(Denver-CO) The Nuggets did an admirable job, with all things considered, by going 3-1 on this road trip. But, what could have been an amazing trip was spoiled by Aaron Brooks' late game heroics.
After this many games you just have to accept that the Nuggets are not a first quarter team. That is, at least not defensively. Denver opened up this game by allowing the Rockets to paste 38 points on the scoreboard in the first quarter on a blistering 70% from the field.
Denver’s defensive woes continued into the second quarter as they once again gave up a 30+ point period and by doing so have now given up 60+ points in the first half in their last two consecutive games. The easy answer to this alarming trend is Denver is missing their “defensive quarterback”, Kenyon Martin, but while Kmart is a huge part of what Denver wants to do as far as establishing toughness in the middle. I believe that because the Nuggets are just so damn talented offensively that they often times try to win with just one end of the floor before time and time again realizing that they are truly at their best when their defensive end of the floor is taken care of first and foremost.
It also didn’t help the Nuggets cause to miss six lay-ups in the first half. The guilty parties were Nene with three, Carmelo with two, and a complete botched attempt by Johan Petro. If Denver puts those bunnies to bed what on the surface looks like a shoddy first half of which they concluded down by eleven, 68-57, in all actuality could have just been a very offensive first half by both ball clubs.
Additionally, I thought Scott Hastings made good point concerning Kevin Martin’s propensity for using the head fake and jumping into the defender to draw himself free-throws. Scott illustrated that every time Martin tries said move he lifts his pivot foot in the process and travels. This call went both ways during the first half, but Martin has made quite a living with borderline chintzy basketball. He’s a great player, and I’m not taking anything away from the man’s abilities. But… His brand of basketball is not one I can either endorse or appreciate.
All that aside, the true story behind all the Houston scoring in the first half was hot shooting (59% overall) and the benefit of the whistle being on their side. The Rockets shot ten more free-throws than the Nuggets while Denver was whistled for quite a few borderline calls. Notably, two out of the three first half whistles on Chauncey Billups which sent him to the bench early in the second quarter.
Mr Big Shot didn’t take long making up for a two-point performance in his limited first half minutes by making back-to-back three’s to trim the Rockets lead down to four within the first minute and a half of the third quarter. To me, Chauncey, and the Nuggets for that matter, are at their best when he is looking to score. And against the smaller Aaron Brooks, Chauncey’s urgency to get the Nuggets going offensively meant the King of Park Hill hitting the three first which then set up his post game out of which he completely dominated. Chauncey followed up another pair of back-to-back three’s by Arron Afflalo with a diliberate lay-up off the low post prompting Rick Adelman to call a timeout with the Rockets only up by two, 81-79, after Denver opened up the second half on a 22-11 run.
Following Chauncey’s lead, Denver quickly took the lead with their fifth three-pointer of the quarter by Carmelo, 86-85, with four minutes remaining. The Nuggets would outscore the Rockets 38-25 in the quarter and take a, 95-93, lead into the money period largely in part to Carmelo’s eleven and Chauncey’s ten points in the quarter.
Once in the fourth, the Nuggets continued to hit the Rockets with a meteor shower of points in the form of a 9-0 run right out of the gate to put them up by eleven with under nine minutes remaining. Unfortunately, after carrying over their hot shooting third quarter and nearly grounding the Rockets completely. The Nuggets ran out of gas themselves. Denver went the next three minutes without a score and allowed Houston to battle back to within two with under four minutes remaining in regulation before falling behind the eight ball, 123-121, with :27 left in the game.
Carmelo went right to work and tied the game at 123 all with :20 seconds on the clock. Then, with Chauncey Billups fouling out on the possession before, Aaron Brooks played the hero in front of the Houston faithful by hitting a 19-foot jumper on Anthony Carter with just two ticks left for the Nuggets to try and tie or win the game with one last shot.
Denver called timeout and moved the ball up to mid court, but what looked like a busted inbounds play drawn up by stand-in coach Adrian Dantley ended up forcing Carmelo Anthony to come directly to the ball and receive it behind the three-point line. Carmelo turned, took two dribbles, and hoisted what would have been the game winning three, but the shot was too long and didn’t even draw iron.
This game hurts for a bunch of reasons. With the loss, Denver is now in a tie with Dallas for the second over seed in the playoff picture and their six-game winning streak comes to an unsavory halt. It also hurts because Denver really only played about a quarter and a half of fundamentally sound basketball and left myself and I’m sure the players asking themselves “what if?” What if they would have made a few of those lay-ups in the first quarter? What if Chauncey hadn’t been tagged with three questionable whistles? What if Denver had played even an ounce of defense in the first half?
The good news is Denver gets to return to the Mile High where the
Washington Wizards Schedule brings them in to face what should be a very focused and irritated Nuggets team looking to take out the frustrations of losing a very winnable game on the road.
Carmelo Anthony was spectacular, individually, by scoring 45 points (his 7th game of 40+ on the season) and grabbing ten rebounds. It should also be noted that for the second time in three games, all three of Denver’s starting front court reached a double-double in rebounds and points. Nene finished with 15 points and ten rebounds despite a 5-14 shooting night and Johan Petro added eleven and ten for his second double-double of the season.
On a final note, the Nuggets lost for just the first time this season when putting up 110 or more points. Denver is now 28-1 when putting up the big numbers offensively. However, this game proves that getting it done on just the offensive end is not enough.
There is a four-game super recap up now and the Boston recap is coming before I go to work.
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