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By knocking off the 76ers in Philly on Wednesday night the Denver Nuggets grabbed their 10^th win in 15 games played and handed Philadelphia its first home loss.  The improved 76ers were 6-0 at home this season, and have played as well as any team in the NBA to this point.  The final score in overtime read 108-104 in favor of the Nuggets thanks to a breakout 28-point effort by backup point guard Andre Miller.

Denver’s 10-5 record locks them into a four-way tie for the third best winning percentage in the Western Conference.  That group includes the LA Lakers and Clippers plus the San Antonio Spurs, with Denver legend Chauncey Billups keeping the Clippers afloat while Chris Paul recuperates from an injury.

In a topsy, turvy NBA season the Nuggets are still getting their footing like most other clubs.  On Wednesday it was great to see the guard duo of Lawson and Miller pick up where Lawson and the departed Raymond Felton left off last year.  Against the 76ers Lawson and Miller combined for 84 minutes of floor time, 41 points and 17 assists.  Nene chipped in 14 rebounds and 20 points, including 4 of the Nuggets’ 12 points in overtime.

Denver still sits behind the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder in both the Conference and Northwest Division standings.  But the Jazz are playing over their heads thanks to a favorable opening schedule where 14 of their first 20 games will be played at home.  Brutal February and March road trips will bring Utah back down to earth.

The Thunder are another story entirely.  OKC stands at the top of the NBA with a 12-3 record following their first bad loss last night in Washington.  The young, athletic Thunder are primed for this fast-paced season, and it will take some incredible consistency from the Nuggets to keep pace.  Oklahoma City is bound to have its share of off nights – like losing to the 12 loss Wizards – but stand to be the NBA’s best club barring major setbacks or a surprise run by another young team like the Clippers.

Luckily Denver has a pretty smooth schedule through the rest of January.  If the Nuggets can keep ahead of both Los Angeles-es and the Spurs, they can put pressure on these depth-challenged squads as the unusual 2011-2012 NBA Season wears on.  Just as younger teams have a chance to jump ahead in the standings, older clubs like the Lakers and Spurs will be dropping winnable games come March and April.

For the Nuggets – who have a nice blend of veteran presence and ample young talent – it will simply be a matter of building offensive chemistry and playing the brand of aggressive defense that made Denver a tough out in last season’s NBA Playoffs.  With a healthy and energized George Karl at the helm, the Nuggets may not be far off from realizing their potential as an elite Western Conference contender.

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The NBA is back after a marathon negotiating session in New York City on Friday night.  Both labor and the league will have to sign-off on this tentative deal, but it looks like we will have NBA basketball on Christmas Day.

For the Denver Nuggets the shortened season will be both a boon and a challenge.  The Nuggets have an established coach and system, but many of their players are scattered across world leagues or likely lost to free agency.  Pulling together core players as quickly as possible will be key.

Fortunately, point guard Ty Lawson included an exit clause in his contract with Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas where he has been playing since early October.  That gives Denver their most important offensive cog as soon as a deal is signed.

Unfortunately, forward Wilson Chandler along with pending free agents JR Smith and Kenyon Martin are all locked into contracts with China’s top basketball league.  While most Chinese teams have indicated a willingness to let their American players return to the NBA, the Chinese league itself was careful to point out to incoming western talent that their contracts would be binding through the conclusion of the season.

Most likely the Nuggets will consider Smith and K-Mart lost to free agency anyway.  Rookie power forward Kenneth Faried will hopefully be a long-term replacement for Kenyon, and fellow draftee Jordan Hamilton is being touted as a dynamic scoring forward/guard in the mold of JR.

Replacing Nene, who the Nuggets cut ties with in the offseason, will be a taller order.  The best free agent option at center is Tyson Chandler – an athletic big man who would fit Denver’s up-tempo attack.  Denver has dumped considerable salary between the Anthony/Billups trade and the loss of formerly burdensome Nene/Martin contracts.  They should have their pick of willing free agents.

The Nuggets’ ability to get immediately into a groove (as they did after the big Melo trade late last season) should give them a boost over NBA competition once play starts in late December.  Denver’s youth and above-average conditioning will be a major plus as teams play 66 games – not far from the typical 82 – in just over half a regular season.  This will be especially true for Ty Lawson and other Nuggets who will come to Denver in mid-season form after playing in foreign leagues.

