Nuggets Badly Out Rebounded in Loss to Wolves 99-94

The Nuggets were leading the NBA in offensive rebounding going into this game and the Wolves were just about last, but each team played like the other usually does and the Wolves plastered the Nuggets with numerous second and third chance scores. The Nuggets, who had small leads most of the way but were intimidated on the boards by Kevin Garnett (17 rebounds) and Mark Blount (8 rebounds), fell to the large number of second and third chance Wolves scores and to yet another 4th quarter collapse, losing 99-94.

This was a battle between the two top rebounders in the NBA, Garnett and Marcus Camby, but it was not even close, as Camby had his clock cleaned by Garnett and finished with only 3 rebounds. Just as strangely, Nene had only 2 rebounds and Reggie Evans had just 4. Blake, Melo, and Kleiza led the Nuggets in rebounding with 5 each, in what could only be described as a total domination of the normally powerful Camby-Nene rebounding combination by the normally powerful Garnett-Blount rebounding combination.

Every one of the Minnesota guards except for backup Rashad McCants had miserable shooting nights, so Garnett and Blount had to score as well as dominate the boards if the Wolves were to win, and that is exactly what they did. Garnett had 19 points on 7/14 shooting and Mark Blount had 24 points on 11/19 shooting. Blount, who the Wolves obtained from the Celtics, is playing as a great low post partner for Garnett and his jump shot can be deadly as it was tonight.

Predicting how well the Nuggets will play has become a foolish thing to do and I, for one, have learned my lesson to never try to do it. More generally, being a Nuggets fan is not easy, and is recommended only for those who have alot of experience dealing with surprising bad things popping up out of nowhere in their life on a regular basis. You must keep a tough attitude and not break down and beg the Nuggets for mercy when they follow an outstanding game with another embarrassing choke. Or, more simply, you have to like really nasty rollercoasters.

The Nuggets outshot the Wolves .521 to .452, and were 6/16 from 3-point land versus 3/13 for the Wolves, but the Wolves had 93 shots on goal versus 71 for the Nuggets. To put that in perspective, for the season, the Nuggets are averaging 85 shots per game and the Wolves 78. It's bad enough to lose, but when the other team plays your way and you play their way that really gets the coaches and the fans upset.

The Minnesota fans who braved arctic weather to come to the game saw their team offensive rebound their way to a key win that brings the Wolves fully back into the race for the lower playoff seeds in the Western Conference while the Nuggets, for now, are holding the second from last (7th) seed.

The Nuggets are most likely leading the league in the number of games lost where the losing team had a double digit lead. Perhaps they should try to win some of their games by falling behind on purpose and coming from behind for the win. That may be more than sarcasm, because I swear the Lakers have successfully employed that strategy in a good number of important playoff games during the last dozen years. Fool the other team into thinking they have got the game and then steal the game from them late when they are all comfortable. And seriously, many athletes play better with the extra motivation of trying to get a win from behind.

The Nuggets played relatively error free in the first half, but made more and more errors as the second half went along. The 4th quarter of games is when the Nugget's turnover machine frequently shifts into high gear. In this 4th quarter, Blake lost the ball to PG Mike James, Nene was called for an offensive foul, Melo made a bad pass, Blake made a bad pass, Blake was called for travelling, J.R. Smith was called for travelling, and a Camby pass was intercepted by Garnett. How can you win a close game with 7 turnovers in the 4th quarter? Obviously, you can't unless you have Michael Jordan having a 45 point game or something.

Like a recovering alcoholic who breaks down and goes on a drinking binge, the Nuggets broke down and started gorging themselves on turnovers again, as their coaches who thought they might have broken the terrible habit looked on helplessly in horror. Coaching players to not do things is more difficult than coaching them to do things, but you would think by now the Nuggets would have learned to be more careful and less reckless about moving and passing the ball in the 4th quarter when a game is on the line.

