Nuggets Win Easily Over Poor Shooting Hornets 106-91
The Hornets had a healthy 17 offensive rebounds versus 10 for the Nuggets and had 92 shots on goal versus 81 for the Nuggets, but they could not find the hoop enough in the high altitude and lost to the Nuggets 106-91. George Karl continued to play just 8 men, but the skimpy roster worked in this one as every player contributed to the scoring. More impressive still, there was the kind of sharing in rebounding and assisting that has been so notably absent in most of the Nuggets home losses, 4th quarter collapses, and losses to the top teams of the Western Conference.
Peja Stojakovic, the rebounding and good scoring percentage G-F who played for the Pacers last season and then went out due to lower back surgery this season after 13 games, during which he led the Hornets in scoring in general and 3-point shooting in particular, was sorely missed in this one. The Hornets are the opposite type of team from the Nuggets. Instead of having dominant go-to scorers like A.I. and Melo, the Hornets rely on a team approach to scoring; they try to nickle and dime you to death. Tonight, this didn't work, as there were too many pennies and not enough nickles and dimes, whereas the Nuggets were showing, to the extent possible with an 8 man roster, that they can make a team effort, at least to a limited extent and for this particular game. A.I. and Melo were still the dominant scorers, but they were not as dominant as usual.
So ironically, the Nuggets won playing a little more like the Hornets than they generally do. Nuggets fans, however, can not get their hopes up too much here because there has been no consistency with regard to offensive balance and, even worse, the pressure of playing any of the big 6 teams in the West has suppressed to one extent or another any offensive balance the Nuggets might have had literally every single time the Nuggets have played one of them. Specifically, when the Nuggets have fallen behind one of these teams, as they always do, they have been pressured to rely on A.I. and Melo all the more, and then the opponent can largely ignore other Nuggets.
The top scoring Hornets are PG Chris Paul, SF Desmond Mason, and PF David West. These three were a terrible 9/36 combined tonight. So Nuggets fans should not do much celebrating over this win, unless they want to celebrate the slightly better defense, but this is old news, and has not been enough to make the Nuggets competitive with Utah, Phoenix, or any of the three Texas teams.
Center Tyson Chandler led the Hornets with 15 points on 7/10 shooting, and he had 18 rebounds. Chris Paul, the 2nd year star PG from Wake Forest, who is averaging almost 9 assists per game, had 14 assists in this one.
With only two dozen games left in the season, this game had some playoff implications. Had the Hornets won, they would have been in better position to get into the playoffs, and Denver would have been in greater danger of failing to make the playoffs. So the Nuggets keep playing very close to the edge of the cliff, without actually going over it, which is driving fans and the head Coach up the wall.
The Hornets had just 40 points in the paint, as the inside defense led by Nene and Camby produced some real stops. Camby had 6 blocks to solidify his status as the best blocker in the NBA. The Nuggets lead the League in turnovers and they had their average 16 of them in this game, versus 13 for the Hornets. The Nuggets had an impressive 28 assists, with Melo, Camby, and Blake assisting on 6 scores each and A.I. on 5.
The Nuggets were supposed to be used to playing with their revamped roster by now, but all the lopsided losses to the big teams of the West, in which the Nuggets usually could not produce enough offense from their players other than A.I. and Melo, proved that they have not accomplished this objective. Making this situation much worse still is the recent absence of J.R. Smith, due to the knee injury in San Antonio on February 20. Smith is supposed to be healed from surgery and returned to the lineup in 1 or 2 weeks, but whether there will be enough time left in the season for him to go over all the hurdles that George Karl puts down for a player to get minutes remains to be seen.
The Nuggets have been totally outclassed by the Big 6 and would appear to have no chance in the playoffs due to the frequent lazy defense, the large number of turnovers, the overly restrictive player rotations of the Coach, and the insufficiency of dependable scoring from such players as Najera, Kleiza, Blake, and even Camby. It is ironic but very true that the team with two of the very top scorers in the NBA does not have enough scorers. Najera is not offensively minded enough, doesn't get open enough, and doesn't take enough shots. Blake's shooting is mediocre at best and he also is not offensively minded enough for the Nuggets to be able to compete with a Phoenix or a Dallas. Kleiza and especially Diawara are simply not accurate enough this year. Camby, despite having a career year on defense and being responsible for allowing the Nuggets to avoid being routed during many of the games against the Big 6, nonetheless deserves a little criticism on his shooting. He takes a few too many jumpers and sometimes allows a defender to get too good a position when he is going up for a layup.