In the end, it will be up to head coach George Karl and his staff to get the Nuggets ready for this condensed NBA Season in less than a month.  And it will be up to Denver’s relatively new front office to get prepared for what will be a brief and intense free agency period starting December 9th.

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Once upon a time the Nuggets’ armor was full of holes.  Denver was an offensively talented team that struggled on defense, especially late, and failed to match the intensity of lesser opponents.

Throw all that out the window.  The Nuggets battle now.  They did against a rising Sacramento Kings squad last night at Pepsi Center and earned a hard-fought 104-90 victory.  The win was good for ten consecutive in Denver.

Sacramento, playing in the second night of a back-to-back set, crumbled midway through the fourth quarter under the Nuggets’ constant assault.

Ty Lawson ran the Kings ragged early, then bowed to a minor injury and rested for almost a full quarter in the second half.  Enter JR Smith who took his turn running an intensely effective dribble-drive attack and then pulling up for wide-open mid-range jumpers when the Kings’ tired defense sagged into the paint.

Despite leading for most of the first three quarters, Denver did not panic.  They just played their game, recovered from missed shots and bad turnovers, and closed out so strong as to make a very tight game look like a typical Nuggets home blowout.

It was as much a statement win as any other recent Denver victory.  Sacramento was on a four-game winning streak behind the revelatory play of Marcus Thornton, and these Kings gave the Nuggets all they had.  But Denver doesn’t play down to its opponent (for long), doesn’t engineer comeback attempts from behind the three-point line, and doesn’t roll over versus tough physical competition.

Call it a big win.  Call it the fourth straight for the Nuggets and twelve in the last sixteen.  Call them contenders, Denver.

Read the full recap

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After scoring 110+ points in their last three games, the Denver Nuggets relied on defense to down the Hawks in Atlanta on Wednesday night.

None of the Nuggets scored more than 20 points, but five Denver players scored in double-digits on the way to a 103-87 road victory. After draining 18 and 17 threes in their last two games, the Nuggets attempted just 14 shots from beyond the arc in Atlanta. Keeping with their superb team shooting, though, Denver buried 7 of those threes to pace the Hawks.

Nene scored 20 and grabbed 7 rebounds, but it was his 4 huge blocks that forced Atlanta to play a perimeter shooting game. Once Denver forced the Hawks offense out of the paint, Denver’s excellent shooting offense took over. For the third game in a row, the Nuggets shot 50% or better from three-point range. Better yet, Denver connected on 53% of its field goal attempts.

In the post-Melo era in Denver, the Nuggets have adapted to a team-oriented style that was showcased in Atlanta on Wednesday. Aside from great ball movement leading to open looks and an incredibly high shooting percentage, Denver’s defense has improved at a remarkable rate. Since the big trade, the Nuggets are allowing almost ten points less per game to their opponents.

Against a tough Hawks squad, that shooting efficiency and solid defense paid dividends. Ty Lawson had another double-digit assist total (10) leading to easy makes for his teammates, and Kenyon Martin teamed with Nene to shut down Atlanta’s interior attack.

Aside from excellent two-way play by the Nuggets, the team turned around a trend of beating teams with bench depth. Denver’s starters all finished +10 or better, and Atlanta’s starters finished -10 or worse. In fact, the Nuggets hardly needed their bench until the final minutes of the fourth quarter when the game was already decided.

Denver has now gone 9-2 since trading Carmelo Anthony to go with their current four-game winning streak. Wilson Chandler led Denver with 10 rebounds in another impressive effort filling Melo’s old spot in the Nuggets’ starting lineup. Chandler scored 14 points on 6 of 11 shooting with a block and 2 assists.

The Nuggets have won the first two games of a tough four-game road trip. Next up are back-to-back games at Orlando and Miami on Friday and Saturday nights.

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The Denver Nuggets moved to 8-2 in their first ten games post-Melo.   A win on the road Monday night in New Orleans created some padding between the Nuggets and the Hornets in the Western Conference standings.

In a matter of a few weeks, Denver has gone from isolation offense and poor rotation on defense to an assist-heavy scoring machine that transitions off of an active, shifting perimeter D.

Coach George Karl, who landed a fresh contract with the team last week, sounds like a proud papa talking about his New Look Nuggets.

“They have a lot of freedom to create the game on their own, and tonight they were pretty special,” said Karl after his team trumped the Hornets 114-103 in New Orleans.  “We played with a lot of aggressiveness on both sides of the court, and I think that’s what we’re trying to do. It’s not very complicated. It’s pretty simple stuff.”

