their miscues for another five points to bring their running total of points scored off of turnovers to 17 through three quarters. The Grizzlies also continued to score points at an alarming rate on the very porous Denver defense. Memphis outscored the Nuggets 32-28 in the third and led, 91-81, heading into the fourth quarter.
Down, but not out, the Nuggets soldiered into the fourth. Linas Kleiza aggressively attacked the rim earning a nice dunk and a trip to the free-throw line, and J.R. Smith connected on his fifth three of the game to keep the Grizzlies from outright running away with a victory, but the Nuggets were unable to manufacture stops on the defensive end and were down by 13, 100-87, with eight minutes to play.
It was do-or-die time for the Nuggets at this point. Right on cue, Denver finally put together a string of defensive stops and cut the Memphis lead to five with six minutes remaining to play, but turning on the D after 42 minutes of pick-up game style resistance left a tall order for the Nuggets to fill.
But, fill they did!
O.J. Mayo was whistled for an offensive foul on a push off that negated a fade-away from the elbow and Chauncey Billups cut the lead down to three with a pull up jumper from the top of the key. Nene and Renaldo Balkman then clamped down on Marc Gasol’s spin on the baseline that resulted in an errant pass of which translated into Carmelo tying the game at 104 with a three on the ensuing possession after Renaldo Balkman retrieved two of his own misses from point blank range. Former Syracuse teammates, Hakim Warrick and Carmelo Anthony, traded free-throws to keep the game tied at 106 before O.J. Mayo put the Grizzlies back up by a deuce on an offensive rebound with 50 seconds on the clock.
The play coming out of the huddle was drawn up for ‘Melo to attack Quinton Ross, but Ross blocked Carmelo’s first attempt out of bounds on the baseline. Denver’s second possession went right back to Anthony who got the better of Ross on the second attempt with a post and face that fruited the hoop and the harm to give the Nuggets their first lead of the game, 109-108, since the infancy of this game. Memphis’ next possession was put solely in the hands of O.J. Mayo who after dribbling down the first 12 seconds of the shot clock was funneled by Anthony Carter into the teeth of the Denver defense where Kenyon Martin was waiting to block Mayo’s shot!
Carmelo Anthony ended up with the loose ball on the Denver side of the court and sank two free-throws to put Denver up by three, 111-108, with five seconds remaining in regulation. All Denver had to do now was defend the three-point line and get the Sam Hill out of Memphis with a stolen victory and they wisely decided to take a foul to eliminate the Grizzlies’ option of hitting a three to tie the game. Marc Gasol made the first foul shot and intentionally missed the second, but after Anthony Carter emerged from the scrum with the ball and tossed it into the Nuggets half of the floor the Nuggets had pulled out an improbable win after trailing by 17 points in the third quarter.
Different players at different times of this game sustained the Nuggets from being blown out, but the Denver defense deserves all the credit for holding Memphis to just 18 points in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets outscored the Grizzlies 30-18 in the final period and 13-5 in the final four minutes of regulation to pull the W out of the proverbial hat. Carmelo Anthony led the way offensively with 35 points and Chauncey Billups recorded his tenth double-double of the season with 18 points and 12 assists. J.R. Smith scored eleven points in the third quarter en route to 21 points total and Renaldo “The Perfect Stranger” Balkman provided the defensive spark and 12 rebounds off the bench.
The Nuggets have now won four straight games and maintain a half game lead over the Portland Trailblazers for Northwest Divisional supremacy while pulling into a W/L tie with the Rockets for third place overall in the Western Conference playoff chase. Houston does hold the tie-breaker over the Nuggets, but have a far more difficult row to hoe down the homestretch of their regular season schedule.
Go Nuggets!
The Denver Nuggets never cease to amaze me. In a game against the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that has won only 17 games this season and averages an NBA-low 93 points per game, they manage to fall behind, 8-1, in the first two minutes of regulation. Denver fell asleep on defense twice allowing easy dunks for Rudy Gay and after a miscommunication on an outlet pass by Carmelo Anthony with Chauncey Billups gave a fan in the third row a souvenir chest pass it was looking like the road monkey was still hanging all over Denver‘s back. And it should come as no surprise with their flat start defensively that the Nuggets were struggling to find any continuity offensively while falling behind, 19-10, midway through the first quarter.
I swear, when this team is playing well. They’re as good as any in the league. But when their not… it can be tough basketball to watch.
Thankfully, and with a couple of substitutions, Denver’s energy wasn’t flat for long. The Nuggets were able to cut into the Grizzlies’ lead bringing the game within two, 28-26, after the insertion of J.R. Smith, The Birdman, and Renaldo Balkman pumped signs of life into this team offensively. But, torrid Memphis shooting kept the Nuggets at bay, 35-26, at the end of one quarter of play. The starters just didn’t bring any kind of defensive intensity. Memphis shot 58% from the field in the first quarter led by Rudy Gay’s 5-7 shooting to lead all scorers with 12 points in just as many minutes.
And I think I speak for all of the Nuggets Nation when I say, “Thank God for Renaldo Balkman.”
In his first four minutes of action off the bench he scores four points, grabs three rebounds, blocks a shot, and comes up with a steal. In fact, had it not been for Balkman providing at least minimal defensive resistance I’m not sure the Grizzlies wouldn’t have scored more than 44 points with still eight minutes remaining in the first half. Just think about that for a minute… The Nuggets allowed the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that averages just 93 points per 48-minute basketball game, to score nearly half that in under a third of this game! I digress, but only because complaining about it doesn’t do a damn bit of difference.
