Rockets Turn Out the Lights in Denver 108-97

Denver can turn out the lights, the basketball party is over. Dikembe Mutombo's inside defense and offensive rebounding, the great 3-point shooting of PG Luther Head and SF Shane Battier, and the Nugget's continuing inability to avoid turning the ball over enough times to make it next to impossible to get a win against a good team, ensured an easy win for the Houston Rockets 108-97.

The truth, if you can handle the truth, is that the hapless Nuggets were handled by the Rockets second string 40 year old center who doesn't score. It was easy, but imagine how much easier still it would have been for the Rockets if Yao Ming, who fractured his right tibia on December 23 and is out 6-8 weeks, had been starting, backed up by Mutombo. Had Ming played, for example, Tracy McGrady could have dished to him for easy layups and forgotten about taking 30 shots, which he took in this game. He led the Rockets offensively with 28 points on 11/30 shooting.

Mutombo, with 22 rebounds, got both his rebounds and those of PF Reggie Evans, who is in George Karl's doghouse because he misses half his free throws and is kind of awkward with his layups. Imagine how little playing time you get on a George Karl team if you are truly bad! Evans was exactly who the Nuggets needed in this game to make things more fair on the boards, so Mutombo had better write a little thank you note to Karl thanking him for setting up his "Oldest Man Ever to Get 20 or More Rebounds Award". And what's next, someone on Social Security torching the stripped down Nuggets roster for a triple double?

Yes, more and more the relevant question is not whether the Nuggets are going to get beat, but how much effort the other team needs to make to capitalize on the Nugget's well known faults and get the almost certain win. If the owner and the general manager are not at least becoming increasingly frustrated, and preferably angry, with George Karl and his team, then there may be no hope for basketball in Denver for years to come. Since life is rarely that cruel, Nuggets fans can hope for a change in coaching for next season and/or a partial blowup of the roster, with many players other than A.I. and Melo heading for other teams in exchange for a new crew for 2007-2008. It's virtually impossible, though, that Melo is going anywhere and extremely unlikely that A.I. is going anywhere. How can things get any worse for the Nuggets in basketball poker if they get several new cards to go along with their two aces, as long as the trades are fair? They can't lose.

The Nuggets never had a chance in this one, what with both Iverson and Melo shooting below their normal accuracy. The Nuggets would have lost unless one of the two pumped in a season best 45 points or so, with accuracy of at least .50 and preferably .60. But Melo is more steady than explosive, and A.I. is not having many games like this in his wise old basketball age. And heck, even Earl Boykins going on a scoring spree would not have pulled this one out.

The Nuggets and probably their season were buried in 3's, as the Rockets went 14-30 from long distance and made the Nuggets pay dearly for J.R. Smith's injury and Coach George Karl's refusal to play DerMarr Johnson, the only 3-point specialist left on the roster. Admittedly, it would have been unlikely for Johnson to have gotten four or five 3's to try to contend with the Rockets, but unlikely is much better than no shot at all.

The Rockets buried the Nuggets in the paint 46-28 and, after the game, George Karl complained that his team took too many jump shots. Maybe a few too many, but Melo, A.I., and the entire NBA has alot of respect for the Rocket's front court of Mutombo, PF Juwan Howard, and SF Shane Battier, let alone Yao Ming. The Rockets are top of the heap when it comes to defending in the paint, and they do it, unlike the Jazz, without much fouling.

Meanwhile, at the other basket, lost in the Rocket's easy win was yet another masterful defensive game from Marcus Camby, who solidified his lead over the rest of the League in blocks, with 7 of them. However, Camby was left completely out of the offense in this one, along with Diawara. Since Karl only played 8 men in total, there were only 6 Nuggets who contributed offensively, which is another part of that scientific formula for losing that the Nuggets have dreamed up. Neither Najera nor Kleiza are ever very explosive offensively, but the Nuggets needed someone besides Melo and A.I. to explode for 20 or more.