There you have it: the Nuggets’ new mantra.  Keep it simple, play aggressive defense, attack on offense, and make team chemistry more important than any one player.

Denver did all of those things on their way to a statement win in New Orleans.  After starting off with a series of bad shots and shoddy defense, the Nuggets charged back from an 11-2 deficit to grab a two-point lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Nuggets never looked back.

Karl called an early timeout after the Hornets jumped ahead in the first four minutes of the game.  After that Denver was a different team.  They shut down New Orleans for a full minute of game time that featured a powerful block by defensive leader Kenyon Martin.  From there the Nuggets’ high-powered offense got to work.

Wilson Chandler and Nene combined for Denver’s next 12 points before Chris Andersen tied the game at 15 with two free throws, drawing a New Orleans timeout.  Raymond Felton dropped two three-pointers on consecutive attempts to close the quarter, and the Nuggets never trailed again.

In fact, towards the end of the third quarter Denver pulled ahead by 23 before sitting their big starters and leaving cleanup to a trio of guards.  Ty Lawson, JR Smith and Ray Felton were the only Nuggets to score in the fourth quarter, pacing the Hornets with no less than an 11-point lead for the final 2:30 of the game.

Lawson and Felton, Denver’s thunder and lightening point guards, nailed back-to-back threes in the final minute to squash New Orleans’ comeback attempt.

Three Nuggets scored 20+ points, led by Lawson (23) and followed closely by Felton (22) and Chandler (21).  This new Democratic scoring approach has replaced the former ‘All Melo All the Time’ Denver offense, and was facilitated on this night by 22 assists between Lawson and Felton.  The Hornets got just 22 assists as a team.

Denver drained 17 threes two nights after knocking down 18 versus Detroit.  The Nuggets scored on more than half of their field goal attempts in both games, and shot a ridiculous 59% from beyond the arc against the Hornets.  Those numbers are a testament to great ball distribution leading to open shots and dunks.

More amazing still, the Nuggets are doing all of this without two starters – Danilo Gallinari and Arron Afflalo.  Both players should return in the next week, meaning the best is yet to come for the Denver Nuggets.

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The Nuggets won in Phoenix for the first time in seven years on Thursday behind a breakout performance by Ty Lawson.

Denver’s sophomore point guard pushed the Nuggets’ up-tempo offense to 33 fast-break points, distributed 11 assists, and scored 20 as he outplayed Suns counterpart Steve Nash.  By the end of the third quarter Nash had been relegated to the Phoenix bench while Lawson worked to buff up an already robust stat line.

Even the 116-97 final score does little justice to the Nuggets’ victory.

Led by Lawson and fellow point guard Ray Felton, often at the same time, Denver built a healthy first half lead on ball movement resulting in open shots.  In the second half the Nuggets pressed Phoenix into turnovers, charged the floor on possession changes, and built a sustained 20+ point lead.

Five Nuggets scored in double-digits, led by Nene’s 22 in abbreviated play.  With Denver dominating in the second half Chris Andersen came in to do cleanup duty, slamming home 12 points on 5 dunks and 6-6 shooting.

Gary Forbes, who started in place of the injured Arron Afflalo, grabbed a team-high 9 rebounds in just 21 minutes.  Forbes, who played in Europe the last two seasons, got the start over JR Smith.  Most Nuggets fans expected Smith, Denver’s productive 6^th Man, to start in Afflalo’s stead.  Coach George Karl decided to go with Gary the Grinder just two days after landing a three-year contract extension.

With job security and no Melo to force-feed possessions to, Karl is at liberty to take a “what I say goes” approach to coaching these Nuggets.  George runs the show and Denver has responded by playing great team basketball with scoring and defensive depth that is quickly becoming the envy of the league.

JR responded to the snub by dropping 12 points off the bench to go with 4 rebounds and 3 assists, a standard stat line for the athletic shooting guard.  Smith logged 24 minutes and drained three key treys; one that stopped a Suns min-run in the first quarter and another that beat the third quarter buzzer to put Denver up 90-66.

The Nuggets are 6-2 since trading Carmelo Anthony to the NY Knicks.  Denver has played five of those games without Danilo Gallinari, the small forward swapped from New York to replace Melo in the Nuggets’ starting lineup.  Despite missing Gallo, the Nuggets have maintained their league-best 107.4 points per game.

