Box Score | Highlights

We all can exhale now.  The Nuggets have earned a win against one of the other top teams in the west.  This win was important for several reasons.  There is the issue of a lack of wins against the elite teams in the NBA that I mentioned in my preview.  There is the issue of getting away from their defensive mindset and being able to win a grind it out game against a defensive oriented opponent.  Then there was the surprise issue of surviving a game against a good team without Carmelo Anthony.

Melo left the game after playing only 14 minutes due to a bum elbow that has been bothering him for a few days.  Apparently the players did not get the news Melo was out until halftime because Chauncey Billups came out of the locker room a man possessed. 

Chauncey clearly took the burden of winning this game on his shoulders to the tune of 14 points and four assists in the third quarter.  He led the Nuggets to a lead they would never relinquish.  The thing that was most impressive about Chauncey’s performance in the third quarter was the degree of difficulty for most of his makes and assists.  Billups made four threes in the first six minutes of the quarter and continued to excel even after the Rockets realized he was the guy they needed to shut down.

Hopefully Melo will be OK, but the way Chauncey raised his game in Melo’s absence was thrilling to watch.  AI was capable of carrying the offensive load if Melo was absent, but he never displayed the efficiency that Billups showed us tonight.  He was a fountain of cool for his teammates to drink from if they ever started to panic.

As well as the Nuggets played on defense they did give up a plethora of open threes and the Rockets made more than their fair share.   Houston made ten of their 20 three point attempts and the Nuggets still won by ten.  As jakester pointed out in the game thread Houston only shot 21-56 on their two point attempts which equates to 37.5%.  A big key to the Nuggets defensive success was the way they doubled Yao.  George Karl pointed out in the pregame show that doubling Yao with a small guard really does not accomplish anything because Yao is so huge.   Denver doubled him frequently with J.R. Smith and Dahntay Jones who have enough size to bother the big man.  Nothing came easy for Yao and surprisingly enough, he ended up with the worst plus/minus in the game at -19.   Yao was also limited to only 31 minutes do to fatigue, which judging by his plus/minus was actually a good thing for Houston.

The Nuggets poor three point defense is a bit of a concern.  In the previous game against the Minnesota Timberwolves the Nuggets gave up open look after open look.  It ended up not making much of a difference as Minnesota missed almost all of those open looks, but against a hot shooting team like the Rockets not guarding the three point line can be a fatal flaw.

There are three primary ways that a team can get open on the perimeter in their half court offense.  The first is off of a double team.  If the ball is kicked out and swung around the perimeter the result is typically an open three pointer.  The second way a team can earn an open three point shot is through penetration.  If a player drives into the lane and forces the defense to collapse he can then pass out to an open teammate.  The third way to get an open three is with a simple ball screen.  That can either free up the player with the ball or he can draw help and pass to an open teammate. 

The Nuggets are pretty good at rotating off of their planned double teams, but the area they get into trouble is if they have to double someone unexpectedly such as if there is a switch and a guard is stuck guarding a forward or center or off of penetration.  If the Nuggets are going to truly be able to survive with their defense they must become more natural at scrambling and rotating in situations where they are starting off out of position. 

I would compare it to the difference between book smart and street smart.  A book smart team knows how to execute their planned rotations and the Nuggets can do that.  A street smart team can rotate no matter what triggered the help and rotation.  Penetration can come from any direction and only the best teams can help off their man to stop the drive and still react to the kick out pass to close off the three point line.  It takes athleticism, a mental understanding of the defensive principles your team believes in, a chemistry between teammates where they know what each of the five players on the floor are thinking so no one duplicates an assignment and determination because it takes a lot of energy to cover the entire floor for 48 minutes.

The Nuggets have proven they are an improved defensive team, but they are still a step or two below being able to defend at a championship level.

Other Observations from Game 18:

• The Denver Nuggets are tied atop the Northwest Division with the Portland Trail Blazers at 12-6.  Portland fans complained nonstop about how difficult their schedule was but at this point there really is not much of a difference between the schedule Portland has played and the one Denver has played.  I did not expect either the Trail Blazers nor Nuggets to give Utah much of a fight for the division title, nor did anyone else aside from the most fanatical Blazer supporter.  Denver and Portland are in position to make things tough on the Jazz, but you have to take into account that Utah is right there even though Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer have combined to miss 19 games between them so far this season.
  