By lacking in 3-point shooting and offensive rebouding, but excelling in turnovers and soft jump shot defending, the Nuggets have discovered the perfect formula for losing. These shortcomings guarantee a loss even when they are much more accurate than their opponent, as they were tonight. The Nuggets shot with a .474 accuracy, while the Rockets were only .418. The Rockets hardly care about this, since the forumula from basketball hell the Nuggets are using produces a big gap in shot attempts. In this one, the gap was like the Grand Canyon: the Rockets had 98 shots and the Nuggets 78. It would be extremely rare for a team to be in a game while being out shot to that degree. About the only way for a team that has 98 shots on goal to lose would be if they had to play at least three grandmothers on the court at all times. Think about how disruptive the grannies would be to the flow of the offense.

The last fan thinking that the Nuggets have a great chance in the playoffs threw in the towel after this one, and thoughts now turn to next season, specifically about whether Kenyon Martin will be back full strength or not, about what kind of trade the Nuggets might be able to pull to get rid of players Karl refuses to play, and about whether Karl himself will be returning. But there is another disadvantage of consistently not playing someone at all: that player loses trade value. How can teams be sure of the abilities of Reggie Evans and DerMarr Johnson if they are sitting on the bench all the time?

Can anyone besides me begin to smell that nasty smell of a basketball team beginning to implode and ending up as a major loser in defiance of the dramatic moves of the owner and the front office? Colorado fans, while not as vicious as Philadelphia fans, are not potted plants either. Although they won't get nasty in your face very often, they will move on from the scene of a basketball train wreck, and will not patronize very many games of a losing team just to see a few alley oops performed by Melo and A.I.. They will move on to another sport, and Denver has teams in all 3 of the other major sports for them to move to: baseball, hockey, and football.

So the Nugget's 2006-2007 season grave stone should read: "Here Lies Melo, A.I., and the Nuggets, Who Fooled Many Fans Into Thinking They Would be Contenders but Whose Defense, Turnovers, Inconsistent Offense, Inconsistent Offensive Rebounding, and Coach Caused an Early Death. R.I.P." That would be alot of words so the owner will have to cough up some serious money for engraving for that grave stone. But heck, I'm sure he will want an impressive stone for the basketball graveyard.

Diawara played 17 minutes and was 0/2 and 0/1 on 3's for 0 points. Kleiza played 19 minutes and was 2/4, 2/4 on 3's and 4/4 from the line for 10 points, and he had 5 rebounds and an assist. Najera played 24 minutes and was 5/6 for 10 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block.

Blake played 30 minutes and was 6/8 and 2/3 on 3's for 14 points, and he had 6 assists and 6 rebounds. He had a good game but the Nuggets needed someone to have a great game.

Nene played 34 minutes and was 6/9 and 1/1 from the line for 13 points, and he had 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Camby played for 34 minutes and was 0/2 and 1/2 from the line for 1 point, and he had the 7 blocks, 4 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal.

A.I. played 39 minutes and was 7/19, 0/1 on 3's, and 5/8 from the line for 19 points, and he added 5 assists and 4 rebounds.

Melo played 39 minutes and was 11/28, 1/6 on 3's, and 7/8 from the line for 30 points, and he added 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, an assist, and a steal.

The next game is Tuesday, March 6 in Denver to play the Hornets at 7 pm mountain time.

Nuggets Use 15 Steals and A.I. Magic in Win Over Magic 111-101

The Orlando Magic, who started off this season better than the Nuggets at 14-5, have fallen faster and harder than the Nuggets, and they have done it with alot of turnovers, personal fouls, and a lack of enough offensive production, both 3-point shooting and overall. The Magic have the reverse problem of the Nuggets. Although they don't have dominant go-to scorers, they have very good role players, such as PG Carlos Arroyo and SF Trevor Aziza, and better than average bench production. They are getting beat by teams with 2 or 3 dominant scorers who run a simple, go inside whenever possible offense. Like the Rockets and Spurs, they defend the perimeter and jump shots in general well, but unlike the Rockets and the Spurs you can beat the Magic at the free throw line by aggressively going to the hoop.

