Nuggets Reject Mavericks 75-71

The Nuggets won only their second game of the year without scoring 100 or more points, 75-71 over the Dallas Mavericks. In fact, by scoring only 75 points, they won in such a way as to allow even a scrooge to be happy. They played one of their most stingy on turnovers games of the season, with many of the turnovers they did have being offensive fouls called by referees who were fully into the scrooge theme themselves. The Nuggets had just 11 turnovers, which is like the Suns having, say, 75 points. Although the Nuggets may never win this way again in our lifetimes, it nonetheless was a confidence booster for them; they won in such a defensive way and with so little scoring that they have seen and appreciated "the other side," what to an offensive minded basketball fan is the dark side of basketball, the defense wins games side.

With the possible exception of Najera, the Nuggets have no players who think that defense alone can win basketball games. Even Camby with his jump shooting and flashes of point guard style is not a pure defensive player, and Reggie Evans would be concentrating on scoring at least as much as rebounding if he felt he could make some shots. And Nene is aggressive and successful to the hoop over and over in games now and in this one, he typically attempted just one shot from more than about a yard away from the basket. The Nuggets were not meant for the dark side, but by winning there, the big pressure put on them by the idea that they can not win without offensive heroics has been reduced big time.

When Dallas' second-leading scorer, Josh Howard, sprained his right ankle going for a loose ball at midcourt with 4:40 left in the first quarter and didn't return, when Dirk Nowitzki was harassed by Nene, Melo, and J.R. Smith, and had 6 turnovers while being held to 22 points on 9/23 shooting, and when the Maverick's third ace scorer, PG-SG Jason Terry, who has developed into one of the best shooting guards in the NBA, missed 5 of 6 threes and finished with 13 points on 6 of 20 shooting, you know it was a very tough night at the office for the team with the best record in the NBA by 5 games over the 2nd place Suns. Howard will return for the next Mavs game. The Mavericks overall were 30 of 83 from the field for .361, one of the very worst outings of the year for them.

The Nuggets had the same affliction, which is so common on the dark side; they couldn't score either, especially in the first half, and they finished just 27 of 76 from the field for a percentage of .355. Misery loved company in this one. Other than George "Scrooge" Karl, there were very few Nuggets fans at the end of the 1st half who were not thinking that the Nuggets were imploding again offensively and were going to get blown out in the 2nd half when the Mavericks finally started hitting their 3-point shots and when the Nuggets started getting torched by some bench player who has his best game of the season. The first half was the Great Depression for the Nuggets, and every one of them was still in single digits at intermission. Iverson and especially Melo missed just about every jumper they attempted; Melo in particular looked like it would be at least a week before he could hit a few, and he made matters worse by missing everything from the same small area on the right side 2-3 feet farther out from his normal midrange jumper. Fans who have been worried about Melo ever since he returned from one of the longest suspensions in NBA history, or at least since George Karl raised the white flag on all run and gun all the time and signalled that he would like for the Nuggets to play more on the dark side, and Melo can keep some of his shooting to himself, thank you, were thinking that the kid had finally cracked and was going to end up with almost nothing offensively and boos from the stands when the final buzzer sounded.

In the third quarter Melo concentrated on defense and Iverson, who is always aware of such things, was aware that Melo was missing everything and so picked his own scoring up out of the gutter, and he also found Nene and Kleiza, the two Nuggets who have improved the most since the start of the season. Without Nene, the Nuggets could not possibly compete on the dark side. At the end of the third quarter, the Nugget's 37-30 halftime deficit had become a 52-51 lead.