A.I. and Melo have apparently gone through the reckoning I just did, and have decided to try to win games on their own shooting prowess, a strategy which has failed not because it is the wrong strategy, but because there is no strategy that will allow a team that is markedly inferior at PF and SG, and that has, dare I say it, one the worst benches in basketball, to compete with 6 of the best teams in pro basketball. The Melo-A.I. strategy to win games offensively largely by themselves might have worked despite the poor scoring from the rest of the Nuggets, were it possible for A.I. to get 40 points like he used to not so many years ago, or were it possible for Melo to start hitting some 3-pointers to go along with his sweet midrange jumper. Melo and A.I did their best to get the Nuggets wins by going all out themselves and this failed. Now the Nuggets have no alternative but to try to get other Nuggets consistently involved offensively, or they could easily miss the playoffs. And this is much easier said than done.
The first thing to worry about with respect to whether the Nuggets can address their problems and avoid being bounced in 4 or 5 games in the playoffs, or not making the playoffs at all, is George Karl, who is one of the problems himself and who is, according to a "Denver Post" story, starting to try to blame Melo for the Nuggets not being able to compete with the Big 6. This is extremely unfair and totally wrong. Unless you think that Melo can get Najera to get open alot more and contribute 7-17 points almost every game instead of just 3 out of 10 games, and that he can get Kleiza, Blake, Camby, and Diawara to start hitting shots that corresponding players on the other teams are hitting, Karl is wasting time and creating a straw man to divert attention from his questionable rotations, the poor Nuggets bench, the mess at PF, the inexcusable turnovers, and the poor defense.
Melo does not control where Najera goes on the court or how Blake, Kleiza and Diawara shoot their jumpers. And he is too young to assist Nuggets coaches in coaching the mechanics of basketball. Melo is averaging 4.1 assists and 6.0 rebounds a game, which are career highs, while at the same time leading the NBA is scoring, with a FG shooting percentage of .478. There are only 3 high scoring small forwards in the NBA who are getting more rebounds than Melo per game: Caron Butler at 7.5, LeBron James at 6.7, and Ron Artest at 6.6. And there is only one small forward who is averaging more assists than Melo per game, LeBron James with 5.8. No, Karl is in danger of becoming like a dog who barks up the wrong tree. Certain annoying older dogs tend to do this more and more, the older they get. Oh well, if the Nuggets fall apart and Karl loses his job, he can hope to coach LeBron in Cleveland, who is the only player left in the NBA who comes close to Karl's ideal of the perfect basketball player.
J.R. Smith appeared on the court for one minute at the end of the game, but I don't think this means that he is making a return to active duty a week earler than forecast. He probably will not play much until at least next Tuesday. Smith may have appeared late in the Nuggets win only to irritate Byron Scott, who coached Smith last year and has continued to make overly critical comments about Smith even this season.
Diawara played 13 minutes and was 2/4 and 1/2 on 3's for 5 points, and he had 2 assists. Kleiza played 23 minutes and was 3/7, 2/6 on 3's, and 1/2 from the line for 9 points, and he added a block and 3 rebounds. Najera played 24 minutes and was 5/9 for 10 points, and he added 6 rebounds, 4 of which were offensive rebounds.
Blake played 34 minutes and was 6/12 and 1/4 on 3's for 13 points, and he also had 6 assists and a steal. This was Blake's second good game in a row after he was a non-factor offensively for several games in a row.
Nene played 34 minutes and was 5/8 and 5/6 from the line for 15 points, and he had 14 rebounds, 3 assists, a block, and a steal.
Camby played 34 minutes and was 4/6 for 8 points, and he had 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 blocks, and 4 steals, despite playing with a painful tailbone.
A.I. played for 39 minutes and was 8/17, 2/3 on 3's, and 7/7 from the line 25 points, and he added 5 assists and 3 rebounds.
Melo played 32 minutes and was 8/18, 1/1 on 3's, and 4/6 from the line for 21 points, and he had 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and a steal. Anthony left the building immediately after the game to visit his wife, who is in the hospital having their first baby, which will be a boy. Melo will not be in California for tomorrow night's game against the Warriors, so A.I. will have the green light for a 40 or 50 point game.
George Karl in comments after the game started backtracking from his earlier comments which were too critical of the new father and the leading scorer in the NBA, who gets more rebounds and assists than Karl and most everyone else seems to realize.
The next game will be tomorrow night, March 7, in Oakland to play the Warriors at 8:30 pm mountain time.