The Nuggets got 62 of their 111 points in the paint and defeated the fading Magic 111-101 in an unusual, relatively easy home win. The Magic had 28 fouls called against them and the Nuggets were 23/31 from the line, wheras Denver committed a modest 18 fouls and the Magic were 14/19 from the line.

The Magic lack anyone who can take over a game and kick it into a very high gear to change momentum and seize a win. Years ago Grant Hill was supposed to become such a player, but his long injury absences and the injuries themselves have reduced his role from what it might have been. Meanwhile, the Nuggets have Allen Iverson, who has a great ability to kick his performance into higher gears, as well as a great ability to pick the best type of shot to emphasize given the opponent and the circumstances of a particular game. More broadly, A.I. can understand the dynamics of a game and play in the best way for the situation, without hardly thinking about it. It was this great knowledge of basketball that made Iverson certain that the Sixers were so far away from becoming a competitive team, that it would be best for him if he demanded changes in the way the Sixers played, and be traded if the Sixers were unable to make changes.

The Nuggets have been losing badly to the dominant teams of the Western Conference due to defensive laziness, too many turnovers, dubious coaching decisions, and a total lack of offensive production from too many players in too many games. The Nuggets have been caught in a vicious circle. After countless roster and lineup changes, A.I., Blake, Melo, and Camby are afraid to feed players who have not produced scoring, but if they don't get the ball, these overlooked players can't produce offensively.

And then there is Coach Mizer on the sidelines, ready to totally bench anyone who doesn't produce and who doesn't look good not producing, which makes for a second vicious circle on top of the first. Despite the fact that the only great 3-point shooter on the Nuggets, J.R. Smith, is out until about March 20 while he heals from knee surgery, three point specialist DerMarr Johnson remains deep benched partly because he missed alot of 3-pointers in a way that struck Karl as reckless, as well as because of questionable defending, which all the Nuggets except Camby are guilty of. Karl's move has left the Nuggets unable to effectively compete with any team that buries alot of threes, which would include all of the top 6 teams in the Western Conference except the Jazz.

But tonight the atoms of the universe must have rearranged themselves because the Nuggets played as if they never have the lack of production problem. For that matter, the Nuggets played as if they haven't had countless lineups; they had an impressive 28 assists. Even more impressive, three Nuggets had at least 6 assists: Iverson, Blake, and Camby. Camby has lately caught flak from some fans about handling the ball too much, but I'll take that kind of ball handling any day of the week.

Kleiza and Najera can be so cold offensively sometimes that you just know they would miss (Kleiza) or not take any shots (Najera) even if the basket was twice as big. But tonight Najera was 8/9 for 17 points and Kleiza was 5/8 for 15. Kleiza put the bandaid on the Nugget's 3-point shooting injury and made 3/6 shots from beyond the arc. Iverson did it Monday night against the Grizzlies. Now if Nene can start burying shots from downtown, I will relax my criticism of Karl's refusal to play Johnson, who prior to this season was a great long shooter and can not emerge from a slump if he doesn't play.

As for the Magic, they are a poor 3-point shooting team, even worse than the Nuggets, though in this game they took advantage of the Nugget's lazy perimeter defense and had one of their better nights of the season from downtown, 9/15.

George Karl, who has become more and more of a mizer with regard to minutes for players who he has soured on, played only 8 players versus the Magic's 11 players. Amazingly, 6 of the 8 scored in double digits, which is as good as it gets when 8 men play. But it was Iverson, the heart of the Nuggets, whose play shouted out to anyone willing to listen that the Nuggets are down but still kicking.

Karl also refused to play rebounding specialist Reggie Evans, so that the Magic outrebounded the Nuggets 44-37 even though both teams shot about .500. But the Nuggets squeaked by the Magic on shots taken 84-80, mostly because of an amazing 15 steals. Iverson, the perennial pickpocket, had 5 steals and Marcus Camby, who has expanded upon his great defensive game to come to the rescue of the Nugget's clunking offense, had 5 big steals as well as the 6 big assists. With all of these steals, the Magic were buried in the turnover department, 25-12. The Nuggets torched the Magic for 32 points off the 25 turnovers.

