| 26 March 2010
(Denver-CO) The Denver Nuggets managed to start off their most recent three-game home stand with two nice wins over the Washington Wizards and New Orleans Hornets, but things have started to slip as Denver has lost its last two games to teams they should have beat. The current two-game slide started when the Nuggets lost for just the sixth time at Pepsi Center, 102-97, to the Milwaukee Bucks before dropping their first of five games on the road in the Mecca of basketball, New York City, to the sub .500 Knicks.
My goal with this four-game recap is to look at each individual game’s pros and cons with a broader scope of what has happened, and how it has happened, both on a player-by-player basis (again, pros and cons), and with the Nuggets overall.
Denver rebounded well after losing a heartbreaker to the Rockets by downing the Wizards, 97-87. But, in all fairness, this loss was the ninth straight for the Wizards and not exactly a feather in Denver’s cap.
The Nuggets got out to their usual crawl of a start and found themselves down by six after fruiting just 18 points in the first quarter. Again, Denver, was reluctant to play defense with any attention to detail (thankfully the Wizards had a hard time putting the ball in the goal) and the end result was an offense which never got any easy baskets either off of defensive rebounds and cranking up the fast break or forced turnovers.
If I had my way I wouldn’t let Carmelo Anthony shoot any jump shots until he had grabbed at least a couple of defensive rebounds. Everything Anthony did offensively would have to either be a drive to the basket or a pass to a teammate until he went to the defensive glass. It would be amazing if ‘Melo would get things off on the right foot defensively because so much of what he does, and how the rest of the team follows suit, is predicated on the defensive end. Last night, he didn’t fall into the jump shooter’s trap after his first rainbow went down and the rest of his game opened up because of so. The same goes with Nene. I kills me to watch a player so quick, strong, and agile settle for shots with a defender in his face when he could take said defender right to the rack and either earn foul shots or get a high percentage attempt.
Aside from what I would do personally with ultimate say so, the Nuggets trailed the entire first half to a team that is already trying to fill up their vacation schedule. In fact, it wasn’t until Arron Afflalo drained a trey nearly midway through the third quarter that Denver took its first lead of the game, 55-52.
And who would have figured that once the Denver Nuggets decided to play defense that they would pull away from the lowly Wizards?
The Nuggets returned the Wizards’ first quarter favor by holding Washington to 18 points in the third and after Alonzo Gee drained a buzzer-beater from a step in from half court the Nuggets held a, 65-63, advantage heading into the money quarter.
It was at this point that I realized that the Denver bench hadn’t made a real impact on this game. 12 points combined between Anthony Carter, J.R. Smith, Joey Graham, and Malik Allen is hardly enough to sustain the shorthanded Nuggets. And as if Kenyon being out isn’t enough, Chris Andersen also had not played due a tweaked left ankle and Ty Lawson was not active due to a lingering shoulder injury. So, without the Bird and the “Blur”, something was missing…
J.R. Smith had up to this point had a regrettable night shooting and aside from a couple of dimes Anthony Carter had been mute.
Ah, but with the “Best/Worst” player in the league and Anthony “Crafty” Carter you just never know when things are going to start percolating.
J.R. Smith scored 13 of his eventual 17 points in the fourth quarter including nine straight points which put Denver up by ten, 88-78, with 3:15 in regulation. “Crafty” did his part too. Anthony Carter handed out two assists to J.R. during his outburst and scored five consecutive points early in the quarter to keep the Wizards at bay.
All in all, the, 97-87, win over Washington may have not been pretty, but a win is a win in my book. Carmelo Anthony finished with a double-double of 29 points and a dozen rebounds in what was a tune up for things to come.
My goal with this four-game recap is to look at each individual game’s pros and cons with a broader scope of what has happened, and how it has happened, both on a player-by-player basis (again, pros and cons), and with the Nuggets overall.
Denver rebounded well after losing a heartbreaker to the Rockets by downing the Wizards, 97-87. But, in all fairness, this loss was the ninth straight for the Wizards and not exactly a feather in Denver’s cap.
The Nuggets got out to their usual crawl of a start and found themselves down by six after fruiting just 18 points in the first quarter. Again, Denver, was reluctant to play defense with any attention to detail (thankfully the Wizards had a hard time putting the ball in the goal) and the end result was an offense which never got any easy baskets either off of defensive rebounds and cranking up the fast break or forced turnovers.
