The rout was in question for a while, but the Nuggets pulled it out. Melo deserves the vast majority of the credit for stopping the bleeding. He owned the second half of the 4th quarter when the outcome of game was beginning to come back into question.
Once again we find that hockey, like all sports, is a game where it doesn’t matter if you are the better team for a longer period of time. It only matters if you make your opportunities count.
The game stayed close all night, until the Nuggets finally outlasted and wore down the Hornets on their home court.
I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on the Avs’ failure to keep the pressure on early in the second period. Vancouver gave the Avalanche every opportunity to put the game away and the Avs, rather than failing to capitalize, passed on more than one chance to rush Luongo and put the Canucks in a deeper hole.
It doesn’t matter who plays better longer, it matters who makes it count. The Ducks were in control for most of the game, but they couldn’t get the puck in the net. The Avalanche played a slow game by their standards, but when they had momentum they made the Ducks pay.
The last two times the Nuggets and the Lakers played, Ty Lawson had his best and second-best performance of the season. His short stature makes him difficult to guard by the giant frontcourt LA employs.
For the majority of this game, Boston was the better team, but during the time the Nuggets were the better team they just crushed the Celtics.
It wasn’t a great game for the Nuggets… but it’s tough to critique a solid road win against a Conference-leading team. Not perfect, but good enough for a big win out of the All-Star Break.
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.
The Atlanta Thrashers played well without the recently traded Ilya Kovalchuck, but bowed in overtime 3-4 to the Colorado Avalanche