Melo has been trying to inspire his team off the court, and A.I. is a natural for inspiring his team on it. Between the two of them, the Nuggets might yet be able to make some noise, but unless Kleiza and Najera are going to play like tonight from here out, which is about as likely as the moon exploding, J.R. Smith is going to have to be back burying alot of threes before the Nuggets are competitive, because in pro basketball, you frequently need even more than heart and soul to win.

Diawara played 15 minutes and was 0/3 and 0/2 on 3's for 0 points, and he had 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Blake played 20 minutes and was 0/2 and 0/1 on 3's for 0 points, and he had 6 assists, 2 rebounds, and a steal.

Najera played 24 minutes and was 8/9 and 1/2 from the line for 17 points, and he added 5 rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block. Kleiza played 28 minutes and was 5/8, 3/6 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 15 points, and he had 3 rebounds and a block.

Nene (what knee problem, but it's probably still sore) played for 36 minutes and was 5/9 and 2/4 from the line for 12 points, and he added 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal.

Camby played for 30 minutes and was 3/9 and 4/6 from the line for 10 points, and he added 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals, and 3 blocks. Camby did not play in the fourth quarter due to a strained calf, but the injury did not appear to be serious.

Melo played for 36 minutes and was 8/19, 0/2 on 3's, and 7/8 from the line for 23 points, and he added 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

A.I. played for 46 minutes and was 13/25, 1/4 on 3's, and 7/9 from the line for 34 points, and he also had 7 assists, 5 steals, and 4 rebounds.

The next game will be Friday, March 2 in Denver to play the Rockets at 8:30 pm mountain time. The late start is because it is the late game of another one of those cable television double headers.

Nuggets Squeak By Grizzlies 111-107

Alan Iverson brushed the dust off his 3-point shot and made 3/6 of them. Nene and his formerly bum knee played 37 minutes, attacked the hoop with a vengeance, and made 9/12 layups and dunks. Camby produced 13 rebounds, 3 blocks, and enough inside defense against a team that is easy to stop from going inside too much. Najera took and made 3 shots rather than one or none, and Blake made 2 shots rather than none.

George Karl's rotating rotations, the crazy season, and poor rookie shooting has Diawara afraid to shoot at all these days, so he was completely out of the offensive picture. And Kleiza missed just about everything, but he was the only one doing that in this one. Johnson was on the bench all game, so obviously he could not produce anything. Three players producing absolutely nothing offensively was the most the Nuggets could afford in this game, and it beats four players producing absolutely nothing offensively which, believe it or not, has happened fairly often since the first of the year.

Melo had another typical Melo game. He got almost all of his layups and dunks against the weak inside defenders of the Grizzlies, but he missed one jumper too many to make his jump shooting average, finishing 5/14 on those. Melo got 33 points on 13/25 shooting to stay substantially ahead of Arenas and Bryant in the race to be the NBA scoring leader.

G-F Mike Miller went on a tear in the 3rd quarter, making five straight shots, 3 of them being 3-pointers. Iverson, who already had sensed that the Nuggets would probably lose with no 3-point shooting at all, responded brilliantly by making two consecutive, emergency threes 28 seconds apart, thus making up for J.R. Smith being out by dong a J.R. Special on the Grizzlies. And to think that people have the nerve to doubt me when I say that Iverson has become a basketball genius over the years.

So the Nuggets, except for Iverson's 3-pointers, played within their ordinary skill ranges which, to the horror of the coaches and the fans, was just barely good enough to hand a loss to the team that is one of two, (the other one being the Celtics), which loses more games than any team in the League. The Nugget's coaches and fans were in distress throughout the razor tight game. It's no fun being a Nuggets fan these days, because we all have the feeling you get if you buy a used car and you hear a loud, clunking noise coming from the engine a few days after you buy it. The Nuggets have become the Clunkers.

The biggest lead the Nuggets ever managed to get was 9 points, way back early in the 2nd quarter. After that, the Nugget's coaches were frequently thinking in the back of their heads about where they would apply for another job if the Nuggets were to lose this one, fail to make the playoffs, and anger the owner enough to fire them all. Fans were thinking in the back of their heads about how they ever started thinking that Denver could compete with the big boys this season and about which team they would have to switch to if the Nuggets lost most of the rest of their games so that it became impossible to say that you are a Nuggets fan in public without embarrassing yourself.