Denver’s smart, aggressive defense generated 15 steals and held the Phoenix starters in check for three quarters before backing off.  Since trading Anthony, the Nuggets’ D has held opponents to an average of 94 points per game.  That’s a full ten points below their season average before the trade.

Phoenix reserve Center Marcin Gortat led the Suns with 14 points and 18 rebounds.

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Down three games to one in the opening round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs, Denver needed a big victory on Wednesday night.  More than that, they needed a big outing from absent star Chauncey Billups.  The Nuggets got both in Game 5 at Pepsi Center, part of their 116-102 win.

Carmelo Anthony & Chauncey Billups both came up big in this elimination game.

Where Melo had carried the team through one win and three tough losses, Billups stepped in and shouldered his share of the load at long last.  Chauncey was good for 21 points and 4 assists.  Carmelo added 26, well below his 34.5 point/game playoff average.

But the Nuggets don’t need Carmelo Anthony to score 35 points a game to win.  They need a complete team effort, and Denver finally got that.

The whole Denver bench contributed to this victory, scoring 37 points to 16 from the Utah bench… all by Jazz PF Paul Millsap.  JR Smith dropped 17 playing starter minutes (31), and Ty Lawson had another well-rounded game with 2 board, 3 dimes and a pair of steals to go with his 6 points.

Even after starting Center Nene Hilario went down with a tweaked knee in the 2^nd Quarter, the Nuggets played strong team basketball to muscle out a series of leads.  After giving up 6 & 8 point advantages, Denver dropped the hammer with metered scoring and responsible defense in the latter part of the 4^th Quarter.

Nene has underperformed along with Chauncey all series, and may not be the Nuggets’ best option at Center.

In fact, Nene has been a liability on both ends of the court, and both Johan Petro & Chris Andersen were more effective as replacements.

Petro & Andersen combined for 13 rebounds, and Birdman notched 10 points despite a nagging hand injury.  Both were more effective defensively, getting out on big Carlos Boozer’s deadly jumper from the top of the key.  Carlos has killed the Nuggets with that shot all series, but longer arms coming out of the paint threw off Boozers’ rhythm in the second half.

Nene’s 5.8 rebound/game average was inflated by an 11-board performance in Game 2, but the Nuggets’ only other win in the series came in Game 1 when he played just 14 minutes.  (Nene averages 34/game.)  It could be that the 1-2 punch of the taller, longer Chris-Johan combo may be a better match on the glass against the Jazz.

Denver has a rough road ahead of them.  They are still just one loss away from elimination.

The Nuggets will need to do on Friday night what they have only rarely done in the last decade; win a game in Utah.

The team showed glimpses of its old dominant self in Game 5, and will need to be firing on all cylinders to overcome the imposing Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena in Game 6.  Despite all of their trials and tribulations through the last few months, the Nuggets are just one big W away from coming home for a decisive Game 7 on Sunday morning.

Game 6: Denver Nuggets @ Utah Jazz

Friday, April 30^th on ESPN & Altitude

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The Denver Nuggets slipped into the 4^th seed in the NBA Playoffs with a Utah Jazz loss on Wednesday night.  The same Suns that brutally knocked Denver out of contention for the 3^rd seed on Tuesday night roughed up the Jazz by a similar margin in Salt Lake City.

Now the Nuggets will enjoy home-court advantage for at least this first round, and their middle seeding could easily lead to a 2^nd Round matchup with the LA Lakers.

Denver dominated the season series versus Utah.

In fact, that’s the only reason the Nuggets have home-court in the 1^st Round.  Both teams finished with a 53-29 regular season record.  However, Denver’s key January win in Utah gave them the tiebreaker for the Northwest Division title and the 4^th-best record in the Western Conference.

Utah escaped with a narrow victory in the teams’ final regular season matchup, as Denver played without Carmelo Anthony & Chauncey Billups.

Here’s how the season series played out between the Jazz & Nuggets

Wednesday, October 8^th @ Denver

Denver Wins 114-105

Saturday, January 2^nd @ Utah

Denver Wins 105-95

Sunday, January 17^th @ Denver

Denver Wins 119-112

Saturday, February 6^th @ Utah

Utah Wins 116-106

————————————-

As dominant as the Nuggets were throughout the regular season series, the Jazz improved mightily in the final month of the season.  Carlos Boozer came on strong after struggling for Utah since late last season, and the Jazz bench began contributing in a real way for the first time in years.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, slid into their 4^th seed with home & away losses to the Spurs & Sun respectively to close out their regular season schedule.  Denver did blow out the Memphis Grizzlies between those two tough losses.  But even after a 4-game winning streak that included a road win in Oklahoma City and a home win versus the Kobe-less LA Lakers, Denver has looked vulnerable going into the playoffs.