J.R. Smith, who played most of the fourth quarter after playing little before it, was playing defense as if it was his calling card but could not, of course, make things easy on the Nuggets by getting a few 3-pointers. With the Nuggets, win or lose, it's always a struggle; they are, after all, America's Grapes of Wrath team from the poor side of town. So while Smith harassed Mavericks shooters in to some misses and had a steal and a block, he struggled his way offensively to exactly 0 points by missing both 3-pointers and both of the layups he tried. Kleiza made 1 of 3 long rangers, and it was that shot that completed the Nugget's improbable recovery from the Great Depression and gave them a one point lead with 3:43 left in the third. But in a game like this, I'm thinking this was just a lucky shot. Kleiza and J.R., the only two players on the Nuggets who have a current 3-point shot, attempted few of them and made fewer. Iverson attempted two with no success, so the Nuggets as a whole made just 1 of 7 threes, a performance that usually will get you routed against any of the best teams in the West. But the Nugget's defensive intensity limited the Maverick's open looks, and with Howard gone and Terry put off his game by the hounding Nuggets, the Mavericks made just 3 of 17 three pointers and lost the game from that miserable result right there.

When Mavericks scored the first 6 points of the 4th quarter and took a 57-52 lead with 10:17 left, George "Scrooge" Karl, who by this time was grooving on the miserly scoring, was alive enough to call a time out early in the Mavs run, and thereby prevented Dallas from running away with the game right then and there. After the timeout, A.I. missed a jumper but then settled for a layup after J.R. intercepted a Nowitzki pass. But with Melo missing two more jumpers, and fans thinking he should have been benched awhile back, and the Dallas center Erick Dampier getting a slam and G-F Jerry Stackhouse a three, the Mavericks were up 62-54 with 7:44 to play, and that seemed like a huge lead in a game like this. But Nene, who was enjoying the novelty of an extremely low scoring game where his scoring and rebounding could easily be the difference, was not deterred, and drew a foul from Dirk while he was slamming it home, and then converted the +1 to reduce the Dallas lead to five. After several misses from both squads, Dampier hacked Melo, who made two free throws, and then Nowitzki was called for travelling of all things by the scrooge referees, whereupon Nene sprung into action again and on a finger roll once again drew a foul from Dirk, who was as rattled as he ever gets, which was not very rattled but just enough rattled for the Nuggets to get the win. Once again Nene made the shot despite the foul and converted the free throw, so now it was tied at 62.

When Jason Terry got his only 3-pointer with 4 minutes to play, it offset Melo finally hitting a jumper and Iverson making a couple of free throws, so it was now tied at 67. Melo, now climbing out of his scoring hole, made another turnaround, but this was answered immediately by Nowitzki's jump shot. After A.I. made a fadeaway jumper, Nene was called for fouling Nowitzki, who of course made both free throws, so now it was tied at 69 with 1:51 to go. After Iverson and Camby on the follow could not get it in from point blank range, Nowitzki missed a 15 foot jumper from the left side. That was the miss that broke the Mavericks, and if Nowitzki had gone inside or even out to the perimeter for a second Terry three that I have a hunch would have dropped, this would have been an overtime game or one of those common 1 or 2-point Dallas road wins. But Nowitzki failed to take advantage of the scrooge referees, and took too many midrange and long range jumpers for a game of this type. Nowitzki should attend the A.I. summer camp so that he can learn how to adjust his game on the fly better. So the Mavericks were left with only 8 of 11 free throws, while the Nuggets were referee sponsored for 21 of 27.

After an in your face Camby to Melo alley oop dunk, to make it 73-71 with 1:11 to go, Stackhouse repeated the Nowitzki mistake and was blocked by Camby on a shot he probably should not have been taking anyway, from almost exactly the same spot from which Dirk had just missed. But Dampier was there for the rebound and, of course, Avery Johnson called for time with 45 seconds left. Then Melo completed his recovery from his 3 quarter depression by thinking like a football corner and, correctly realizing that Nowitzki was still thinking jump shot and that the play was not going to go inside to his man, Dampier. Melo also was aware that Stackhouse was open behind him in the left corner. So he ran off of Dampier and intercepted the Nowitzki to Stackhouse pass, which qualifies him to play corner for the Broncos if basketball ever goes out of business.

Then the Nuggets wisely chewed some clock and then settled for an 18-foot Camby jumper, which of course was a miss, because nothing is ever easy for the Nuggets. But Nene, who knew this was a game he could put his stamp on, as described earlier, was there for the rebound that iced the win for the Nuggets. Melo made both free throws after Terry's intentional foul with 9 seconds left. The struggle was over, and the Nuggets had defeated the Mavericks while playing almost like the Spurs.