But the Grizzlies, being gracious Southern gentlemen, seemingly said "Here, have the damn game Nuggets, we're after Oden or Durant in the draft anyhow". They settled for too many jumpers late in the 4th quarter, instead of trying to seize the initiative and get some assistance from the refs by charging the net. Although the Grizzlies successfully depended on outside shooting for most of the game, by getting plenty of open looks against relatively lazy Nuggets defenders, in the end they went to that well once too often. Basketball is not kind to teams that get into a shot selection rut for an entire game.

In crunch time, the Nuggets covered a bit better but, more importantly, the Grizzlies overrelied on high pressure jumpers to fall, which is often a failing strategy in tight games. Even the League's best jump shooters, the Suns, usually try to go to the hoop more late in the 4th quarter of close games. And even poor defensive teams, like the Nuggets, defend jump shots better in the last few minutes of a game. If you miss a layup, you often get a second chance shot, or you get to shoot free throws, so that you can stay close in a tight game. If you miss a jump shot, you usually don't get a second chance. Your opponent gets a chance to pull ahead in a tight game, probably by shooting free throws! Finally, going to the hoop more very late in the game reduces the stress level, reducing the risk of a very costly turnover.

The game was tied 103 each with 3:29 to go and the Nuggets had called for time. I hope, but I can't be sure, that George Karl was warning Melo, Iverson, Camby, Nene, and Blake about avoiding turnovers, lame jumpers, and porous defense, which the Nuggets have used time and time again in these situations to lose games. Meanwhile, on the Memphis sideline was Tony Barone, who was installed as interim coach on December 28 after Mike Fratello was fired by the President of Basketball Operations Jerry West (the Laker great). Barone had been Director of Player Personnel, meaning he has been helping to acquire players rather than coaching them, and so he probably did not instruct his players correctly for the decisive 3 1/2 minutes. Either that or he told them to lose on purpose so the Grizzlies have a better shot at Oden and Durant. Just kidding.

In any event, George Karl, despite continuing to refuse to play the only true 3-point shooter available right now, DerMarr Johnson, was, with the assistance of Iverson's emergency 3-point shots, and a clutch jumper by Blake of all players, able to out coach Barone down the stretch. Thank goodness, at least he can out coach a team that doesn't really have a coach.

The Grizzlies were a very solid 8/19 from beyond the arc while the Nuggets were just 4/11. Besides Iverson's 3/6, Melo shot and made one 3-pointer.

The Nuggets, who have been badly outrebounded since the all-star break by the Spurs, the Jazz, and the Mavericks, had to do better against the Grizzlies, who are the worst rebounding team in the NBA. George Karl, however, tempted fate by playing rebounding specialist Reggie Evans for just 7 minutes. Evans had 2 offensive and 5 total rebounds in just 7 minutes. Had Karl benched Evans for the whole game as he did in Dallas, the Nuggets probably would have lost. The Nuggets had 11 offensive rebounds, 2 fewer than their average but 3 more than the Grizzlies had in this game.

But more evidence that the Nuggets came very close to losing their 5th straight is that Memphis shot .524 versus .494 for Denver and had 3 more shots on goal than the Nuggets did, despite the small Nuggets edge in rebounding.

Anthony drew a foul from Gasol and made both free throws, so it was 105-103Nuggets with 3:18 to go. Then Camby fouled Gasol, who made only one of two free throws. Iverson threw up an "emergency 3-pointer" and missed, Gasol rebounded, but then Camby blocked a Gasol jumper and then Nene rebounded setting up the Iverson dish to Blake for his clutch jumper. The Nuggets led 107-104 with 2:16 left. Then Nene fouled Gasol but he missed both free throws, which is very suspicious given that the Celtics and the Grizzlies are most likely to get Oden and Durant as long as they keep losing. I'm just saying it seems suspicious, but don't quote me. I think I am joking but I am not sure I am joking.