If I had my way I wouldn’t let Carmelo Anthony shoot any jump shots until he had grabbed at least a couple of defensive rebounds. Everything Anthony did offensively would have to either be a drive to the basket or a pass to a teammate until he went to the defensive glass. It would be amazing if ‘Melo would get things off on the right foot defensively because so much of what he does, and how the rest of the team follows suit, is predicated on the defensive end. Last night, he didn’t fall into the jump shooter’s trap after his first rainbow went down and the rest of his game opened up because of so. The same goes with Nene. I kills me to watch a player so quick, strong, and agile settle for shots with a defender in his face when he could take said defender right to the rack and either earn foul shots or get a high percentage attempt.
Aside from what I would do personally with ultimate say so, the Nuggets trailed the entire first half to a team that is already trying to fill up their vacation schedule. In fact, it wasn’t until Arron Afflalo drained a trey nearly midway through the third quarter that Denver took its first lead of the game, 55-52.
And who would have figured that once the Denver Nuggets decided to play defense that they would pull away from the lowly Wizards?
The Nuggets returned the Wizards’ first quarter favor by holding Washington to 18 points in the third and after Alonzo Gee drained a buzzer-beater from a step in from half court the Nuggets held a, 65-63, advantage heading into the money quarter.
It was at this point that I realized that the Denver bench hadn’t made a real impact on this game. 12 points combined between Anthony Carter, J.R. Smith, Joey Graham, and Malik Allen is hardly enough to sustain the shorthanded Nuggets. And as if Kenyon being out isn’t enough, Chris Andersen also had not played due a tweaked left ankle and Ty Lawson was not active due to a lingering shoulder injury. So, without the Bird and the “Blur”, something was missing…
J.R. Smith had up to this point had a regrettable night shooting and aside from a couple of dimes Anthony Carter had been mute.
Ah, but with the “Best/Worst” player in the league and Anthony “Crafty” Carter you just never know when things are going to start percolating.
J.R. Smith scored 13 of his eventual 17 points in the fourth quarter including nine straight points which put Denver up by ten, 88-78, with 3:15 in regulation. “Crafty” did his part too. Anthony Carter handed out two assists to J.R. during his outburst and scored five consecutive points early in the quarter to keep the Wizards at bay.
All in all, the, 97-87, win over Washington may have not been pretty, but a win is a win in my book. Carmelo Anthony finished with a double-double of 29 points and a dozen rebounds in what was a tune up for things to come.
Moving right along…
The Nuggets made quick work of the New Orleans Hornets by, for once, actually jumping on their opponent from the opening tap. Arron Afflalo’s three five minutes into the first quarter gave the Nuggets an, 11-8, lead of which they never relented over the course of this contest. The Nuggets led, 27-17, after one and pasted the Hornets with 35 points in the second to take 25-point lead at the half.
In the second quarter it was once again the “Best/Worst” player in the league who took over for the Nuggets. J.R. Smith scored 13 of Denver’s 35 points in the quarter, including yet another nine consecutive point run, as the Nuggets pulled the stinger out of ‘Nawlins. And in his return from a sprained ankle, Chris Andersen made his impact felt with eight rebounds in the first half and Carmelo posted a double-double of 14 points and ten rebounds in 21 minutes of work.
This is the Nugget team I love to watch.
Denver moved the ball tremendously against the Hornets after not doing such a good job of sharing it against the Wizards. Chauncey had five assists, Nene four, ‘Melo three, J.R. with a pair, and the Bird and Carter handing out one each for good measure were the cherries on top. In all, the Nuggets shot 50% from the field (26/52) with 16 assists.
Defensively, the Nuggets forced seven turnovers of which they capitalized 14 points off of. Furthermore, New Orleans didn’t have a double-digit score in the first half.
The Nuggets made quick work of the New Orleans Hornets by, for once, actually jumping on their opponent from the opening tap. Arron Afflalo’s three five minutes into the first quarter gave the Nuggets an, 11-8, lead of which they never relented over the course of this contest. The Nuggets led, 27-17, after one and pasted the Hornets with 35 points in the second to take 25-point lead at the half.
In the second quarter it was once again the “Best/Worst” player in the league who took over for the Nuggets. J.R. Smith scored 13 of Denver’s 35 points in the quarter, including yet another nine consecutive point run, as the Nuggets pulled the stinger out of ‘Nawlins. And in his return from a sprained ankle, Chris Andersen made his impact felt with eight rebounds in the first half and Carmelo posted a double-double of 14 points and ten rebounds in 21 minutes of work.