Denver did manage to win the second quarter, 27-24, to enter halftime down by just six, 59-53, but to win the game they were going to have to do a better job on the defensive end and taking care of the basketball. The Grizzlies came back down to earth offensively in the second quarter after shooting 14-24 from the field in the first, but even a 9-24 shooting display in the second kept them in the lead. This was largely in part to Rudy Gay. Gay scored 19 first half points on 8-12 from the floor.
But the defense wasn’t the only reason why the Nuggets were trailing at half. More so than the flat defensive effort was the Nuggets turning the ball over nine times that really stubbed their toe. Memphis capitalized on the nine miscues for twelve points in the half while the Nuggets actually shot a better percentage than the Grizzlies, 48-47% overall, but the nine turnovers told the underlying story of the half with Memphis attempting nine more shot attempts (go figure) in the half.
They say the first three minutes of the second half is when a lot of games are won or lost. After the Nuggets closed the gap to just two points, 59-57, just a minute and a half into the third period I thought things were turning around for Denver. Their defense had a little pep, the offensive onus was being spread around, and the overall energy of the team was perky after intermission. Little did I know that the Grizzlies were going to counter with a 14-4 run to re-establish a twelve point advantage by the midway point in the third quarter while taking back control of the momentum of this contest.
The Denver shot selection was poor to say the least after the Nuggets scored six of their first eight points in the half on extra passes resulting in lay-ups. Jump shot after jump shot, bad possession after bad possession the Nuggets just didn’t have anything resembling a team oriented offense in play. Credit J.R. Smith for keeping the Nuggets alive in a game where Denver just refused to tighten things down defensively too. The Prodigy scored eleven points in the third quarter, including three, three-pointers, to keep Memphis from turning this contest into a laugher.
Unfortunately, the same two facets of the game that killed the Nuggets in the first half were never remedied in the second. Denver turned the ball over four times in the third quarter and Memphis once again capitalized on their miscues for another five points to bring their running total of points scored off of turnovers to 17 through three quarters. The Grizzlies also continued to score points at an alarming rate on the very porous Denver defense. Memphis outscored the Nuggets 32-28 in the third and led, 91-81, heading into the fourth quarter.
Down, but not out, the Nuggets soldiered into the fourth. Linas Kleiza aggressively attacked the rim earning a nice dunk and a trip to the free-throw line, and J.R. Smith connected on his fifth three of the game to keep the Grizzlies from outright running away with a victory, but the Nuggets were unable to manufacture stops on the defensive end and were down by 13, 100-87, with eight minutes to play.
It was do-or-die time for the Nuggets at this point. Right on cue, Denver finally put together a string of defensive stops and cut the Memphis lead to five with six minutes remaining to play, but turning on the D after 42 minutes of pick-up game style resistance left a tall order for the Nuggets to fill.
But, fill they did!
O.J. Mayo was whistled for an offensive foul on a push off that negated a fade-away from the elbow and Chauncey Billups cut the lead down to three with a pull up jumper from the top of the key. Nene and Renaldo Balkman then clamped down on Marc Gasol’s spin on the baseline that resulted in an errant pass of which translated into Carmelo tying the game at 104 with a three on the ensuing possession after Renaldo Balkman retrieved two of his own misses from point blank range. Former Syracuse teammates, Hakim Warrick and Carmelo Anthony, traded free-throws to keep the game tied at 106 before O.J. Mayo put the Grizzlies back up by a deuce on an offensive rebound with 50 seconds on the clock.
The play coming out of the huddle was drawn up for ‘Melo to attack Quinton Ross, but Ross blocked Carmelo’s first attempt out of bounds on the baseline. Denver’s second possession went right back to Anthony who got the better of Ross on the second attempt with a post and face that fruited the hoop and the harm to give the Nuggets their first lead of the game, 109-108, since the infancy of this game. Memphis’ next possession was put solely in the hands of O.J. Mayo who after dribbling down the first 12 seconds of the shot clock was funneled by Anthony Carter into the teeth of the Denver defense where Kenyon Martin was waiting to block Mayo’s shot!
Carmelo Anthony ended up with the loose ball on the Denver side of the court and sank two free-throws to put Denver up by three, 111-108, with five seconds remaining in regulation. All Denver had to do now was defend the three-point line and get the Sam Hill out of Memphis with a stolen victory and they wisely decided to take a foul to eliminate the Grizzlies’ option of hitting a three to tie the game. Marc Gasol made the first foul shot and intentionally missed the second, but after Anthony Carter emerged from the scrum with the ball and tossed it into the Nuggets half of the floor the Nuggets had pulled out an improbable win after trailing by 17 points in the third quarter.
Different players at different times of this game sustained the Nuggets from being blown out, but the Denver defense deserves all the credit for holding Memphis to just 18 points in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets outscored the Grizzlies 30-18 in the final period and 13-5 in the final four minutes of regulation to pull the W out of the proverbial hat. Carmelo Anthony led the way offensively with 35 points and Chauncey Billups recorded his tenth double-double of the season with 18 points and 12 assists. J.R. Smith scored eleven points in the third quarter en route to 21 points total and Renaldo “The Perfect Stranger” Balkman provided the defensive spark and 12 rebounds off the bench.
The Nuggets have now won four straight games and maintain a half game lead over the Portland Trailblazers for Northwest Divisional supremacy while pulling into a W/L tie with the Rockets for third place overall in the Western Conference playoff chase. Houston does hold the tie-breaker over the Nuggets, but have a far more difficult row to hoe down the homestretch of their regular season schedule.
Go Nuggets!
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