With 1:35 to go, Melo made a running a jumper for 109-104 Nuggets and then Damon Stoudamire made another gift to the desperate for a win Nuggets by hoisting an ill-advised jumper, which was off. After that, everybody on both sides missed. Iverson missed another three and Camby missed a jumper for the Nuggets, while Gasol, Miller, and Gay missed for Memphis, with the Miller and Gay shots being desperation 3-pointers with just a few seconds to go.

To Nuggets fans who have been hammered with way too many losses during the last few weeks, it was a win that seemed kind of shoddy, because it was a squeaker against one of the worst teams in the League that doesn't really have a coach and that did not play intelligent basketball. The Nuggets could have guaranteed themselves a win if they had simply hustled more on defense. Either the Nuggets played down to the level of their opponent, or else they are now on the same level as the Grizzlies, who are 15-43. Either way, it's bad news. Overall, this game seemed more like a meaningless break before the Nuggets and their fans start getting hammered over and over again.

Kleiza played 11 minutes and was 1/6, 0/1 on 3's and 1/2 from the line for 3 points, and he had 2 rebounds. Najera played 16 minutes and was 3/3 and 0/2 from the line for 6 points, and he had 2 rebounds. Diawara played for 21 minutes, took and missed one 3-point shot, and had a steal and an assist.

Steve Blake played 27 minutes and was 2/5, 0/2 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 6 points, and he added 4 assists and 2 rebounds.

Nene played 37 minutes and was 10/16 and 7/9 from the line for 27 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.

Camby played 34 minutes and was 3/6 and 2/2 from the line for 8 points, and he had 13 rebounds, 3 blocks, 4 assists, and 2 steals.

A.I. played 40 minutes and was 7/18, 3/6 on 3's, and 8/9 from the line for 25 points, and he added 9 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals.

Melo played 42 minutes and was 13/25, 1/1 on 3's, and 6/7 from the line for 33 points, and he had 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal.

The next game is Wednesday Feb. 28 in Denver versus the Magic at 7 pm mountain time.

Nuggets Run Into the Great Wall of Dallas 115-95

Playing a back to back road game after a demoralizing thrashing in Denver by the Jazz, the Nuggets flew to Dallas, played hard rather than tired, but too sloppy and not smart enough by pro b-ball standards, and were handled without much difficulty by the team that has so few weaknesses that they give you almost nothing to take advantage of. The Mavericks are an astounding 26-3 at home this season, and they have lost 1 home game (to Detroit on December 7) in the 3 1/2 months since November 8. They have now won 19 straight games at home, including wins over most of the other top teams in the Western Conference. Absolutely no one is beating Avery Johnson's squad in Dallas this year. In fact, almost no one is beating his squad anywhere; the Mavs are an incredible 46-5 overall after starting 0-4. Those Mark Cuban fines did nothing to stop his building the team that has to be the big favorite to win it all this year.

The winningest team in the League went about their business taking advantage of the Nugget's turnovers and porous inside defense, got 56 points in the paint and a nifty .511 field goal percentage, and drove another nail into what may end up being the coffin of the Nugget's playoff hopes and the 2006-2007 season as a whole. The Nugget's turnover gauge was in the red "meltdown" zone again at the end of this one. They had 23 turnovers, although the Mavs had 17, which is worse than their average of 13.

PF Dirk Nowitzki made a respectable 6/16 jumpers and scored 31 points on 10/22 shooting overall, and with 11 rebounds and 8 assists, he came very close to a "triple double". SF Josh Howard, who suffered an ankle sprain Thursday night against the Heat and was questionable, not only played virtually the entire game on his sore ankle, but put on a jump shooting show that was almost as good as Melo's, and finished with 27 points on 12/22 shooting.

When you have forwards like this, you have the luxury of having your center concentrate only on stopping penetration, which is exactly what Mavericks center Erick Dampier did; he produced 7 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals along with making life miserable for Nuggets wanting to take it to the hoop, particularly Iverson and Nene.