Nuggets Keys to the Series

Kenyon Martin returned to the team after undergoing rich blood platelet treatment on his injured knee.  K-Mart opted not to have season-ending knee surgery, and will be the key to Denver’s NBA Title hopes.  Kenyon was averaging over 9 rebounds per game before his injury, and his defensive presence stifled opponents’ low-post threats on most nights.

Martin is also the key to Denver Center Nene Hilario’s game, as Kenyon brings a certain snarl to the paint that Nene lacks.  Nene has great talent for a big man, and his speedy spinning post move is unstoppable without a helper defender rotating in.  The combination of Nene, Martin & Carmelo Anthony down low opens up the Nuggets’ entire offense as it contracts defenses down towards the paint.

If Denver can find its mid-season groove in this series, it will start down low.

However, the Nuggets will need its bench to contribute as heavily as they did during the season series versus the Jazz.  Rookie reserve Point Guard Ty Lawson was especially dangerous in regular season Games 2 & 4, scoring 23 & 25 points in those games.  Lawson is one of the fastest guards in the league, and could be a game-changer against Utah.

Finally, JR Smith will need to be contributing his athletic defense and timely 3’s for Denver to move forward.  Smith is a rare talent, but has had trouble with consistency and discipline.  JR was huge, though, in last year’s run to the Western Conference Finals.  Smith outshone Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony in several of those playoff games.

Nuggets vs Jazz Series Notes

Nuggets head coach George Karl will miss this 1^st Round series after undergoing chemotherapy for neck & throat cancer.  His recovery time will determine whether he is capable of making a return to the Denver bench this postseason.

Karl will have a presence on the Denver bench in the form of his son Coby.

The younger Karl was signed by the Nuggets from his D-League team as Denver sought to shore up the depths of its bench.  Coby Karl will not be getting a lot of time, if any, in the playoffs, but he is tall for a Shooting Guard and may be useful as a defensive asset and rebound specialist.

Former University of Wisconsin standout Brian Butch has joined the team for the same reason.

Nuggets vs Jazz 1^st Round Playoff Series Schedule

Game One: Saturday, April 17^th

Utah @ Denver 8:30pm MST

Game Two: Monday, April 19^th

Utah @ Denver 8:30pm MST

Game Three: Friday, April 23^rd

Denver @ Utah 8:30pm MST

Game Four: Sunday, April 25^th

Denver @ Utah 7:30pm MST

Game Five: Wednesday, April 28^th

Utah @ Denver if necessary

Game Six: Friday, April 30^th

Denver @ Utah if necessary

Game Seven: Sunday, May 2^nd

Utah @ Denver if necessary

My Prediction: Nuggets in Five Games

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This date with the Blazers proved to be a shot of adrenaline for the Nuggets’ stars, who have failed to rise to the late-season occasion as the playoffs draw near.  All you Denver fans owe Portland a big, sweaty thank you.  Here’s why…

Sometimes all it takes is a favorable matchup within the friendly confines of a home arena to cure what ails.  For the Denver Nuggets, that was especially true on Thursday night.  A 109-92 overpowering of the Portland Trailblazers was just what the doctor ordered.

This game is the story of how the Nuggets’ Big Three got their groove back one by one.

The Denver starters match up in a peculiar way against the defensive-minded Blazers’ top five, creating an interplay of equal but opposite forces in the early going of games.

This is an interesting note, because each team’s starting lineup is markedly different in both skill sets & physical attributes.  These teams roughly fill each other’s defensive gaps.  That favored Portland initially as the Nuggets again struggled to find an offensive rhythm.  The Blazers are all about their method, and it was all Denver could do in the 1^st Quarter to keep pace.

A fun fact: Portland sports three ex-Nuggets starters, all formerly high-priced acquisitions for Denver.  The Blazers start Marcus Camby at Center & Andre Miller at Point Guard, plus Juwan Howard at Power Forward.  By the end of the game, it was apparent that the Nuggets have upgraded at each of those positions.