So the Nuggets got their confidence boosting win on the dark side, George "Scrooge" Karl was as happy as a scrooge can be with the ugly and miserly win, and the fans finally got to see their team win a close game at home versus one of the best teams in the West. Nene came up huge as he intended, and A.I. ran things to the extent it was possible. And Melo finally realized his dream of playing cornerback.

Kleiza played 19 minutes and was 1/3 for 3 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, and an assist. Blake played 33 minutes and was 2/5 and 1/2 from the line for 5 points, and he had 3 assists and 3 rebounds.

J.R. Smith played 23 minutes and was 0/4 and 0/2 on 3's for 0 points, and he had 1 steal, 1 block, 1 assist, and 1 rebound.

Nene played for virtually the whole game and was 7/12 and 2/2 from the line for 16 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal.

Camby played 38 minutes and was 1/8 and 3/4 from the line for 5 points, and he had 14 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists, and 1 steal.

A.I. played for 39 minutes and was 9/23, 0/2 on 3's, and 4/6 from the line for 22 points, and he had 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 7/21 and 9/11 from the line for 23 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.

The next game will be tomorrow night, Saturday April 7, in Los Angeles to play the Clippers at 8:30 pm mountain time.

Nuggets Go On 1st Half Onslaught & Hold On Against Kings 120-115

The Nuggets rebounded ferociously and shot the lights out on the Kings in the first half and then held on in the second half as the Kings, all of whom except for Artest shot poorly in the first half but better in the 2nd, chipped away at the Nuggets lead in the 2nd half but fell short and lost the game 120-115. PG Mike Bibby was 3 of 8 from long distance, but only 1 of 5 from inside the 3-point arc, and that along with Camby's blocks turned out to be the main reasons why Sacramento's marathon 2nd half rally came up short. Most of Bibby's shots from inside the 3-point arc were just inside that line, so Bibby was guilty of unwise shooting, a crime that could get him at least partly benched if he was playing for George Karl. So Bibby finished 5 of 17 overall and had 4 turnovers to go with his 9 assists, and there was no other King feeling the hoop, as the Kings came up short despite getting plenty of good looks late.

For the Nuggets, it was Nene who provided the key spark offensively. There is apparently an unwritten contract between Nene and Camby now, where Camby is allowed to take the jumpers he likes so much as long as Nene tries to get almost all his points from point blank range. How can you argue with Camby's shot selection when he is the mainstay of the Nuggets defense and leads the NBA in blocks, with 3.1 per game, not to mention that he practically leads the League in rebounds and gets an amazing number of assists and steals for a center. Without Camby the Nuggets would be lottery toast, and Camby has been creative rather than reckless in his shooting, so people should be very careful with their criticisms of Camby's guard tendencies on offense.

Nene and Camby have been playing at the same time more and more, and if Camby is farther out, the defense can not collapse on Camby-Nene at the same time, leaving Nene room to do damage at the hoop. So Nene has become the anti-Camby offensively, barrelling his way to the hoop for the vast majority of his attempts and, unlike Reggie Evans, making most of them on the first try. Nene in this game was 8 of 11 on layups and dunks, and 9 of 13 overall. When you add his 10 of 13 free throws, his onslaught on the Kings amounted to 28 points. And all this from a player whose knee was and still is to some extent giving him stiffness and pain from the surgery.

The Nuggets are now at least a conscious basketball team, instead of a mindless one, which partly offsets Karl giving them among the worst rotations and therefore the worst bench outputs in the NBA. They are aware of their bad habits of defensive laziness and sloppy execution leading to turnovers, and they have successfully reduced those habits, though not enough to get them into or even close to the upper half of the League on either defense or execution. So they have responded to the frantic preachings and the pleas of their coaches and the media. Getting still better on defense or execution might be close to impossible at this point, because every Nugget except for Najera and Evans is offensive minded at heart. I don't think you would want the Nuggets to be in the upper half the League defensively, because to get this squad to that level, you would sacrifice enough offense as to make this squad of Nuggets a loser because, with rare exceptions, most heavy scoring offensive players in the NBA can not simultaneously play intense defense and yet keep scoring at a fast rate.

