'Melo Blocks Out, Suns Still Outshine Nuggets

Written by Nick Sclafani | 16 November 2010

The Denver Nuggets fell last night to the Phoenix Suns, 100-94, in a game that they honestly should have won. The fourth quarter spelled doom for Denver as they became a stand around and watch, jump shooting team that wouldn’t follow their star’s lead to hit the glass. Consequently, the Suns were able to climb back in a game due to a stagnant Denver offense that netted just 36 points in the second half.

All game recaps will be handled as follows from now on:

1st

-Al Harrington was a beast off the bench with seven points in the first quarter. He would finish with 14 points overall.

-Gary Forbes seems to have gained favor in the George Karl rotation over J.R. Smith and was Karl’s first shooting guard off the bench.

2nd

-‘Melo’s rebounding was outstanding in the first half. He finished with eleven boards in just his first 17 minutes of action.

- Defensively, Phoenix was limited to one shot and the Nuggets were running the floor. Denver had ten fast break points in the first half.

- Ty Lawson was the fuel of the Nuggets fast break and after making a three-pointer seemed to regain his confidence offensively.

- J.R. Smith DNP in the first half… Makes you wonder if he isn’t being shopped quietly on the trading block.

3rd

- Lawson’s offensive swagger continues as Chauncey Billups has a hard time shooting the basketball. Billups was 0-4 shooting to start the game after attempting some of his more reliable signature shots.

-‘Melo continues to rebound at a feverous pace. Anthony Nabbed his career-high 19th rebound on a tip in of his own miss during the third quarter.

-The Nuggets turned the ball over eight times in the quarter after starting out 1-9 from the field and despite losing most of their halftime lead finished the quarter on a 5-0 spurt to enter the fourth up by seven, 76-69.

4th

- This was the quote of the night despite the Nuggets losing the game, “Childress has a long wingspan, good hops, and a great afro, but he is not strong enough to guard ‘Melo.”- Chris Marlowe

- George Karl stays with Ty Lawson instead of going back to Billups to start the fourth quarter. Chauncey would return and try to spark the Nuggets with a timely three with Denver down by nine, but it wasn’t enough.

- Hakim Warrick ties the game at 81 with a post up, fade away jumper on the smaller Forbes. The Suns then take their first lead of the second half, 83-82, on a Turkoglu hoop and the harm and after Chauncey Billups was hit with the Nuggets third technical foul of the night Denver trailed, 85-82, with 6:30 remaining. Warrick would score again on the ensuing Phoenix possession and the Nuggets found themselves down by five after a twelve-point swing in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter.

- Carmelo Anthony finished with an amazing 22 rebounds despite not having his best night offensively. Anthony chipped in 20 points for a team-high.

Nugget of Note: Nuggets failed to block a shot. Despite Nene’s solid night offensively (and I thought the Nuggets should have worked him the ball more) for an NBA center to not block a shot in 30 minutes is just not getting it done on the defensive end of the floor. He should have put some of the energy he delegated to pouting and arguing with the officiating crew into guarding the basket. The box score will say he did block a shot, but even Chris Marlowe noted that Denver did not actually do so.