• I never saw a definitive play where Melo hurt his elbow, nor did I ever see him grimacing or rubbing it.  I am not saying he is faking, but hopefully it is not hurt too badly and he will not miss any further game time because of it.
  
• J.R. Smith has had a strange week.  He blew up on New Orleans, then played a measly seven minutes in Minnesota only to come back and have another very good game against Houston tonight.  J.R. has drilled ten of his last 19 three point attempts and his season percentage is up to 34.6%. 
  
• After making some strange decisions over the previous couple of games I thought George Karl managed Nene’s minutes very well.  Nene was called for his first foul on the first play He pulled him from the game midway through the first before he was called for his second foul.  He managed to play 35 minutes and ended up with five fouls.  A lot of coaches make the mistake of over sitting a guy and he ends up playing 24 minutes and ending the game with three fouls.
  
• As was pointed out above the Rockets shot 37.5% on their two point shots.  A big reason for that was the Nuggets season high 14 blocks.  I can think of at least four point blank shots that were going to go in had they not been rejected.  Without those blocks tonight’s game would have been much different.
  
• I pointed out in the game preview that Houston was going to play without Tracy McGrady, but the Rockets were also without Nugget killer Shane Battier so that warrants mentioning.  

Razzle Dazzle Game Stats

The pace factor for the game was a sluggish 89.1 dropping the Nuggets pace factor for the season down to 93.7.

The Nuggets defensive efficiency was a relatively high 105.5, but when a team hits 10 threes in such a slow paced game it is difficult to post a better defensive efficiency rating than that.  For the season their defensive efficiency has risen to 103.9.

The Nuggets had another good offensive showing posting an offensive efficiency rating of 116.7 which was even more impressive considering the Rockets entered the game with the fourth best defensive efficiency rating in the NBA.  For the season the Nuggets offensive efficiency rating is up to 106.7.

Check out The Dream Shake for some insight from a great Rockets blog.

This is a big game for the Denver Nuggets. 

The Nuggets have faced several of the top teams in the NBA over the first month of the season.  They have faced off with Utah, Boston, Cleveland, the Lakers twice, New Orleans and now the Houston Rockets.  Heading into tonight’s game Denver is only 1-5 against the elite teams in the NBA.  Things may not be that bad though as they lost two of those games before Chauncey Billups came back to Denver.  A loss to the Rockets tonight would put another notch in the loss column against the best of the NBA and make it more difficult to make a case that the Nuggets have a shot at earning home court advantage in the playoffs.

The Rockets are coming off a blow out win against the now healthy San Antonio Spurs in Houston last night.  They are playing without Tracy McGrady, but the addition of Ron Artest has helped make up for his absence.  McGrady has missed the last two games and Artest has lead the team in shot attempts both of those two games.

The downside of Artest’s presence is it has somewhat marginalized Yao Ming.  Yao is posting numbers comparable to his third season in the league, which was 2004-05.  Compared to his career year of 2006-07, when he averaged over 25 points a game, he is playing a tad more, but is getting almost five fewer shot attempts a game.  Yao is one of the handful of players around the league who the Nuggets have a very difficult time containing.  The more the Rockets marginalize him the better it is for the Nuggets.

When the Nuggets have the ball it will be interesting to see how the Rockets defend Melo.  They have two defenders who are capable of frustrating Melo one on one in Artest and Shane Battier.  If they choose to defend Carmelo one on one, Melo must win his matchup.  That does not mean scoring 30 points, but that means beating Artest or Battier off the dribble forcing the Rockets to help and open up the floor for his teammates.

Defensively the Rockets have been very good traditionally at forcing you to play defense for 15 or 20 seconds of every possession.  They become more of a one on one team with Artest, but they will still dump the ball into Yao, force a double team and see how well your defense rotates.

One player the Nuggets will have to be ready for coming off the bench is Aaron Brooks.  He will remind Nuggets fans of Earl Boykins thanks to his shoot first mentality and diminutive size.  He is listed as a 6’ 0” point guard, which is probably a couple of inches off of his actual height, but he so far on the season he has captured more rebounds than assists.

The Nuggets have won two straight against the Rockets at the Pepsi Center, but in the past Houston has had little trouble winning in Denver.  The Nuggets are going to have to play defense for more than a quarter or quarter and a half in order to win because the Rockets will defend for four quarters and they play at a very slow pace.  Earlier in the season the Nuggets were winning games like that, let’s hope they can do it again tonight.