And the Nuggets don't even have many set plays, nor do they have much of a set half court offense. They are like scavengers on offense, taking whatever they can get and relying on fast breaks and defensive breakdowns of their opponents more than most other teams. In order to play like that, they can not totally commit to intense defense; they must be constantly ready to fast break down to their end to run their kind of ragtag offense. To the extent the Nuggets have won this year, it has all been from the offense; the Nuggets are 37-13 when they score at least 100 and 1-23 when they don't. Turning the Nuggets into a defense first team is out of the question.

The bad news about Melo in the last month is that, under the restrictions of George "Scrooge" Karl, he no longer is available to surge for more than 35 points, so that the Nuggets might beat one of the Texas teams or Phoenix, and the other bad news is his disappearing 3-point shot. The good news is that Melo is so reliable now with his 18-23 shots a game that you can pretty much pencil in 27-32 points for him before every game and you will be right almost every time. His midrange jumper is there most games now, and when it's not, he almost always has the sense to go to the hoop more. Even the referees are cooperating with the "automatic but limited Melo machine" concept, as he is gradually getting more foul calls while usually being spared being called for offensive fouls, which was a bigger problem early in this season. And although Melo can not match Kobe Bryant's 87% from the line, he does very nicely at 80.5% from there. So in summary, you can just about forget about the idea of Melo being like Kobe Bryant and winning any playoff games by surging or exploding, but you can count on him contributing a base of about 30 points every single game.

The idea that Allen Iverson was or still is some kind of ball hog or someone who insists on hoisting shots no matter what the circumstances has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be pure rubbish. Iverson realizes the Nuggets, except for Najera and Evans, are an association of scoring fanatics, and he has fully adjusted his game to facilitate the all-out scoring style of his teammates. That's why he loves playing in Denver, and why he wanted to go there more than anywhere else. He never had this many scoring fanatics in Philadelphia, and now we see that Iverson was imposing his concept of basketball on the Sixers rather than scoring just to pump up his statistics. But the Sixers organization and, indeed, the majority of NBA teams, do not have the front office skills or the long term courage to have alot of offensive gunners on the roster over a period of years. Too many have bet the ranch on the idea that "defense wins titles," which is one of those almost meaningless generalities that you could prove wrong without much difficulty, especially if you went back to the earlier years of the League. And if the Suns win it all this year, there will be real hell to pay on that subject. So Iverson has found his place and, let's face it, he'll be happy staying with the Nuggets even if they get bounced in the playoffs 4 games to none.

In this game, Iverson had another 10 assists and even had 5 rebounds to go along with his 16 points on 6 of 13 shooting. This was classic A.I., jump shooting A.I., the kind of shooting that the worry warts thought that Iverson could not produce any more. Is there anything the Iverson critics are ever right about?

Either Mr. Karl was in an unusually generous mood following his son's hopefully successful cancer surgery in Idaho, or someone higher up had a word with him and told him that frantic fans were calling for his head over the J.R. Smith benching, because J.R. remained mostly sprung from the Karl doghouse and played for 21 minutes. The ace 3-point shooter was 4 of 9 from downtown and was 5 of 12 overall for 16 points, an explosive output for 21 minutes. J.R.'s defense is now sometimes almost as intense and dangerous to the other team as his shooting, and no one can complain about his mere two turnovers in this game.

Also out of the Karl doghouse to some extent was Reggie Evans, who had 6 rebounds in 13 minutes. Had Evans been played more in the second half, the Nuggets would have held on to their huge lead better and so they would have been more like one of the Texas teams and less like the team that always scares their fans half to death in the 4th quarter no matter how big their lead is at halftime, because Evans is one of the very best players in the league for snagging misses and denying 2nd chance opportunities to teams that are frantically trying to catch up.