Nene Hilario in particular exploited his counterpart’s softness.

Nene exploded for 22 points against Camby (and often a second defender) to break out of his offensive slump.  Each of the Nuggets guards and forwards, especially Carmelo Anthony, made sure to force the ball into Nene in the post early and often.

Nene responded by being the first Denver standout to rediscover his happy place.  Turns out it lies somewhere between a spinning, driving dunk and a 10-foot jumper.  Who knew?

As great as it was to see Nene return to form, the real advantage for Denver in the first half was its reinvigorated bench.

The Nuggets’ second team matches up very well against the slow, workmanlike Portland backups.  Remember, the Blazers have lost half their lineup to injury at different stages of the season, and are still battling to find continuity throughout as a result.

Meanwhile, Denver just got the speedy PG Ty Lawson back from a shoulder strain.  Lawson’s aggressive play and improving defense make him a big problem for any team, especially a long, tall team like Portland.  Ty is simply too quick and his ball movement too far away from the Blazers’ defensive comfort zone.

The result is not always points for Lawson, but he is a constant disruption to any balanced D.  Welcome back Tywon!

The first half closed out as you would expect in a game between division rivals: neck & neck.  As has been the case for several seasons between these teams, the Nuggets came brought outstanding talent to the contest, and the Blazers matched it with sure-handed, even effort across its lineup.

Halftime score: Nuggets 56-55

Denver typically comes out soft defensively in the second half, and it’s a good thing too.

The Blazers exploited the sleepy Denver D for a quick lead change out of the gates.  At 9:45 of the 3rd Quarter Portland took a 4-point lead on an uncontested LaMarcus Aldridge jumper from 7 feet.

Carmelo & Crew decided that was enough.

The Nuggets, as if waking from an unpleasant dream, snapped into ball-movement mode on their next possession.  The result was a Nene dish to Aaron Afflalo along the baseline.  Double A drained a 3 to cut the deficit to one.

That would be the last time the Blazers led.

Nene stole a bad pass by Portland’s Nicolas Batum, flipped the ball to Chauncey Billups, and ran to the basket on the break.  Billups’ pass met him there for a big-time Nene dunk.

Right here Portland could have taken control back with a strong offensive play.  Unfortunately for the Blazers, these Nuggets were doing what they had failed to do in over a week: siphon energy from their opponent with pestering defense and unstoppable, demoralizing offense.

Nene swatted a block for a turnover, Carmelo in isolation on the right side, driving layup for two.  The Pepsi Center erupts, Portland Timeout.

When the Nuggets play like this they are the sleeping giant awakened, and it is a fine site to behold.

Carmelo is the next Nugget to find his mojo, and it starts with that driving layup.

To be fair, Carmelo has been the one bright spot through an awful 5-game stretch that dropped the Nuggets from 2^nd to 5^th in the West.  He has been consistent, aggressive, and solid on defense.  You can’t ask for any more from your team’s best player.

And yet Anthony was having a quiet game (for him) until an interesting exchange between Carmelo and a testy official sparked the final phase of the blowout.

Anthony is called for a bogus offensive foul, and comes back on a defensive turnover for a breakaway layup.  Melo flips the ball to the official at the far end of the baseline after his score instead of handing it to a waiting Portland player under the basket.  The official gets puffy and red briefly before calling Anthony for a Technical Foul: delay of game.

(Melo sits for the rest of the 3^rd Quarter, presumably thinking all the while about how he’s going to throw some daggers in the final frame.)

A miss by Brandon Roy on the freebie leaves the Nuggets perturbed and in the mood to crush skulls.  Denver breaks out for a 7-point lead.

Portland takes a stand here, and it’s a good thing too.

The combination of stubborn Blazers and egomaniacal officials wakes Chauncey Billups from a week-long basketball coma.

Suddenly Chauncey is reaching deep into his bag o’ tricks and pulling out amazing driving layups.  Rudy Fernandez repeatedly falls victim to Billups’ veteran wiles.  This is alternately entertaining and relieving, and Denver closes out the 3^rd with an 11-point lead.

Anthony opens the 4^th Quarter with matching 17-foot jumpers from 40 & 45 degrees on the right side on consecutive possessions.  This is Melo’s Shot, and he was practicing it during second half warmups.  Always a pleasure to watch him fade slightly and drop 2 points from that range… especially when the net doesn’t even move.  Anthony has the prettiest shot in the league from that distance, and his second make comes with a foul shot bonus.