In the fourth quarter, with 2:30 left and the Nuggets leading 90-87, Blount was fouled on a third chance shot by Melo, and he hit both free throws. After Garnett intercepted Camby, Blount made a nice jumper. After a Melo layup, Blount made another jumper, so with 1:28 to go it was 93-92 Wolves. Steve Blake then violated the new "let's not have another 4th quarter collapse strategy" by hoisting a three instead of dishing to someone who could go to the hoop and make a layup or draw a foul. Kleiza got the rebound and he hoisted a long 2, thus also violating the new rule. The rule specifically states that "there shall be no lame jump shots during 4th quarter collapses". This rule was followed closely during the Nuggets 3-game win streak now ended.

The Wolves then chewed up half the remaining time until Randy Foye made a great driving layup with 23 seconds left for 95-92 Wolves. After a full time out, Melo made a driving dunk to make it 95-94 Wolves just when someone, preferably J.R. Smith or Kleiza, should have been shooting a 3 to try to tie the game. Instead, the Nuggets opted to see if the Wolves would miss a free throw after an intentional foul. There was no such luck, as Foye and later Garnett made all 4 foul shots from two intentional fouls.

After the Melo dunk and the Foye free throws it was 97-94 with 14 seconds to go. So J.R. Smith missed a shot from beyond the arc right? Wrong. Ok, so at least the choking Nuggets had their point guard Steve Blake, who in most games can not shoot all that well, take a 3-point shot for overtime, right? Wrong again. What actually happened was that Blake went to the hoop for two points just when the Nuggets needed three. Predictably, Blake's shot was rejected by the collapsing Wolves game closing defense in the paint. George Karl was enraged that a foul was not called, saying Blake had been hacked. But basketball life can be so miserable and unforgiving when your team has a turnover addiction and loses it's mind and also the respect of the refs from the effects of it.

For some unknown and probably a very bad reason, Reggie Evans, the number two Denver rebounder who gets about 8 rebounds per 20 minutes of playing time, was held out of the game and played just 5 minutes. With Camby and Nene taken to the cleaners under the hoop by Garnett and Blount, that was clearly a blunder.

Najera played 18 minutes and was 4/4 for 8 points, and he added 2 rebounds. Kleiza played 27 minutes and was 4/9 and 3/5 on 3's for 11 points, and he had 5 rebounds and two assists.

Nene played for 35 minutes and was 7/11 and 4/5 from the line for 18 points, and he had 2 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 4 steals.

Steve Blake played 40 minutes and was 2/8 and 0/3 on 3's for 4 points, and he had 18 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal.

J.R. Smith played 23 minutes and took only shots from behind the arc. He was 3/7 on these for 9 points, and he added 4 rebounds.

Marcus Camby played for 36 minutes and was 6/10 for 12 points, and he had 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, and an assist.

Melo played even more than usual, for the whole game except 3 minutes, and was 10/21, 0/2 on 3's, and 8/10 from the line for 28 points, and he added 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

The next game, which will follow the all-star break, will be next Tuesday, Feb. 20 in San Antonio to play the Spurs at 6 pm mountain time.

Nuggets Enjoy Unusual Easy Win Over Warriors, 123-111

Instead of scrambling and stressing, the Nugget's starters were enjoying extended bench rest during 4th quarter garbage time at the Pepsi Center as the Nuggets crashed the boards for 22 second chance offensive rebounds, J.R. Smith hit on 6/11 shots from beyond the arc, Melo's jumper remained dependable, and Nene and Camby made a good number of what were for them relatively easy layups and dunks as the Nuggets built up to a 24 point lead early in the 4th quarter and cruised to the win after that. Relatively complicated closing strategies were not needed in this one; for once there was no chance of a an ugly or chaotic 4th quarter collapse.

The Warriors give up more points than any other team in the NBA and they have not yet begun a defense improvement project as the Nuggets have. The Nuggets ended up with an astounding 37 assists, with Steve Blake getting 13 of them and Marcus Camby playing some PG and getting 7 assists. Now that is team play if I ever saw it, the center filling in for the injured guard.