But don't kid yourself, when Najera comes back from his left tibia contusion and J.R. has a bunch of turnovers in a short period of time again, George "Scrooge" Karl will most likely place both Evans and J.R. back in the doghouse again and, as a result, the whole team will be in there with them.

Reggie Evans played 13 minutes and was 1/2 from the line for 1 point and he had 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Kleiza played 24 minutes and was 3/7, 1/3 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line 9 points, and he had 3 rebounds. Steve Blake played 31 minutes and he was 2/7 and 0/2 on 3's for 4 points, and he had 8 assists and 1 rebound.

J.R. Smith played 21 minutes and was 5/12, 4/9 on 3's, and 2/3 from the line for 16 points, and he added 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and a block.

Nene played 35 minutes and was 9/13 and 10/13 from the line for 28 points, and he had 12 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block.

Camby played 34 minutes and was 6/11 and 3/4 from the line for 15 points, and he had 11 rebounds, 4 blocks, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Not only did Camby have most of the Nugget's 6 steals, but in this game, since the Nuggets had only 3 steals versus 9 for the Kings, he had most of the steals as well.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 6/13, 0/2 on 3's, and 4/7 from the line for 16 points, and he had 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal.

Melo played 35 minutes and was 10/20, 1/2 on 3's, and 10/12 from the line for 31 points, and he had 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

The next game will be Friday, April 6 in Denver to play the Mavericks at 8:30 pm mountain time. The game will be on cable television, as the second game of a double header, so this is why it is a late starting game in Denver.

Dantley & Camby Lead Nuggets Over Lakers 111-105

Adrian Dantley was one of the great NBA players from the mid 1970's through the late 1980's. He was an all-star in 9 of his 15 seasons, and he led the League in scoring twice. An intelligent and intense competitor and one of the best pure shooters in history, he had a career scoring percentage of .540, one of the highest scoring percentages for a non-center of all time. He had 30+ points per game over four straight seasons, and he scored 23,177 points during his career, which placed him 9th on the all-time scoring list at the time he retired. And on April 3, 2007, Dantley was Head Coach of the Denver Nuggets and ensured their win over the Los Angeles Lakers in L.A., for only the second Denver win in L.A. in the last decade.

Dantley had the right players on the court at the right time, was masterful in his player time allocations, and called timeouts at the most strategic moments. The most critical moment of the whole game was probably with 2:30 left and the Nuggets leading 105-102. At that time, a minute and a half had gone by with no score by either side, following a 3-pointer by J.R. Smith that broke the tie with just under 4 minutes left. So Dantley called a timeout, allowing the somewhat tired players to catch a breather and to steel themselves for the final couple of minutes that would decide the game. The Nuggets had the lead and the ball and all they needed was a play. Following the timeout, Melo's missed jumper was rebounded by Camby, and when Camby's layup would not fall, Melo was right there to stuff it in, and that turned out to be the play that was all that was needed for the win,. So Dantley used that timeout to nail down a win.

Dantley was animated and inspiring while he was directing the team on the sideline, and now the Nuggets will have to worry about the possibility that another team will try to hire him away to be an assistant coach or even a head coach elsewhere. You don't go into Los Angeles and coach a team to a win in a game that your team was supposed to lose without being noticed. In any event, unfortunately, the big Dantley coaching success is probably going to be nothing more than a one hit wonder for Denver this season.

J.R. Smith was let out of the George Karl doghouse and had a very good if not spectacular 20 minutes. He hit on 4 of 8 shots for 10 points and he had 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Kleiza played 16 minutes, not as many as he has frequently been getting lately, but enough for him to contribute to this win greatly, as he hit on all 3 of the three-point shots he put up, and had 11 points on 4/5 shooting overall. The Nuggets were a very efficient 5/10 from long distance.

Making sure that both Kleiza and J.R. get at least 16 minutes or so is a strategy that has eluded George Karl, but it provides the Nuggets with just enough long range shooting power for them to have a chance to get a few playoff wins. The Nuggets are never going to get close to the Suns 9.6 3-pointers per game, or even to the Rockets and Warriors, who get more than 8 per game, but they may be able to get enough to have a chance to win a few playoff games, despite Melo's poor 3-point shooting this year.

