(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

(Denver-CO) It’s hard to understand how a loss like last night’s 106-99 bruising happens, and the excuses are many, but when you’re on the road, your opposition is the injury riddled Clippers, and they give you an opportunity to pull it out in the end. Well, the Nuggets just have to find a way to overcome.  Sure, the officiating was inconsistent, but so were the Nuggets, especially defensively, and when you allow a team to go on a 19-0 run spanning nearly six minutes of the game you leave yourself open to black-eye defeats that you can never get back.

Things didn’t start poorly for the Nuggets and that in itself is a bit of a change of pace. Usually, Denver comes out slow and finds their rhythm after seeing what the opposition is willing to allow.  In the first quarter the Nuggets were pretty much dictating the pace of the game and taking what they wanted.  Carmelo was looking dialed in, scoring 17 points on a blistering 6 for 7 from the field and 5 for 5 from the stripe, and Denver led for much of the quarter by double digits. My only true gripe was how the Nuggets closed out the quarter by allowing DeAndre Jordan three concession dunks and Rasual Butler a three with one second remaining to bring L.A. back to within five at the end of one.

But the 7-0 Clipper run didn’t stop there…

With the second unit in the game (including the seldom used Malik Allen for the injured Birdman) the Nuggets went to pieces. Denver turned the ball over five times in the first four minutes of the second quarter and only got one shot off, which was blocked, as the Clippers continued to bomb away.  Rasual Butler then picked up right where he left off in the first with a three to open the second.  Then the Nuggets played Swiss cheese defense on back-to-back drives by Craig Smith and Sebastian Telfair which went for lay-ups, and Butler draining another three before George Karl called timeout to try and stop the bleeding left what was once a twelve-point lead in the first a seven-point deficit after Craig Smith hit a pair of free-throws coming out of the timeout.  Overall, it wasn’t until the 8:07 mark in the second quarter that Denver was able to score on an Arron Afflalo jumper from the corner to break up a 19-0 run by the Clippers that completely deflated the Nuggets until the fourth quarter.

In the NBA teams get hot and there’s not a whole lot you can do other than force them to take tough shots and live with the results.  The Nuggets didn’t make L.A. take a tough shot in the second quarter and died by theirs.  Rasual Butler was the Clipper’s hot hand in the first half scoring 16 points on 3 of 4 from downtown, but what absolutely killed the Nuggets was the amount of point blank buckets they conceded to players like DeAndre Jordan, Sebastian Telfair, and Craig Smith.  Jordan, a 6’11” project with not a whole lot a offensive game outside of dunking the ball, scored all eight of his first half points on dunks.  Smith, a stocky 6’7” power forward, scored his eight first half points by means of three lay-ups and a couple of free-throws.  Telfair, the jitterbug point guard from NYC, added six points, shooting 3 for 3 from the field after a pair of open jump shots and a lay-up.  These are points the Nuggets didn’t make L.A. work very hard for and overall the Nuggets played absolutely Twinkie soft defense in the middle allowing the Clippers to convert 14-20 from the field of which 11-14 made baskets were assisted.

I think you get my point…

The Nuggets were down by ten at the half and as many as 19 in the third quarter before mounting any kind of comeback in the fourth.  But here’s where salt was rubbed in an already gaping wound - the Clippers gave the Nuggets a chance to steal this game back from them and Denver didn’t take it.

That’s right, Denver still should have won this game after getting 67 scored on them in the second and third quarters combined!

The Nuggets fought all the way back from down 15 at the start the fourth quarter and cut the Clipper lead to two points, 92-90, with six minutes remaining in regulation before two really poorly executed possessions turned into back-to-back, back-breaking three’s from Rasual Butler and Baron Davis to put Denver back down by eight and to bed for good.   The first bad possession was Carmelo putting his head down and driving to the basket which allowed the Clipper defense to converge and for Marcus Camby to block his shot. The following possession went awry when Earl Smith left his feet to enter the ball into the post and turned it over. The Nuggets never tightened the lead back to one possession and left a golden opportunity on the table.

Carmelo led all scorers with his league-high eigth 30+ point peformance of 37 points,  six rebounds, and four assists. Earl Smith finished 4-13 from the field for a quiet nine points, but gave the patrons their ticket value with a 360 lay-up.Rasual Butler came off the bench and led L.A. with 27 points.

So here’s the Mile Spin: Remember how great the Laker win was? Yeah, super feel-good, right? Well, forget about this loss as quickly as the Laker win. Sure, it was a disappointment against a team the Nuggets should have been able to take care of business with, but at the end of the day it’s just 1 of 82. Some will get all up in arms about this being a “bad loss”, but real disappointment can be averted if the Nuggets take care of business back in Denver against the Bulls tonight.

Go Nuggets!

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