The fans, still not completely sold on these streaky, yo yo Nuggets after having been badly disappointed at least one too many times, at least were able to leave the arena with some amount of confidence that they were not making fools of themselves by rooting for the Denver Imposters. They could go to sleep tonight knowing the Nuggets are not only on paper but in reality capable of being a really good team, although no one has the faintest idea what is going to happen when the Nuggets play teams such as the Mavs, Jazz, Lakers, and Suns in the many late season and playoff matchups still to come. Specifically, no one knows whether the Nuggets will be clumsy, tentative, and relatively lazy on defense during crucial games or whether they will instead be more skilled, aggressive, and energetic. The Nuggets love to rebound, but pressure defense still tastes like broccoli to them.

And no one knows whether the players will continue to choose their shots well and also get enough shot opportunities, so that they do not become a non-factor offensively that the opposing team can pretty much ignore. Only in the last half dozen games or so have the Nuggets more often than not been able to get everyone who is playing to actually contribute to the scoreboard. One example of this is Nene becoming a real functioning, scoring F-C. Another example is Najera taking and making shots. These types of things have reduced the double teaming of Melo. Whether these improvements will continue in the high pressure atmosphere of a game against teams like the Mavs or the Jazz remains to be seen.

The Nuggets had, by dominating the boards and by more often than not controlling the paint, built up a 102-87 lead with 19 seconds left in the third quarter when J.R. Smith hit a three at the buzzer ending the third quarter. After the short break between quarters, he hit another three. SF Matt Barne's pass was intercepted and J.R. got it and buried another 3, so the Warriors were treated to a "J.R. special deluxe," 9 points in less than 1 minute.

Now all of a sudden the score was 111-87 and the game was effectively over. Marcus Camby was out as of the end of the 3rd. J.R. was pulled out with 8 minutes to play in the fourth and Melo was pulled with 7 minutes to play, so the Nuggets had all their primary starters out with half a quarter to play, a luxury that the Nuggets have not enjoyed all season. The Nuggets, at least for now, have completely righted their ship and are sailing on a charted but still hazardous course toward the playoffs in late April.

PG Baron Davis, who is the only Warrior averaging more than 20 points a game at 20.7, did not play and will tomorrow have surgery on his left knee. The Warriors do not know when or even if he will return this season. The Warriors were led by the rookie SG Kelenna Azubuike, out of the University of Kentucky, with 23 points on 8/12 shooting, and by PF-C Al Harrington (of the Pacers until a trade a few weeks ago) who had 24 points on 11/23 shooting along with 8 rebounds and 6 assists.

Allen Iverson, who has missed 7 of the last games with a badly sprained ankle, can rest easy again now that the Nuggets have won 3 straight and have proved or at east strongly hinted that it was mostly bad luck and defensive laziness that cost them those home losses that briefly made them a losing team. For now, A.I. doesn't have to worry about obnoxious television interviewers asking him whether he thinks he ended up in the same old losing situation after he was traded. The Nuggets don't look like they are going to test going under the win-loss waterline at any time the rest of the season, though you can never say never with this squad.

George Karl is coaching more like a wise and kind grandfather than an aggressive taskmaster type coach (like Larry Brown) who challenges individual players but is sometimes rejected by them as an out of touch pain in the neck. (See Iverson for more details.) The way that Karl is coaching involves emphasizing the importance of team play over individual heroics.

The Karl-KMart battle of last season was due to KMart rebelling against Karl taking this approach to it's limits by limiting his playing time since KMart was not, in Karl's view, playing all the minutes he was getting in a way that was best for the team. Later,the total benching of KMart was due to the perceived disrespect of KMart toward his coach; it was not part of the coaching strategy itself. This season, with all the suspensions, trades, and injuries, Karl has struggled with limited success to get starting lineups and rotations correct, and these are very important components if the "grandfather coach" style is to succeed.