J.R. Smith also upset the flow of the Lakers game. In a little throwback to the first 6 weeks of this season, when Melo and J.R. were the best scoring tandem in the NBA, the Nuggets had 15 fast break points versus just 6 for the Lakers. The Nuggets had 7 steals in this game, whereas the Lakers had just 3; Melo and J.R. had 2 steals each. And the Nuggets were not at all reckless or sloppy on execution, they had a reasonable 14 turnovers.

Kobe Bryant, since the Lakers lost big to the Nuggets in Denver on March 15, has gone on a scoring rampage, in order to overcome his team's injury quagmire and the scoring problems of various teammates. In so doing, he has all but clinched the individual scoring title for this season, which he will earn unless something really crazy happens. The Nuggets held Bryant to 39 points on 14/31 shooting, and with Bryant scoring from 43 to 65 points in 6 of the last 8 games, that was actually half way decent. But Lamar Odom was just 2 of 9 on jumpers, with 3 of the 7 misses being rejections by Marcus Camby. Camby also had 2 blocks on staring PG Smush Parker, whose scoring slump continued in this game. The Lakers played without starting center Kwame Brown for the final 28 minutes. Brown collided with Camby with 6:59 left in the second quarter and aggravated his sprained left ankle. After Brown left, neither PF Brian Cook nor C Andrew Bynum could get much of anything going, and starting SF Luke Walton remained reasonably contained.

Meanwhile, Marcus Camby had one of his best games of the season, and was the huge defensive force in the paint that forced Kobe Bryant to try to win it for the Lakers with his great jump shooting. Camby seems to play his best games on the road against winning teams, which is good because that is exactly what the Nuggets will need him to do in the playoffs. Camby had 20 rebounds and 6 blocks. He also had 21 points on 8/14 shooting. He hit on everything at the hoop, and was 3 of 9 on jump shots, most of which were short jumpers, which is the perfect shot for Camby, who wants to shoot some jumpers but needs to be alot closer to the basket than he will be if he's shooting longer range 2-pointers.

A.I. picked up on the positive vibe created by Dantley and ran the point well, with 10 assists and just 2 turnovers. With Melo missing most of his jumpers in this game, A.I. provided that type of shot in abundance; he made 7 midrange jumpers. A.I. played sort of like he used to in his very first years in the NBA, avoiding drives to the hoop and putting up mostly jumpers. Melo made only 2 of 12 jumpers, but offset that by getting all six layups and dunks attempted, and also by getting plenty of foul calls and making 15 of 18 free throws.

Ironically, Phil Jackson, the coach of the Lakers, with nine NBA titles under his belt, was admitted to the NBA Hall of Fame earlier in the day, whereas Dantley was overlooked. Dantley should know that a tiny number of very fortunate folks in almost all fields are showered with so many awards and honors that the later ones don't have any new effect on them, whereas many of the most talented people are never honored for the great things they do. But I am sure that if Dantley were allowed to coach the Nuggets for awhile, he would easily be admitted to the Denver Hall of Fame, were such a thing to exist. And people who have read my reports the past few weeks know that I am definitely not going to forget this outstanding coaching performance any time soon.

Reggie Evans played for 10 minutes and was 1/1 for 2 points and he had 2 rebounds. Linas Kleiza played for 16 minutes and was 4/5 and 3/3 on 3's for 11 points. Steve Blake played for 22 minutes and was 1/4 for 2 points, and he had 6 assists and a steal.

Nene played 35 minutes and was 4/9 and 6/8 from the line for 14 points, and he had 6 rebounds.

J.R. Smith played 20 minutes and was 4/8 and 2/6 on 3's for 10 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and an assist.

Marcus Camby played virtually the whole game and was 8/14 and 5/6 from the line for 21 points, and he had 20 rebounds, 6 blocks, 2 assists, and a steal.