Game Notes

The Dream Shake

Box Score | Highlights

What looked like another testy game between the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves turned into a relatively easy win for Denver as they put the hammer down early in the third quarter and put it on cruise control from there on.  It was the Nuggets seventh straight win against the Timberwolves and third in a row at teh Target Center.

Things seemed bleak as Minnesota, playing the back end of consecutive games after they won on a Mike Miller buzzer beater the previous night in Oklahoma City, jumped out to a 9-0 lead to start the game.  Chauncey Billups brought the Nuggets back almost singlehandedly after that scoring the next eight points of the game himself.  The teams seesawed back and forth for most of the rest of the first half until the Nuggets scored six straight at the end of the half to lead 60-54 after 24 minutes. 

The third quarter started much like the first as the Wolves scored nine points in the first three minutes of action, but the Nuggets defense, and offense, would take over from that as Denver outscored Minnesota 21-7 the rest of the way.  How did they manage to finally build a lead and hold it against the scrappy TWolves?  Defensively they came out looking much more prepared and organized in the second half.  Their soft double, where a second defender moved into near proximity without actually doubling, on Al Jefferson was effective and everyone was ready to rotate even before Jefferson kicked the ball out.  It was a big difference from the first half where Minnesota had open look after open look both inside and out in the first half.

On offense Denver was able to get out on the break and score some easy baskets, but more importantly in the half court they were moving and passing the ball which earned them some easy shots.

The Nuggets have another chance to prove their status as a quasi-contender with a home game against the Houston Rockets tomorrow night.  If the Nuggets win that one they will be guaranteed at least a tie for first place in the Northwest Division as we turn the calendar to December.  If Portland loses on the road against the Pistons Denver could be all alone in first.  I do not think any of us expected to be able to say that before the season started.

Other Observations from Game 17:

• I had planned on warning those of you who had not yet seen the Timberwolves new floor, but I forgot.  I hope it did not cause any seizures or any other acute medial conditions.   
  
• I did not do the research, but the Nuggets only committed eleven fouls all game long.  No one had more than two fouls.
  
• Much to my dismay Chucky Atkins played quite a bit.  Karl gave him J.R.’s minutes in the second half after J.R. played seven lackadaisical minutes in the first half.  Atkins did end up with five assists, but four of those were simple passes to a jump shooter.
  
• For the first time this season Carmelo had fewer than two assists.  He actually had zero.  I saw one pass he made to Nene where he should have been credited with one as Nene received the pass turned and made the shot, but the fact Melo set a season low in assists was not a fluke.  The combination of Melo being aggressive offensively, his teammates not doing a particularly good job of cutting to the basket and Minnesota doing a good job of helping in the lane when they did resulted in just one of those nights where Melo took what the defense gave him.
  
• It will be interesting to find out if J.R. is in the doghouse again playing only seven minutes in the very next game after his breakout performance against the Hornets.   J.R. has shown some maturity over the previous few months, but if George Karl starts jerking him around, I am not sure how well Smith will handle it.
  
• As he did against the Bucks, Karl pulled the starters very early in the fourth and almost opened the door for a big comeback.  I realize it is good to rest the starters as much as possible on the first night of back to back games, but I am afraid that sitting the starters too early might come back to bite him sometime this season.
  

Razzle Dazzle Game Stats

The pace factor for the game tonight was pretty much in tune with the pace the Nuggets average pace this season at 94.7.

Denver’s defensive efficiency ended up being a decent 102.4, which was slightly below their season rating of 103.8.  Minnesota had a scoring explosion of 21 points over the last six minutes of the game pushing that number higher than it really should have been.

The Nuggets posted another solid offensive efficiency rating of 111.9.  It was their seventh straight game and ninth out of their last ten games with an offensive efficiency rating over 100.  For the season they have an offensive efficiency rating of 106.1, which is pushing them towards the top half of the league.  

Check out Canis Hoopus for some perspective from the other side of the fence. 

The Denver Nuggets face a game that really could be considered a must win against the Minnesota Timberwolves.  With a matchup with the Houston Rockets looking tomorrow and after dropping a game against the New Orleans Hornets where the Nuggets just could not get their act together a loss at Minnesota would be very frustrating. 