The grandfather kind of coaching can succeed spectacularly (better than the demanding type of coaching) if the team buys into the greater goal of winning and understands and implements team concepts. (See Phil Jackson for more details.) But that kind of coaching can fail with a whimper if players ignore their coach and play only for their pay checks, contracts, and careers. So Karl's coaching style is smart if and only if the players are smart and motivated to help the team as much or more than to help only themselves.

G-F Johnson played for 11 minutes and was 2/4 and 1/3 on 3's for 5 points, and he had 3 assists and 2 steals.

Najera played 19 minutes and was 2/5 and 0/1 on 3's for 4 points and he added 2 assists and a block. Evans played 20 minutes and was 3/5 and 0/2 from the line for 6 points and he led the team in rebounding with 11 boards. He also had a block, a steal, and an assist. Kleiza played for 34 minutes and was 2/9, 0/2 on 3's, and 8/8 from the line for 12 points and he had 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

Steve Blake played 37 minutes and was 4/11 and 0/3 on 3's for 8 points, and he had the 13 assists and 2 steals.

Nene played 28 minutes and was 10/14 and 4/7 from the line for 24 points, and he added 6 rebounds and 2 assists.

Marcus Camby played 27 minutes and was 4/5 and 0/3 from the line for 8 points, and he also had 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, and a block.

The explosive J.R. Smith played for 23 minutes and was 10/18, 6/11 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 28 points, and he also had 4 rebounds and an assist. Fans continue to be advised to at all times remain in their seats or in front of their televisions with their seat belts securely fastened when J.R. is in the game; if you go away for even as little as a minute you can miss 9 points and perhaps the game being won.

Carmelo Anthony played 30 minutes and was 12/25, 0/2 on 3's, and 4/5 from the line for 28 points and he had 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and a block.

The next game will be Wednesday, Feb. 14 in Minneapolis to play the Timberwolves at 6 pm mountain time.

Nuggets Engineer Win Over Bucks 109-102

The Nuggets went about their business digging themselves out of the big hole they are in by producing the second great team effort in two nights to defeat the Michael Redd-less Milwaukee Bucks 109-102. Although it was the second road game in two nights, it was almost a must win given how many home games the Nuggets have already squandered this season and given that the Bucks are almost as bad off as a car without an engine without Redd, who is one of the very best scorers in the League.

The game was tied at the half, and the Nuggets led my 80-74 after 3 quarters. The teams traded scores through the first half of the 4th quarter, but the Bucks were within 2 points, at 99-97, with 2:53 to go. Melo's drive to the hoop plus 1 made it 102-97, but the Boykins fire was still out of control and he made a three and a two on successive possessions to tie the game with 1:21 to play. But then the player who has been mostly missing from the scoreboard, Najera, made a jumper to make it 104-102 Nuggets. After SF Ruben Patterson, well defended by Najera, missed a jumper for the Bucks, Nene was unintentionally fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws for 105-102 Nuggets.

PG Mo Williams missed a running jumper and a Charlie Bell inbounds pass was intercepted by Blake with half a minute left to end any chance the Bucks had to send the game into overtime.

Were it not for PG Earl Boykins and G-F Charlie Bell, the Bucks would have lost big, because the Nuggets were firing on all cylinders. Boykins, who was a Nugget (known as Iverson #2) until a month ago, but had to be traded for budget reasons, was on fire, finishing with 26 points on 10/15 shooting, and 6/7 from long range. Boykins did all this wearing a splint on his shooting hand. Bell had 16 points on 7/13 shooting. The Bucks were a blazing 10/18 overall from 3-point land, whereas the Nuggets were a much more limited 5/18 from that distance, led by J.R. Smith who was 4/8.