A.I. played virtually the whole game and was 10/24, 0/1 on 3's, and 0/4 from the line for 20 points, and he had 10 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

Melo played virtually the whole game and was 8/18 and 15/18 from the line for 31 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

The next game will be Wednesday, April 4 in Denver to play the Kings at 8 pm mountain time.

Iverson & Melo Ensure Nuggets Win Over Sonics 114-103

The Nuggets, once again facing elimination from the playoffs and worrying that some really, awful, horrible thing would happen if they do not get in the playoffs, though no one knows exactly what, defeated the Sonics 114-103. There were no 1/7 or worse shooting nights, but instead good shooting across the board. The jump shooting Nuggets hit on a sharp 41 of 74, which is a percentage of .554, whereas the jump shooting Sonics were 36 of 78 from the field, which is .462.

Carmelo Anthony led this jump shooting clinic by making 7 of 11 of them, all from the right side, with 4 of the 7 being very long 2-pointers. Linas Kleiza was 4 of 7 on 3-pointers and 4 of 10 overall, whereas J.R. Smith used his short 10 minutes on the court to make 2 of 4 threes. Allen Iverson missed all three of the long range shots that he hoisted, but make 7 of 11 midrange and short jumpers, with 6 of the 7 of those being midrange jumpers. Finally, Steve Blake hit 1 of 5 long range shots and 5 of 6 midrange and long 2-pointers to complete the lineup sweep. So Denver had no scoring disasters on this night, which is good because George Karl's over reliance on too small a number of players fails if any one of them has a really bad shooting night, which is possible for any of the Nugget's starters and very possible still for Kleiza.

Both squads were very sloppy in the 1st quarter and had numerous turnovers, but both settled down for the 2nd half to play a nicely executed half remarkably free of turnovers. The Nuggets led 28-18 after the 1st, but first the PF Chris Wilcox on the inside and then the PG Earl Watson from the perimeter burned the Nuggets during the second quarter, so it was almost tied at the intermission.

The Sonics were playing without their veteran scoring ace Ray Allen, who is out for the season and is having ankle surgery this week. Earl Watson, the starting point guard, stepped up and proved that he can fill in very well for the big scoring normally provided by Allen. He buried 6 of 15 long range shots and ended up with a career high 28 points on 9 of 20 shooting overall. Rashard Lewis, who torched the Nuggets last Wednesday in Denver for 33 points and 10 rebounds, was not contained in this game either, and he finished with 27 points on 8 of 16 from the field, and he had 9 rebounds as well. Lewis was 5 of 9 from beyond the arc. Overall, the Sonics were 12 of 30 from long range, whereas the Nuggets were 7 of 20, thanks mainly to Kleiza and J.R. Smith.

The Nuggets defense was, as usual, allowing for alot of good looks, especially from long range, but the Sonics without Allen did not have enough shooters to keep up with the Nugget's shooting, and they were badly beaten on the boards. Camby had 12 rebounds, Melo had 9, and Evans, who has had substantial playing time in only 7 of the last 21 games, had 6 rebounds in 19 minutes.

PG Earl Watson, SF Rashard Lewis, and PF Chris Wilcox kept trying to chip away at small Nuggets leads throughout the 2nd half, but neither Allen Iverson nor Carmelo Anthony were going to let the relatively soft Sonic defense stop them from finishing off the Sonics in the 4th quarter. A 12 point Nuggets lead half way through the 3rd quarter was down to 1 point with 6 seconds left in the quarter, but J.R. Smith, with two defenders on him, buried a 35 foot 3-pointer from the near left side and from well beyond the arc at the buzzer for the 3rd quarter. The Nuggets led 84-80 after three quarters.