The Nuggets have a six game winning streak against the Timberwolves, but only two of those six wins came on the road.  Minnesota may have a difficult time beating the Nuggets, but they do a pretty good job of making the Nuggets look bad for long stretches of time.

The Nuggets have only had one game you could consider to have been a blowout and that was the home game against the Bucks.  We have mentioned about how good teams pull out close games when they are not playing at their best, but good teams also blow out bad teams relatively frequently.  It would be nice to see an easy win tonight, but the history of this series seems would suggest that is not going to happen.

Game Notes 

Canis Hoopus | TWolves Blog

Game 10: Den 90 Min 84

Box Score | Highlights

After four blowouts the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Hornets finally gave us a close game this Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately for Nugget fans it was New Orleans who hit the shots down the stretch and walked away with the victory.

There is no shame in losing to the Hornets, who I believe are one of the top four teams in the league, but the way the Nuggets lost was agonizing.  I was not sure I would be able to compose myself in order to write about it, but my mood was salvaged by some painful eliminations on the always entertaining Most Extreme Challenge on SpikeTV.  MXC is one of those shows like Beavis and Butthead where you never set out to watch, but once you stumble upon it you set the clicker down and enjoy the ride.

What I most wanted to see from Denver tonight, other than a win, was the return of their solid defense.   Well, the posted a horrible defensive efficiency rating and they went through stretches where they looked atrocious on defense, but there were also times where they really locked in and played some great defense. 

During the fourth quarter the Nuggets did a great job of helping and rotating.  Unfortunately the Nuggets had a breakdown with the game tied and about twenty seconds left when Paul came off a high screen and Kenyon Martin left James Posey to collapse and help on Paul even though Nene did a great job of stopping his drive off the screen.  Paul kicked out to a wide open Posey and he did what the Hornets signed him to do.  Hit clutch threes.  Ideally Melo would have seen Kenyon helping and rotated up to cover Posey, but in a situation like that when you are covering a good three point shooter out high you need to rely on the defenders along the baseline to stop the penetration.

I did not think the Posey shot was the key sequence in the game though.  With the Nuggets up three and two minutes left they played great defense and forced Chris Paul into a 34 foot three point shot, which he made.  On the next possession Carmelo deflected the ball and appeared to have a fast break.  As his teammates started running up the floor for the fast break the ball somehow bounced back to Rasul Butler.  There were three Nuggets already running up the floor and as a result Peja Stojakovic was all alone and he drilled a three to put the Hornets up three.  The Nuggets had played two great possessions of defense and the result was a 6-0 run by the Hornets.  Devastating.

On top of that Kenyon Martin was called for a technical for kicking the scorer’s table and Peja made the free throw to put the Hornets up four.  I realize players are not supposed to hit the basket supports or other objects around the court, but in that situation the refs have to swallow their whistle.  As a matter of fact I was also called for a technical after Peja’s three by my wife who was attempting to sleep and apparently did not appreciate me kicking the clothes basket and bouncing it off of our entertainment center.  I too believe I was unfairly targeted.  If she did not want me to kick it she should not have left it there.

The Nuggets are clearly not playing to their potential.  Again they suffered from a lack of offensive discipline as they had many different possessions where they settled for the first jumpshot that presented itself.  They can be such a good offensive team when they are patient. 

Defensively they still had several stretches where they completely lost focus the worst of which was the beginning of the second half where the Hornets scored 12 points in the first three and a half minutes of the third quarter.  The Nuggets turned things around and followed that with a six and a half minute stretch in the third quarter where New Orleans only scored three points. 

The last nine minutes of the game was the Chris Paul show and he proved why he is an MVP candidate as he dropped in 13 points.  His ability to both score and find open teammates puts so much pressure on the defense.  The Nuggets handled it reasonably well and they gave themselves a chance to win a game against a top team even though they had several stretches of poor play on both ends of the floor.

If you are looking for some good news to come out of this game look no further than the return of the explosive J.R. Smith.  J.R. finally had that breakout game we have all been expecting as he dropped in five threes and had several impressive drives in the second half.  It is frustrating that the Nuggets wasted his big game, but if he can build on tonight’s performance the Nuggets will be much better off.