This is the Nugget team I love to watch.
Denver moved the ball tremendously against the Hornets after not doing such a good job of sharing it against the Wizards. Chauncey had five assists, Nene four, ‘Melo three, J.R. with a pair, and the Bird and Carter handing out one each for good measure were the cherries on top. In all, the Nuggets shot 50% from the field (26/52) with 16 assists.
Defensively, the Nuggets forced seven turnovers of which they capitalized 14 points off of. Furthermore, New Orleans didn’t have a double-digit score in the first half.
The Nuggets continued to fill up the score sheet in the second half and ‘Melo reached a career-high 18 rebounds and a game-high 26 points. The only problem ‘Melo faces now is the questions concerning why he doesn’t rebound with a purpose more often? Now, I’m not saying that he needs to grab 18 rebounds every night, but after seeing ‘Melo assert himself on the boards like he did against the Hornets you can’t help but yearn for more.
Chris Andersen finished with 13 rebounds and five points, and Chauncey Billups had eight assist despite finishing with just ten points on 2-12 shooting.
Needless to say, the Nuggets ended up winning, 93-80, and seemed like they were well on their way to starting a new, and hopefully lengthy, winning streak.
That is… Until the Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA’s hottest team since the All-Star break, came to town.
Before I go any further I’d like to give due credit to the Milwaukee Bucks and their compliment of bench players who stepped up big time. Ersan Ilaysova (14 points and ten rebounds) Luc Ridnour (eleven points and three assists) and Kurt Thomas (five points, six rebounds, and two blocks) all played exceptionally well and made Denver’s current lack of depth off its bench glare like a mirror in the sun. Additionally, John Salmons and Carlos Delfino (26 points and 21 points, respectively) more than made up for Andrew Bogut and rookie Brandon Jennings having forgetful nights.
The other problem facing the Nuggets is a lack of scoring punch now that teams are keying in on Carmelo and Chauncey when the game is on the line. Both men scored 29 points against the Bucks, but with a combined five assists between the two of them and a starting compliment of players combining for a whopping twelve points. It was no surprise that after three quarters of play, and a tied score entering the fourth, all the Bucks had to do was keep Chauncey and Carmelo from getting too far off the handle as the rest of the Nuggets combined for six points in the fourth and Denver lost, 102-97.
Nene has got to come up with more than seven points in 35 minutes, especially when foul trouble kept starting Milwaukee center Andrew Bogut to just 15 minutes of playing time. Same goes for Arron Afflalo. “Triple A” (his middle name is Augstin) has to find a way to contribute more than one measly point and two rebounds in 23 minutes of burn. Otherwise, the load becomes too much for carry for the other Nuggets.
Aside from the shoddy stat lines individually by some Nuggets, the rest of the overall performance by Denver was pretty good. The Nuggets out rebounded the Bucks 53-40, had five more steals than Milwaukee, and blocked more shots, but when Denver’s top three scoring threats (Anthony, Billups, and Smith) shot a combined 20-62 from the field a loss is almost inevitable.
Before I go any further I’d like to give due credit to the Milwaukee Bucks and their compliment of bench players who stepped up big time. Ersan Ilaysova (14 points and ten rebounds) Luc Ridnour (eleven points and three assists) and Kurt Thomas (five points, six rebounds, and two blocks) all played exceptionally well and made Denver’s current lack of depth off its bench glare like a mirror in the sun. Additionally, John Salmons and Carlos Delfino (26 points and 21 points, respectively) more than made up for Andrew Bogut and rookie Brandon Jennings having forgetful nights.
The other problem facing the Nuggets is a lack of scoring punch now that teams are keying in on Carmelo and Chauncey when the game is on the line. Both men scored 29 points against the Bucks, but with a combined five assists between the two of them and a starting compliment of players combining for a whopping twelve points. It was no surprise that after three quarters of play, and a tied score entering the fourth, all the Bucks had to do was keep Chauncey and Carmelo from getting too far off the handle as the rest of the Nuggets combined for six points in the fourth and Denver lost, 102-97.
