Denver Nuggets vs San Antonio Spurs (2-11-10) Recap & Game Notes
Spurs at Nuggets, 2-11-10, Recap & Games Notes
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First Half Synopsis
The first half, and especially the second quarter, has been brutally frustrating. The Spurs are ahead or tied in every major statistical category except Free Throw Shooting.
Spurs (55% FG, 44% 3-PT, 10 dimes, 24 boards)
Nuggets (36% FG, 13% 3-PT, 10 dimes, 20 boards)
Kenyon’s on the bench, and the trouble he gives Duncan (5-8 FG, 1-3 FT, 11 Points) is no excuse.
The reason we are down is because of the second quarter offense (16 Points). It’s not even poor shot selection to blame; the Nuggets are getting tons of open looks. It’s that no one can make an open shot to save their lives. JR and Chauncey have each missed 2 wide open threes and AA added one of his own. The only real good news is the high number of fouls on San Antonio.
On the other end the Nuggets haven’t been awful at defense; the Spurs are just making tough shots.
Ginobili (4 points, 4 dimes) is having a decent game for him, and by that I mean he has the referees convinced if he falls down he was fouled. I hate soccer on the basketball court. Thank God he can’t seem to make a free throw tonight.
To change the game, the Nugget should do nothing except make their shots. Eventually the Spurs’ hot shooting will cool off, and if you begin making them you’ll catch right back up quickly.
Highlight of the first half, the color guy’s comment at JR’s first touch. “Sometimes he falls in love with the high degree of difficulty perimeter shots”. No duh, Sherlock. He’s 3diculous.
3rd Quarter Plays & Analysis
First Nuggets points: Isolation to Nene. He shoots it from 15 feet on the left side.
Nugget open the 2nd Half with some great effort on defense. A great play out of the gate drew a timeout from San Antonio:
Nene hustled crosscourt on the base line to cover Mason on some nice, quick ball movement by the Spurs. Nene locked him down with too little time left for another play. When the Spurs went to plan B with Jefferson, Melo stole the ball, fastbreak, Melo Assist, Nene 2 points. Good hustle.
7:55-7:51 Time that elapsed between two Hill fouls on Billups.
No sooner do I compliment the Nuggets’ defense than suddenly the defense disappears…
Nne runs out to the point to harass a Guard 5 feet beyond the line: 3 points. No one blocks out on a fast break rebound: 2 points. No one comes out to guard McDyess from dead center 18 feet: 2 points.
Chauncey finally makes the first 3 by a Nuggets guard tonight, they are now a paltry 1-10 from beyond the arch. (Melo is 2-3.)
It’s apparent that Nene is the only player who can score for the Nuggets tonight. He’s the only one who can make a free throw or a jump shot.
JR just missed an uncontested layup.
Ginobili gets a phantom foul call on JR. Manu must have a picture of David Stern in a compromised situation or something. He gets more bad calls for him than anyone in the NBA. Bear in mind I don’t mean that he gets favorable calls, which every star gets. I mean bad calls. Like the ref is $40,000 in debt to the mob and they have to send Ginobili to the line 20 times to cover the Over.
End Quarter.
The Nuggets have shot 36% from the floor through three quarters. They aren’t out of the game yet, but they have to find a way to make a basket. San Antonio is beginning to crowd the line to force the long shot since no one, save Nene, can hit a jumper with consistency.
Karl just said “We have no rhythm at both ends of the court. We play good defense and then don’t play good offense.” He couldn’t be more right, though he said it like a guy who’s given up. Sounded way too casual.
4th Quarter Opening Minutes
Quarter opens with more of the same; Nuggets can’t hit a shot, Spurs can’t miss.
Blair just commits his Fourth foul… while playing offense. It’s time to begin driving the lane.
There are now 8 minutes and 45 seconds left, and the game looks pretty much over to me. The Spurs have complete and entire control of this game (21 point lead). The Nuggets aren’t driving the lane, they are jump-shooting and doing it poorly.
Meanwhile the Spurs are getting every shot, both jump-shots and drives, and every call. The Nuggets need a miracle to pull out of this one with a win.
Nuggets just put up a great defensive effort to force a shot clock-beating desperation brick only to see Mason, a Guard, out-rebound Nene for 2 second-chance points. The Nuggets have given up.
TNT has two camera angles they love to go to: One down on the court behind the front rows in corner, and one on the third deck with a slanted view of the court. Both suck. You can’t see the play develop on either angle. Why do they do this? Is it because the viewers want to see what it’s like to watch a game from different perspectives? Stop please, I will buy a ticket if I want to see the game from different bad angles; when I watch from home I want the best seat in the house.
5:00 minutes left, the Spurs are up by 22 and are fiercely arguing an out of bounds call. This type of poor sportsmanship will not bode well for the Spurs.
4th Quarter 5 Minute Mark
No reason to do the late game highlights, here’s what you need to know about this game:
Nuggets-38% FG, 3-19 3 PT at five minutes to go.
If they did this against the Nets they’d lose. Ok maybe not the Nets, but it’d be close.
The point is: if you can’t make the open shots (and trust me, we had plenty of open shots) you can’t win the game. Shame that it had to happen tonight with the Lakers a true five games up before the break. That’s almost certainly home field advantage for LA in the playoffs.
So, time for some obligatory optimism. Even with the loss tonight we can’t lose to the Spurs in the season series. And this loss is the kind that will linger in the mind of the Nuggets. So much so that the Cavs might meet a crazed monster with something to prove in a week. And hey, if you got to have a game when you can’t make a basket, you might as well have it in a game where you get zero calls on the same night. There you go. That’s some good optimism.
Game Ends. Spurs 111, Nuggets 92
Would have been nice to have Kenyon, but if you’re hurt you’re hurt. I won’t complain. We would need a parallel universe to see what would have happened.
I’m guessing Karl picked up on the fact that the Spurs were packing the paint and told his players to start jump shooting. If that’s not the truth, either Karl never noticed the shots weren’t falling, or he has no control of his team. Which brings me to my final thought:
All your jump shooters are missing. This was not the fault of poor selection, this was not the fault of mismanagement, this was not the fault of transition play, this was not the fault of bad rebounding… even though all those thing had something to do with it.
This is the fault of just a plain old case of the bricks. Here’s your jump-shooter FG stat line:
Carmelo Anthony 6-17
Aaron Afflalo 3-10
Chauncey Billups 4-16
JR Smith 4-14
Totaling 17-57 or 29.825%
Disgraceful. At home. I’ll just let that one speak for itself.