For the second night in the row, the Nuggets defended with very few fouls, as the Bucks made 8 of the measly 10 free throws they had for the whole game. The extra defensive drills in Denver have clearly paid off. Meanwhile, at the other end Nene and Evans were fouled repeatedly, Evans apparently on purpose. The Nuggets made 22/32 free throws, with Evans accounting for half of the 10 misses.

Solid evidence that the Nuggets are serious about winning on the road to make up for losing at home was provided by their 11 steals, achieved while one of the all-time greatest pickpockets in basketball, Allen Iverson, was still trying to get the swelling and the pain from an ankle strain to subside. And even the assist count was up, to an impressive 28, with both Blake and Melo in double digits in the category.

And then there is the evidence of the Nuggets outrebounding the Bucks 44-35, despite being without the number 2 rebounder in the NBA, Marcus Camby, also out with an injury. For the second night in a row, the Nuggets' forwards crowded the backboards, aggressively positioned themselves, and limited the second chance opportunities of their opponents.

For the second night in a row, Eduardo Najera played at a level not seen from him earlier this season, with 15 points on 7/10 shooting and 4 important steals. Led by Najera and Melo, the Nuggets played with hustle, discipline and good execution, and had only 12 turnovers, a major accomplishment in itself. Nene made sure he got his points up close and wisely decided not to try to develop his jump shooting during a live must-win game. He layed in and dunked 6 of 8 opportunities at the hoop and pocketed a nice 17 points.

In summary, every single Nugget who played for 10 minutes or more made solid contributions and had a good game relative to his career average. And, gasp, the Nuggets are playing defense and using smart strategies to close out wins.

The Nuggets are now probably the only team in the NBA who are more dangerous on the road than at home. The pressure of playing for huge Denver crowds that expect wins every game due to the Iverson hoopla may have cost them some of those home losses. On the other hand, it remains to be seen whether the across the board great effort and solid results that were seen on this golden little 2-day road trip will happen again when the Nuggets storm the arenas of the monster teams of the Western Conference. It is in places like Dallas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, where very few teams win, that the real test will be, both in the regular season and in the playoffs.

Melo, who has talked about the need for himself to step up with A.I. and Camby out, and has also requested that the team have more fun as it turns things around, put his play where his mind is in this one, missing a so-called triple double by just 2 rebounds. In "Star Wars" it was "May the force be with you". In Nuggets basketball, it is "May Melo's jumper be with you". And for the second night in a row, it was with us.

Reggie Evans played 19 minutes and was 0/2 and 6/11 from the line for 6 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, and a steal. Kleiza played 27 minutes and was 4/8, 0/3 on 3's and 4/4 from the line for 12 points, and he had 4 rebounds, a steal, and an assist.

Eduardo Najera played 35 minutes and was 7/10 and 1/2 from the line for 15 points, and he added 8 rebounds, 4 steals, a block, and an assist.

Nene played for 34 minutes and was 6/8 and 5/7 from the line for 17 points, and he had 11 rebounds, 1 block, and an assist. Nuggets fans have to hope that Nene's knee continues to not swell up badly, so that the Nuggets can continue to enjoy his increasing defensive contributions, layups, and dunks.

Steve Blake played almost the whole game and was 4/14, 0/2 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 10 points and he had 11 assists and a steal.

J.R. Smith played for 24 minutes and was 5/10, 4/8 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 16 points, and he also had 3 assists. The Bucks were treated to the "J.R special," which is either 6 or even 9 points in less than a minute or two. It happened to the Bucks late in the 3rd quarter, as J.R. buried two 3-pointers on back to back possessions as he has done so many times before. As long as the Nuggets are not being routed, they will never be out of a game as long as J.R. is in it, although sometimes he seems to be physically in the game but not really there, as if he were a ghost.

Melo played almost the whole game and was 13/28, 1/4 on 3's, and 2/4 from the line for 29 points, and he added 10 assists, 8 rebounds, and 3 steals.

The next game is Monday Feb. 12 in Denver to play the Warriors at 7 pm mountain time.