| 11 December 2009
(Denver-CO) The Denver Nuggets have not won a game in Detroit in their last 13 tries over the last 13 years. Sadly, they had their chance last night to shake the bugaboo in the Motor City in the fourth quarter, but failed to do so and eventually fell to the injury riddled Pistons, 101-99.
Maybe they need an even longer-term Sports Betting Strategy, like the one from Doc's Sports.
Now, usually I’d look at the box score, maybe watch the game again, and try to find a silver lining or at least enough positive things to point to instead of pointing fingers, but if I don’t get a few things off my chest now it all builds up and I’m liable to explode later.
Lloyd Braun would say, “Serenity now, insanity later”
So, hear it goes…
It was finally nice to see the Denver Nuggets step onto the floor and be ready to play for once. Usually, Denver allows their opposition to get a small lead in the first quarter due to a sluggish start, but Denver actually jumped out to an, 11-6, lead on the Pistons. Albeit, short lived.
Detroit quickly too the lead back in the early goings of the second quarter via a 7-0 run personally by Charlie Villanueva that included ‘Melo fouling him on a three-point attempt. J.R. Smith hitting back-to-back three’s shortly thereafter brought the Nuggets back into the fold, but ultimately poor pick and roll defense left Denver down by two at the half, 52-50, even with Carmelo displaying some single faceted offensive brilliance. I specifically say “single faceted” because, and as you will read in the next few days in an interview I conducted with former Nuggets’ coach and player, Bill Hanzlik, all ‘Melo did was score and when he’s one dimensional Denver is not at its best. Anthony finished the half with 20 points, but just one assist.
Nevertheless, Denver was in the this game without their defensive “quarterback” Kenyon Martin and I was content with being down by two at the half. However, things quickly became very aggravating for me, and I‘m assuming the rest of the Nuggets Nation.
My content feeling dissipated quickly in the second half with every passing possession that Nene did not see the ball on the post. Time and time again, and with no one from Detroit having proved they could stop Big Brazil, the Nuggets failed to enter the ball into Nene. It’s almost as if the Nuggets froze him out. Nene finished with eight points and eleven rebounds, but only attempted five shots. To me, this just isn’t proper utilization of Nene - especially when Detroit didn’t have anyone who could match his speed and agility on the low block and when considering how thin Detroit is, an outright sin.
Carmelo kept scoring and finished with 40 points, but it also makes it pretty easy for the opposition to win when he’s the only one scoring. Now, you can’t tell me that in Carmelo’s 43 minutes of playing time that there weren’t more than two occasions when he could have found a teammate for an easy bucket. But, that’s exactly what the box score tells us as Carmelo finished with two assists and a dead even +/-.
My agony didn’t stop there.
In a move we’ve all seen in the past (and one that I had hoped wouldn’t resurface in J.R. Smith’s game this season), Smith completely blew a breakaway gimme by trying to double-pump a dunk with the game tied late in the third at 73 all. The ball caromed off the rim and J.R. ended up on the floor in a heap of tangled legs and on the ensuing Detroit possession they hit a three. It was a five-point swing at the worst time and Detroit actually finished the quarter on a 7-0 run when it was all said and done.
My last source of unhappiness stems from Chauncey Billups’ shot selection down the stretch. Billups finished last night’s game 1-4 from downtown and no miss was more ill-timed than when the Nuggets were down by one, 95-94, with three minutes remaining in regulation when Billups decided to pull up from the top of the arch, on the fast break, and chuck a three. Maybe he was trying to be a hero against his former team, but this was such a terrible shot for a number of reasons. First off, there was plenty of time on the clock for the Nuggets to play solid offense and get a better shot. In addition, Chauncey had not been shooting the ball very well and there was no one to rebound the ball in the event that he did miss. And the last reason why, in my humble opinion, that Chauncey should not have taken that shot is it broke up all the momentum Denver had built on a 10-3 run where the Pistons had only scored on free-throws over a four-minute span.
Chauncey did have one more shot to play the spoiler, but after hesitating ever so slightly to take the same shot from the top of the arch before deciding to take the ball to the hole. He missed off the glass and said hesitation didn’t leave enough time on the clock for a last-second rebound or tip. He finished with 21 points, including 8-8 from the free-throw line.
The Nuggets (16-7) finished this road trip 2-2 and have now dropped five losses to sub .500 teams. Up next is a three-game home stand which features three very capable Western Conference teams - starting with the Phoenix Suns on Saturday.
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