(Denver-CO) It may not happen often, but the Denver Nuggets allowed the Memphis Grizzlies to score 123 points and shoot 57% from the field, and STILL won the game, 133-123. How does something like that happen? Easy, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups aren’t taking those kind of losses this season.

The Denver Nuggets were defenseless in the first quarter. Memphis was scoring on just about everything they tried to scheme and were doing so at close proximity. One issue in particular that was driving me completely insane, and I’m sure George Karl too,  was Denver’s transition defense. The Grizzlies were taking the ball out of the net (largely in part to their own defensive shortcomings) and were just running the ball right down Denver’s throat for lay-ups. In this regard, I have to give Marc Gasol a lot of credit because for a seven-footer to play at that kind of pace for the entire quarter while leading his team with 12 points is a testament to his fine conditioning and versatility. In all, the Grizzlies lit Denver up with a season-high 40 points while shooting 17-22 (77%) from the field in the first quarter to lead, 40-35.

In the second quarter, Denver tightened down the screws defensively holding Memphis to 26 points in the period. It’s reassuring to know the Nuggets are capable of adjusting on the fly when things aren’t working in one realm of their game plan, but three games into this season I am a bit concerned with the lack of consistency on the defensive end. Case in point, in all three games so far this season the Nuggets have allowed 27 or more points in a quarter. Against the Grizzlies, they weren’t burned, but that’s because they Grizzles aren’t exactly solid defensively either. However, in upcoming games against more polished foes my worry is Denver will allow a buffet of points to get scored while only mustering 20 or so themselves and find themselves down by a dozen or so points.

After taking the lead at halftime, 67-66, the Nuggets once again came out and torched the Grizzles for another 36 points in the third. And after scoring 20 points in the first half, Carmelo followed up with 14 more. One area of Carmelo’s game that I can clearly see an improvement in is his hustle level. Now that’s not to say that he didn’t hustle in years past, but this year there is a higher energy, or rev point if you will, that Carmelo is playing with. His motor seems to just be running hotter so far this season and the results have been jaw dropping. He’s getting more lay-ups, piling up more rebounds and assists, and the difference defensively is striking. In the third quarter, Carmelo not only scored the aforementioned 14 points, but he also handed out three assists, nabbed three rebounds, and recorded a steal. Not to mention, continuing to get the free-throw line for six more attempts.

With all that praise for Carmelo, I feel it would only be fair to give due credit to O.J. Mayo as well. Altitude color commentator, Scott Hastings, kept referring to Mayo as one of the best one-on-one players in the league to which at first earshot I scoffed. But, as the game went on and took on a more “pick-up game” style, I too started to take note of how flat-out talented Mayo is. For a second-year player, Mayo has one of the most mouthwatering jump shots that I’ve seen from a player who has not made an All-Star team and his ability to get to the rim and finish surprised me. O.J. finished tonight’s game with a career-high 40 points, five rebounds, and four assists.

But with that Mayo spread, let’s get back to Carmelo!

Anthony finished with 42 points, seven rebounds, and five assists after sitting much of the fourth quarter. Now in back-to-back games Carmelo has popped off for 40+ points and his offensive exploits have him sitting atop the NBA’s scoring race by a gaudy 6.4 points more per game than Kobe Bryant.

Also of note, Chauncey Billups recorded his first double-double of the season finishing with 22 points and twelve assists. Billups has scored 20+ points in all three games this season and it hasn’t seemed like he’s had to labor very hard to do so. Perhaps this is largely in part to rookie, Ty Lawson. Lawson came through with another solid performance against the Grizzlies and I thought Scott Hastings made another good point when he illustrated how Lawson’s creativity offensively doesn’t make the box score sometimes because he puts the opposition in position where they must foul to keep from allowing a pointblank score. This was true on at least three occasions with Nene, who finished with 18 points, nine rebounds, and six assists. George Karl is starting to experiment with Lawson and Billups and I’ll go on record right now saying that I love the idea of Chauncey playing the two. Billups shoots the three as good as anyone in the league and with Lawson’s penetrate-and-kick ability this is going to free Chauncey up for a ton of open looks from around the arch. In addition, Chauncey is a very efficient post up guard on players his height and is capable of posting up smaller players anytime Denver can get the ball to him.

Overall, the Nuggets shot 30-37 from the free-throw line, 9-17 from three, handed out 36 assists, and only turned the ball over twelve times. It should also be mentioned that Denver scored 26 fast break points and 54 points in the paint. Lastly, George Karl passes the great Dick Motta for ninth all-time in wins by a head coach with this counting as his 936th win.

Up next for Denver is a season-long, six-game road trip starting with a look at an Indiana Pacer team they should be very familiar with after two games this preseason in Asia. This road trip features three back-to-back sets, but the final pair will mark the first time this season Denver will be back to full strength with the return of J.R. Smith from serving a seven-game suspension.

Go Nuggets!

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