Melo’s make on the free throw puts Denver up by 14 with just over 9 minutes left and the Nuggets never look back.

Still, Portland doesn’t start playing defeated, deflated basketball until near the 4-minute mark.  That was when the Blazers cut the Denver lead to 10 points.

Denver’s Big Three responds with back-to-back-to-back unanswered scores by Chauncey, Carmelo & Nene in that order.

Nene draws a foul on his score and, after a desperate Portland Timeout, comes back in to finish driving the nail home: 105-88 Nuggets.  Each play in this 3-part series is an athletic, slashing drive to the basket, culminating in Nene’s finishing body blow to silence Portland for good.

The 17-point Nuggets advantage holds for a 109-92 final score.

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When last I wrote about the Nuggets I said the Boston loss was the type of loss to either invigorate & refocus the Nuggets… or it would send them into a week & a half long tailspin.  The Nuggets have gone 1-2 since their undressing in Boston.

The 1-3 road trip thus far has sunk the Nuggets into a hole, and so the game tonight at Dallas has new significance.  The Nuggets have three road games remaining and must win all of them to have a winning record on the road.  They are, in order of importance, At Dallas tonight, At Oklahoma City on April 7^th, At Phoenix to end the season.  Conceivably the Nuggets could lose all 3.  If the Nuggets are to lock up the number 2 they will have to win at least 2, maybe 3 of those games.

But the real importance in winning tonight’s game is that the winner gets the tiebreaker.

If the Nuggets win, they move up to the 2-spot with a half-game advantage and force a tie in the all-important Loss Column, but it might as well be 1.5 games with the tiebreaker.  If the Nuggets lose, they will be 1.5 games behind and also behind in the Loss Column.  That would be 2.5 games back with the tiebreaker.

This is the rare 4-game swing in the NBA we are witnessing tonight.  The Nuggets better bring their A game.

1^st Quarter

6:23 The Nuggets are placing more attention on Assists this game.

Everyone’s been talking about how few assists there have per game in the slump.  It hasn’t translated to points.  Mainly the Nuggets are settling for jump shots early and they aren’t falling.  On the other end the Mavericks are also settling for jump shots, but they are falling.  Dallas is 7-10 from the field to start, mainly off the pick and roll.

0:00 Well, the Nuggets have improved their play but are only maintaining the deficit.

The bench is playing better than the starters.  J.R. Smith has hit two in a row and Malik Allen just made a three. (I don’t know how I feel about Allen taking 3s but I like him making them.)  On the other end, the Mavs are passing into the low post on every play.

End Quarter Mavs 31-23

The story of the game has been accurate jump-shooting vs a not-so-accurate jump shot.  The Nuggets are allowing the Mavs to make easy passes to their bigs down low.  Jump shots from there are much higher percentage than the perimeter jump shots the Nuggets are taking.

Denver is trying to set up isolations with Carmelo Anthony on the wing and the Mavs are doubling him.  Someone else needs to step up and teach the Mavs not to double Anthony.

2^nd Quarter

5:22 The bench is coming up big for the Nuggets.

The lead has been closed to 5 and Denver’s backups are shooting 8 for 10 between Ty Lawson, Smith, and Joey Graham.  Allen is also respectable shooting 2-5 with 2-2 three pointers.  The Nuggets are scoring all their points either by the dribble-drive or in transition.  Meanwhile, Chris Anderson looks like he might be having one of his nights – 3 blocks so far.

1:46 The starters come back in and the lead promptly goes up to nine.

Foul shots coming for Brendan Haywood.  A good comparison right now that Adrian Dauntley better see is that the Mavericks are putting a player under the basket on every shot for an Offensive Rebound and blocking out on every Nuggets shot.  The Nuggets are doing neither.

0:00 The Denver starters stop the bleeding.

Once again, only enough to maintain the deficit.  The Mavs tried to drop the hammer in the closing seconds and began launching poorly arranged threes.  Fortunately for the Nuggets, none fell.

End Quarter 55-46

In retrospect it’s not as bad as it could have been, and that’s usually a sign that a momentum change will alter the entire game.  The refs have been even-handed, the bench has outplayed one of the (so-called) best benches in basketball, and the Mavericks have gotten 3 disgusting three pointers to fall (including one by Rodrigue Beaubois in which Chauncey Billups tipped the shot and it went in anyway).