An early 4th quarter Watson three was more than offset by threes from J.R. and Kleiza, but another Watson 3-pointer reduced the Nugget's lead to just 5 points, at 96-91, with 5:31 to play. Then Melo, who was still under his shot attempt limitation imposed by George Karl at the time, took charge and scored on 3 straight possessions, and it was 102-93 Nuggets with 4:14 to go. A Wilcox dunk was offset by a key jumper by Steve Blake. A little later, Rashard Lewis struck with just over 2 minutes left to make it 105-101 Nuggets. Then Iverson, who started out with cold as ice shooting in the 1st quarter and gradually warmed up as the game went along, as the best veteran players commonly do, closed out the Sonics by himself. First he drove to the hoop and layed it in and added the free throw off the foul on Watson. PG Luke Ridnour missed a three, which was rebounded by Blake, and Iverson iced the game with a jumper in traffic for a 110-101 Nuggets lead with 1:34 left. After Lewis made both free throws off a Melo foul, Iverson hit another tough jumper in traffic for a 112-103 Nuggets lead with a minute left, and that was more than enough to insure the win.

George Karl has now completed his blueprint for the Nuggets for the rest of this season and what we see in this game is another example of how if every one of the small number of Nuggets who are getting substantial playing time refrains from taking alot of poor or forced shots, and if they all keep their turnover count out of the red zone, the Nuggets are able to beat lottery teams without too much trouble. To which I say: big deal. The Karl approach fails to take full advantage of the Nugget's roster, which is necessary if the Nuggets are to have any chance at all against the Mavericks or the Suns in the playoffs, assuming they make the playoffs. Any injury to any of the 7 players who Karl overwhelmingly prefers, A.I., Melo, Blake, Camby, Nene, Najera, and Kleiza, though Kleiza is still on probation so to speak, will leave the Nuggets all but crippled. And the Karl strategy can fail even against a lottery team, as it seemed to last Wednesday against these Sonics, though I am willing to concede that the Nuggets failed Karl's strategy in that game and should have won.

But how can you possibly beat the Mavericks if all players including Melo and A.I. have been warned to limit their shooting, if both J.R. Smith and Reggie Evans are regarded as being more of a liability in a game than an asset, and if Yakhouba Diawara and DerMarr Johnson do nothing but take up space on the bench? The answer is obvious: you can not possibly beat the Mavericks or, for that matter, the Suns, the Spurs, the Jazz, the Rockets, or the Lakers.

And speaking of the Lakers, Coach Phil Jackson, who has won nine NBA titles to George Karl's none, clearly does not believe in shooting limitations or marathon benchings, and his superstar PG Kobe Bryant has left Melo in the dust in the top scorer race, has put himself in elite company in the record books, and has put Jackson's team back in the 2007 title hunt by scoring at will and single handedly rescuing the Lakers from their injury quagmire and their poor shooting younger players such as PG Smush Parker. Yes, basketball is a team game, but as in poker, you are supposed to know when to fold them. Sometimes, you have to rely on your best guy for awhile to get you out of a big ditch, so that you can live to fight in more ordinary ways another day. Meanwhile, Melo, though in no danger of going to the Karl doghouse, is on a leash, and could not possibly go even half as far as Bryant has recently in expanding his scoring role, without encountering the rath of Mr. Karl. So don't expect Melo to explode against the Mavericks in any of the playoff games; he's off the hook in that regard already, regardless of the need.

Evans played 19 minutes and was 1/1 for 2 points, and he had 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Kleiza played 24 minutes and was 5/10, 4/7 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 16 points, and he had 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, and an assist. Blake played 31 minutes and was 6/11 and 1/5 on 3's for 13 points, and he added 7 assists, 3 rebounds, and a block.

Nene played 28 minutes and was 4/4 and 0/2 from the line for 8 points, and he had 3 steals, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists.

J.R. Smith played 10 minutes and was 2/4 and 2/4 on 3's for 6 points, and he had an assist, a steal, and a rebound.

Camby played 36 minutes and was 3/5 and 5/6 from the line for 11 points, and he added 12 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

A.I. played virtually the entire game and was 9/19, 0/3 on 3's, and 8/15 from the line for 26 points, and he had 7 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Melo played virtually the entire game and was 11/20, 0/1 on 3's, and 10/11 from the line for 32 points, and he had 9 rebounds and a steal.

The next game will be Tuesday, April 3 in Los Angeles to play the Lakers at 8:30 pm mountain time.