(Denver-CO) The Denver Nuggets struggled to button things down defensively in the first half, but as soon as they did were able to dispose of the Raptors with the ease of large meteor, 130-112. Three different players scored 20+ points as five Nuggets finished in double-digits in a bench clearing affair.

The first half of the first quarter was atrocious. Denver turned the ball over four times in the first six minutes and found themselves trailing, 20-9, after a quick hot start by Toronto. Thankfully, Denver did not turn the ball over again in the first quarter after George Karl called a well timed timeout to break the funk and insert Earl Smith, and the Nuggets was able get back to within one to end the quarter, 29-28, with a 19-9 run. The run was fueled by Carmelo Anthony, who reportedly awoke and missed shoot around with a migraine headache. After falling behind by the aforementioned eleven points, ‘Melo scored the next eight consecutive points for the Nuggets and twelve of their final 19 points to bring the game back to a comfortable distance.

Earl heating up for 19 points in nine minutes off the bench didn’t hurt things either. The Earl of Swish sparked the Nuggets with five points in the first quarter and his hot shooting hand kept things cooking for Denver. He drained three, three-pointers to open the second quarter and scored the first 14 points overall in the period despite Denver falling behind by nine points with five minutes remaining in the half.

But it wasn’t all peaches and cream for Earl during this stretch. He’s one of the only players in the league who can rip off 19 points in nine minutes off the bench and still leave his coach upset with him when he comes off the floor. How you might ask? Well, after torching Marco Belinelli in a bit of a “Whatever you can do, I can do better” match, Earl hoisted a terrible heat check three from about 30 feet that left the Nuggets so badly exposed in transition that former Nugget Sonny Weems was able to get an alley-oop dunk on the other end. I digress because any coach would gladly take 19 points and surrender an alley-oop on the other end, but it’s these kinds of plays that keep a guy like Earl in George Karl’s “good/bad” player category.

It’s important that we understand how the Nuggets fell behind by nine after Earl was bombing away. The bottom line cause of this is Denver’s pick and roll defense. Toronto had scored 29 points with four minutes to play in the second quarter and the Raptors were able to shoot above 50% from the field in the first half mainly because the Denver defense of the pick and roll was terrible. I watched the Nuggets go under screens on the perimeter, big men were not hedging out, and a lack of rotation after both lapses left the Nuggets down by eleven points. However, the Nuggets battled back to within four late in the second quarter and would eventually tie the game at half, 64-64, after Nene stepped up and did a tremendous job stepping out and hedging the pick and roll and thus completely disrupting Toronto offensively. And you know what’s kinda ironic concerning Nene? After he decided to lead by example defending the pick and roll he was rewarded on the other end by scoring eight of the Nuggets’ final ten points of the half! How’s that for defensive effort turning into offensive production? 

In the second half, Denver played about as unselfishly as I’ve seen them play all year. The Nuggets handed out 13 assists in the third quarter alone, including a stretch early in the third quarter where Kenyon Martin was able to score three straight possessions (twice off dunks and once off a nice little jumper) off of extra passes to give the Nuggets their first lead of the game, 70-68. In fact, only one field goal in the quarter went unassisted (it happened to be the first Denver bucket in the second half by Chauncey Billups) as the Nuggets slapped a 33-point quarter on the Raptors, including a 7-0 run that left the Raptors trailing, 81-74.

Toronto was never able to recover after that 7-0 run in the third and after Denver opened up the fourth quarter with 9-0 run blew the game wide open by outscoring the Raptors 20-7 in the first seven minutes of the fourth on their way to a bench clearing, 130-107, victory.

Let me start off by saying, WOW! The Nuggets showed last night they are capable to completely taking away what the opposition wants to do with their defense and it comes as no surprise to me that when they do that their offensive game plan falls right in place. Carmelo Anthony led all scorers with 32 points with a super efficient 12-15 shooting and handed out five assists, and Earl Smith finished with 29 points off the bench in just 22 minutes after hitting 5-9 from downtown. Chauncey Billups handed out ten assists, Kenyon Martin scored 15 points, and Arron Afflalo continues to shine in the starting two guard spot with a line reading 13 points, four assists, three rebounds, and a lot of stingy defense.

But what’s so much more impressive than the offensive exploits from the Nuggets was their defense. Sure, they allowed Toronto to score 35 points in the second quarter, but to hold Chris Bosh, who came into last night’s game with an average of 27.7 ppg, to just 13 points puts a lot of credence in Nene’s, and the Nuggets as a team, ability to elevate his/their game defensively. Big Brazil finished with his third double-double of the season consisting of 20 points, ten rebounds, five assists, four blocks, and four steals as the Nuggets kept the Raptors to 48 points overall in the second half.

And what about all that sharing? In the spirit of the season, the Nuggets dished out 34 assists which led to Denver demolishing the Raptors 68-34 in points in the paint and enabled them to outshoot Toronto 61-46% from the field.

Now, you can look at this game and salivate over all the good that was displayed (Earl punctuating it with an electrifying stuff was the cherry on top in the fourth quarter),  but there is one area that left me a little bit unsatisfied. As I just mentioned, the Nuggets out shot the Raptors by a considerable margin, but yet Toronto still dominated Denver on the boards 48-33, including 19-3 on the offensive glass. I hate to play good cop/bad cop and praise the Nuggets on their defense and then say they didn’t rebound a lick, but it’s true. And no play exemplifies this more than when four Nuggets all stood around with their hands below their waist as Andrea Bargnani collected a rebound after nobody put a body on him before throwing in a bank shot. It’s just one rebound, but it proves that the Nuggets haven’t completely broken their bad habits boxing out and are still susceptible on the boards - even when the win is big.

Go Nuggets!

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