| 24 January 2010
(Denver-CO) Looking at the New Orleans Hornets Schedule you would have noticed they won their last two games on buzzer beaters by James Posey. Their luck ran out in overtime against the Nuggets.
However, the Denver Nuggets may have been able to beat the Hornets, 116-110, in overtime, but the question remaining to be answered is at what cost? Carmelo Anthony appeared to badly twist his ankle in the overtime period after landing on Devin Brown’s foot before scoring 30 points and grabbing eleven rebounds. As of right now, it is being reported that he is not going to play in Denver’s next game on Monday night.
However, the underlying story remains the situation brewing between Head Coach George Karl and J.R. Smith. The reserve guard, who is averaging 14.5 points per game, is in danger of being suspended by the team for one game for “pouting” and for behavior that Karl has called “eclectic”. He also chose to skip an optional practice today, reports ESPN’s player profile for Smith.
I’ll embellish on to this interesting topic later, but first the victory recap.
The first half against the Hornets resembled the first half of the previous match-up with the Clippers as neither team could put the other down by a double digit deficit. New Orleans did have the Nuggets trailing by eight, twice, in the second quarter, but a late surge sparked by five straight made free-throws by Chauncey Billups helped the Nuggets go into halftime down by the slimmest of margins, 54-53.
It was in the third quarter that I noticed J.R. Smith had not played and it wasn’t because I was pining for him. Rather I was really impressed with the play of Arron Afflalo and I was in applause of George Karl giving him the majority of the minutes. Afflalo had scored seven points in the first half and played some very solid defense on Devin Brown and then followed it up with a pair of three’s in the third while continuing to be a headache for the Hornets defensively. Furthermore, Afflalo usually never deviates from the natural flow of the game offensively when he’s in there. He makes sound decisions with the basketball and takes his shots within the rhythm and circumstances of each individual possession - both admirable qualities in the eyes of most coaches.
The Nuggets regained the lead, 79-78, entering the fourth quarter and as we in the Nuggets Nation all know the Nuggets rarely lose when such is the case. And it would have appeared that the Nuggets were going to win easily after opening up an eight-point lead in the first two minutes of the final quarter after Ty Lawson assisted all three of the Nuggets’ field goals and added a pair of free-throws, but Chris Paul had other ideas. CP3 scored eleven of the Hornet’s 23 points, including the overtime forcing field goal, and handed out a pair of assists in the fourth quarter to extend the game to an additional five minute period.
In overtime, Arron Afflalo was once again Johnny on the spot with a pair of three-pointers to give and keep the Nuggets ahead of the Hornets by five points as Carmelo, Ty Lawson, and Nenes’ final five combined free-throws iced the game for the Nuggets. Chris Paul had done everything he could do by scoring seven of New Orleans’ nine points in overtime and finished with 26 points and ten assists, but without David West in the starting line-up. The Nuggets starters outscored Hornets starters 99-86 and were too much for the shorthanded Hornets.
Arron Afflalo finished with a season-high 19 points, including 5-9 from three-point range, and was a team best +16 overall +/-. Kenyon Martin and Chauncey Billlups each scored 20 points with Martin chipping in a game-high 14 rebounds and Billups handing out a team-high nine assists. Nene also had a double-double of ten points and twelve rebounds, but took just three shot attempts in 35 minutes of burn.
Chris Andersen also deserves a lot of praise for dominating the boards in the second and third quarters. The Birdman finished with 13 rebounds, six offensive, and six points in 24 minutes off the bench.
Now back to J.R. Smith…
In his last four games, Smith is 12-29 shooting from the field 5-20 from the land of plenty while being turnover prone with nights of five and six turnovers . This, and his antics on the bench, are why George Karl chose to stay with Afflalo, who is 22-38 from the field and 11-23 from range in his last five outings. In addition, I can’t help but notice the most stark difference between the two: Afflalo is all about the team and J.R. seems to be all about himself. When J.R.’s shot is falling it’s all about him with a shameless amount of self-promotion after each three or showboat dunk. When Afflalo is playing well, defensively or offensively, he quietly goes about his business on the next play as if the play before it never happened. It’s a recipe for disaster for J.R. and a recipe for success for Afflalo because J.R. is streaky and doesn’t give the team a lot outside of what he contributes on “good” nights.
Up next for the Nuggets is a look at former Nuggets’ Head Coach Larry Brown’s Charlotte Bobcats on Monday night. The Bobcats are 21-21 overall and winners of 9 out of their last 12 games in 2010. With that being said, they are coming off of back-to-back losses and are starting a season-high, six-game road trip.
Go Nuggets! 
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