Nene has got to come up with more than seven points in 35 minutes, especially when foul trouble kept starting Milwaukee center Andrew Bogut to just 15 minutes of playing time. Same goes for Arron Afflalo. “Triple A” (his middle name is Augstin) has to find a way to contribute more than one measly point and two rebounds in 23 minutes of burn. Otherwise, the load becomes too much for carry for the other Nuggets.
Aside from the shoddy stat lines individually by some Nuggets, the rest of the overall performance by Denver was pretty good. The Nuggets out rebounded the Bucks 53-40, had five more steals than Milwaukee, and blocked more shots, but when Denver’s top three scoring threats (Anthony, Billups, and Smith) shot a combined 20-62 from the field a loss is almost inevitable.
Now with the three-game home stand finished up 2-1 and a looming five-game road trip laying in wait the Nuggets needed to find their winning way in a hurry and on the New York Knicks Schedule.
The last time the Nuggets met up with the Knicks, Carmelo Anthony dropped a career-high 50 points on New York. This alone had me feeling confidant, but I had no idea that it would be New York Knick, Danilo Gallinari, who would be brimming.
The Nuggets jumped to a 12-0 lead as the Knicks missed their first seven shots to open the game. However, we’ve seen the Nuggets struggle when teams suddenly switch up their defense and when the Knicks switched to a zone it enabled them to fight back into the thick of things,27-26, after one quarter despite shooting just 36 percent in the period.
The reason for this is Denver has a propensity for falling in love with the jump shot. Despite New York not having a legitimate shot blocker, the Nuggets were satisfied shooting free-throws and perimeter attempts even with what should have been a decisive advantage inside with Nene.
But once again it was Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups who had to shoulder the offensive load for the Nuggets. Chauncey poured in 21 points in the first half and ‘Melo added 16 with the rest of the Nuggets combining for just 16 points. Thankfully, Denver did take a, 53-49, lead into intermission, but the game looked identical to the Milwaukee loss just 48 hours beforehand.
In the third quarter, Carmelo and Danilo went at it. Oscar Robertson vs. Jerry West it wasn’t, but for a second-year player like Gallinari to rise to the occasion of guarding one of the leagues top players, yet alone trying to match him bucket-for-bucket, was fun to watch. Gallinari scored 17 of New York’s 34 points in the third quarter and had words for ‘Melo after draining back-to-back trey’s of which put the Knicks up by four with 1:34 remaining in the quarter. The Knicks, perhaps inspired by Gallinari stepping up, never relinquished the lead from that point on and the Nuggets fell, 109-104, despite having closed the gap to just one point, twice, in the final two minutes.
How Denver fell though is what concerns me. A guy like Danilo is more than welcome to have a great night, or quarter for that matter, in this league. But what isn’t supposed to happen is the Nuggets going scoreless for the final 3:36 of the third quarter and subsequently falling behind by nine, 83-74, entering the fourth. Carmelo’s twelve points in the third quarter were all but nine of the Nuggets’ output in the period and when ‘Melo couldn’t get free (surprise, surprise as the Knicks figured out to make him a passer) the rest of the team flopped like a fish out of water. J.R. Smith, bless his intentions, was 0-5 during this scoreless stretch and Joey Graham, despite grabbing four offensive rebounds, couldn’t tip in a miss from point blank range. Everyone else was silent.
So, once again, it boils down to contributions and against the Knicks the Nuggets just didn’t get enough at the right times from the right people. Carmelo finished with a game-high 36 points and Chauncey battled yet another off shooting night by hitting 14 of 15 free-throws to conclude with 25 points and six assists. J.R. Smith was 2-9 from downtown, but did lead all Nugget reserves with eleven points. However, just seven combined points by the rest of the bench left Denver outscored by New York’s reserves 31-18.
If you’re still with me after this many game recaps in a row I’ll leave you with this:
The Nuggets are not only shorthanded in the contribution department, but they are having to battle having the absence of George Karl monkey with their team dynamics. In this absence, I think Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups are trying to do too much and with the other Nuggets gladly taking a step back from the fold, so is this team. Kenyon Martin and Ty Lawson being out puts personalities of whom are more likely to fade into the background into the forefront.
The Nuggets are not only shorthanded in the contribution department, but they are having to battle having the absence of George Karl monkey with their team dynamics. In this absence, I think Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups are trying to do too much and with the other Nuggets gladly taking a step back from the fold, so is this team. Kenyon Martin and Ty Lawson being out puts personalities of whom are more likely to fade into the background into the forefront.
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