But Dallas is leading in the important stats (Boards 22-18, Dimes 14-6).  The Nuggets could be ahead in rebounds if they would just put someone under the basket on every play.  And at some point someone is going to have to pass the basketball… this whole doing everything yourself thing ain’t working.

Although the biggest reason for the deficit is Melo’s stat line (1-8 FG, 0 dimes, 3 points).  In most cases I’d say if the shots aren’t falling then pass the ball to somebody else, but this is Melo.  He can’t be shut down for the entire game right?   But Carmelo has only driven off the isolation once and it resulted in his three points.   Every other time Melo gets the ball in isolation he’s been double teamed or took a quick jumper.

Carmelo Anthony needs to go to the rim.

3^rd Quarter

8:55 Nuggets open the quarter by falling into the same bad habits that got them the deficit in the first place.

Jump-shooting way to early in the possession, and letting Dallas get the ball to the low post way too easy.  The lead is now 16.

5:53 Apparently I spoke too soon in praising the refs for their even-handedness.

6 fouls in the quarter, all of them on the Nuggets.  No less than 2 have been bona-fide phantom fouls, and at least one foul on the Mavericks has been missed.

0:00 The bench comes in and battles back to 10.

The highlight was in the Nuggets last possession J.R. Smith after draining the clock drives down the right side of the key, Jason Kidd puts his hand out and knocks the ball away, Smith recovers beyond the three point arch at about the right side 40 degrees mark.  With the shot clock about to expire he’s forced to put up a prayer, he jumps backward out of bounds.  3 points. 3diculous shot.

End Quarter Mavs 79-69

The Nuggets are just kinda hanging around.  With as bad as the starters have played and as well as the Mavericks have played (particularly Heywood) the game certainly feels very much in question for a 10-point game.

4^th Quarter

10:02 Nuggets open the quarter with points on their first 4 possessions.

Denver closes the lead to 7 and Dallas wants a time out.  Mostly due to poor transition defense by the Mavs results in two fouls on Nene and a particularly bad defensive setup that left Smith open at the top of the key with no one between him and the basket.

10:02-9:56 Time that elapsed between Dallas’ four and fifth timeouts.

Good defense by the Nuggets on the inbound.

8:55 Credit where credit is due, the refs open the 4^th by calling fouls in the Nuggets’ favor 5-1.

7:58 The Nuggets were playing with all the momentum in the world.

Denver had cut the lead to 8 and then fumbled the basketball away, the Mavs went the other way and scored two.  The following possession goes the same way.  4-6 point swing.

6:44 The Mavs make the most of the momentum swing.

Dirk Nowitzki buries a three from the top of the arch to put the Mavs up by 16.  This game feels over.

0:00 The game ends without further incident or contest.

End Game Mavs 109-93

This entire game was still on the line even with the Nuggets down by 8 in the fourth.   And then 1 moment’s lack of focus by J.R. Smith and Jason Kidd steps in with a steal and Dallas takes an 8-point lead to 16 in 2 minutes.   One play in the middle of the fourth quarter and a possible win becomes a 20ish point loss.  That’s how close this was.

In spite of the mistake that cost the Nuggets the game, Smith was clearly the best player on the floor.

Further, the mistake notwithstanding, the reason for the loss is the fault of the stars, Carmelo & Chauncey.  They combined for 6-30 shooting and a tepid 21 points.  If two guys are going to take 40% of your shots they can’t miss 80% of those.

The good news is that I think the losing streak is over.

Not just because the road trip is over, and 5 of the remaining 7 are at home, but because of the type of loss this was.  This was about as close to a must-win you will get in the regular season and the team played well while the stars played poorly.  That one almost fixes itself.

Before, when the Nuggets lost to Boston, everyone played badly except Melo and Chauncey.

That’s a harder fix.   That takes players taking a step back, getting back in line, playing for the teams.  When your stars play poorly, it takes everyone doing exactly what they did and the stars need to step up, which they are doing anyway.  I expect the next game against the Portland Trailblazers on Thursday to be a rout of 15-25 points and Portland won’t challenge in the 4^th.

And expect Melo and Chauncey to pile it on.

In other news, everyone raise your glasses to the New Jersey Nets.  With a 90-84 win over the San Antonio Spurs, the Nets have recorded their 10^th win of the season and successfully become NOT the worst team ever.  Congrats.

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