The Mavs average 7/18 from behind the 3-point line but they were so unimpressed by Nene, Camby, and other Denver interior defenders that they decided to bulldoze their way to scores in the paint in this one and were just 4/9 from downtown versus 3/10 for the Nuggets. The problem for the Nuggets here, of course, is that with J.R. Smith recovering from knee surgery, they have no one left who is fully qualified to take 3-point shots except for DerMarr Johnson, who George Karl apparently hates with a passion and refused to play at all for the second straight game no J.R. game.

The Nuggets, who are now fully getting that "we are on the ropes" feeling, came in with a little desperation and alot of attitude on their shoulders. But the Mavericks are the NBA's best in your face team; they can mock you by responding to what you do by doing the same back to you, and then beat you by doing what you can not do. The scrappy Nuggets got 13 steals against the Mavericks, but the Mavs stole it right back 12 times. And both the Mavs and the Nuggets ended up well above their usual number of personal fouls. But the Nuggets also "fouled the refs" and were given three technical fouls, including one handed out to George Karl, who has probably had at least one disturbing dream lately where he saw himself coaching the Grizzlies in Memphis next season.

The Nuggets used that increasing desperation they are feeling to stay in the game through the first half; Dallas was up only 60-56 at the half. During the intermission, there must have been some fighting words in the locker room and the Nuggets plotted what would have been a stunning upset. But they had 7 turnovers in the 3rd quarter, including 3 offensive fouls and a Melo travel. These are the kinds of turnovers you get when you are kind of desperate and in too much of a rush to get your points. The referees normally do not permit players to get sloppy on execution just because they are getting desperate for a win and think they can pull a stunning upset.

The Nuggets have now lost 18 of their last 19 games in Dallas over the last decade. Maybe next year the League will allow the Nuggets to play in Dallas after a rest to give them a chance for their first win there since the Clinton administration. Both games this year were back to backs for Denver but not for Dallas.

Not only did George Karl refuse to play DerMarr Johnson again, but for some unknown reason refused to play Reggie Evans, who gets more offensive rebounds per minute than folks like Tyson Chandler, Emeka Okafor, and Ben Wallace. True, some of those rebounds are so that he can stuff in his own missed layup, but so what? The Nuggets need his layups, too. With Evans stuck on the bench all night, the Nuggets had a pathetic 6 offensive rebounds, versus 11 for the Mavs, and had just 75 shot attempts versus 88 for the Mavs. Benching Evans was worse than shooting yourself in the foot, it was shooting yourself in the head.

So like a bank robber who can't stop with just one heist, Karl committed a multiple felony benching in this one: he had two players sitting on the bench the whole night who were badly needed to give the Nuggets a chance to win the game. I am afraid that it's time to put Rick Adelman's number on the speed dials at Nuggets headquarters.

Kleiza played 21 minutes and was 1/6, 1/3 on 3's and 4/4 from the line for 7 points, and he had 2 rebounds and a steal. Diawara played 21 minutes and was 1/5, 0/3 on 3's and 1/3 from the line for 3 points. Najera played 26 minutes and was 3/7 for 6 points, and he added 3 rebounds, 2 steals, an assist, and a block.

Steve Blake played 25 minutes and was 0/2 and 1/2 from the line for 1 point, and he had 4 assists and 2 rebounds.

Nene played 23 minutes and was 4/8 for 8 points, and he had 3 rebounds, an assist, and a steal.

Camby played 36 minutes and was 2/6 and 6/7 from the line for 10 points, and he had 17 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks. Camby missed a "triple double" by just 3 assists. Camby seems to play his best against the best teams, a fact which fans should keep in mind if the Nuggets can get their act together and make it into the playoffs.

A.I. played 43 minutes and was 8/18, 2/4 on 3's, and 8/9 from the line for 26 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block. He was an excellent 8/14 on jumpers.

Melo played for 41 minutes and was 14/23 and 6/8 from the line for 34 points, and he also had 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. He was an excellent 7/12 on jumpers.

The next game will be Monday, Feb. 26 in Memphis to play the Grizzlies at 6 pm mountain time.