Other Observations from Game 16:

• I was disappointed in the play George Karl drew up after Posey’s three.  I understand the desire to use J.R. as a decoy, but Chauncey was 0-3 from downtown and J.R. was 4-8.  You owe him, as well as the rst of the team, a chance to get a shot off.  Set a high screen for him and if he can get open, great.  If he is doubled or if the Hornets switch they had plenty of time to work the ball around to someone else.  Also, I do not understand why coaches require players to come off a screen running towards half court and forcing them to turn and shoot a three.  That is such a difficult shot to make with your momentum carrying you away from the rim.  Chauncey got a good look, but it was a tough shot and he was not shooting the ball well as it was.
  
• For the second game in his last three Melo shot over 50% from the field as he made eight of 13 shots.  He has been doing a good job of attacking the rim and not settling for the jumper.   He only had two assists, but a good part of the blame for that lies with his teammates who are not cutting when he has the ball on the wing.
  
• Chris Andersen returned and provided some great energy in the first half.  If it was not for Smith and Andersen in the first quarter there is no telling how far behind the Nuggets would have been at the end of the first quarter.  He also provided depth as Nene was in foul trouble in the first half again.
  
• Even though Nene was in some foul trouble there is no excuse for him only getting four shots in a game where New Orleans was missing Tyson Chandler.  I think that is just another sign of the Nuggets lack of patience on offense.
• Denver may not have won, but they competed very well against a good team on the second night of a back to back.  They will have to do better though if they are going to close this month out on a high note as they have a road game in Minnesota on Saturday and a big home game against the Rockets on Sunday.
  

Razzle Dazzle Game Stats

The pace factor was a sluggish 87.9.

I mentioned earlier the Nuggets had a terrible defensive efficiency rating.  They had their second worst rating of the season at 119.4.  When you consider how well they played in the middle of the third quarter and most of the fourth it shows how horrid they were the rest of the game.

The Nuggets offensive efficiency rating was a strong 114.9, but much of that was due to J.R.’s huge game.  They really were not good in the half court and when they had 60 points Doug Collins reported that 20 of those points were off of fast breaks.

Head on over to At the Hive for some more great game coverage.

Happy Thanksgiving!  The Nuggets hope to keep us from having another serving of turkey as they face off with the New Orleans Hornets at the Pepsi Center tonight.

The real key to success tonight will be a return to the defensive mindset that they displayed for the first four weeks of the season.  New Orleans is one of the best offensive teams in the league.  They shoot a high percentage and have arguably the league’s best player in Chris Paul running the show.

There is good news for the Nuggets though as Chris Andersen is probable for tonight’s game against the New Orleans Hornets.  Add in the fact that J.R. Smith did not play last night and they have two fresh players available to play in the second game of a back to back.

In preparation for tonight’s game head on over to At the Hive and check out my portion of the Q & A we did.

Game Notes

We have a little pre game treat for you today.  At the Hive, a great New Orlenas Hornets blog, and I have done a little Q and A in preperation for the big Thanksgiving night conflagration between the Hornets and Nuggets.

Enjoy!

Pickaxe and Roll:  Before the season I believed that if any team other than the Lakers was going to represent the Western Conference in the finals it would be the Hornets.  New Orleans experienced a 2-5 stretch before their current three game winning streak.  Their five losses include games against Atlanta, at Charlotte and Sacramento.  Was that 2-5 stretch just an early season blip or are there issues that were revealed that might plague the team all season?  Do you fully expect them to be a top two or three seed at the end of the season?

At the Hive:  The Hornets' biggest issues this year have been over-fouling and poor perimeter defense. Now, the perimeter defense seemed like it took a turn for the better the last few three games. That said, our last three games were against Oklahoma City (twice) and the Clippers. So Denver will be the first real test to see if the defense has returned to last year's levels. Over-fouling I feel is a small sample thing that will correct itself as the season goes on. 

I still expect the Hornets to challenge for the two or three spot at the end of the season. Houston will obviously be the biggest competition, since they could potentially lock the Hornets out of the top three by winning the Southwest Division. As the team is constructed now, the biggest flaw would be our bench. I really can't see GM Jeff Bower failing to make a move down the road for a point guard if the poor bench play continues.

Pa&R:  Tyson Chandler's numbers have dropped off quite a bit from last season.  Is that dropoff apparent in his play or is it just a matter of dealing with a small sample size?

@tH:  He started off really slowly due to a sprained ankle. But one thing that worries me: he doesn't get his "tip out" rebounds very often. Last year, that was one of his biggest strengths. Even when he didn't have rebounding position, he would rely on his athleticism to leap up and tip rebounds back out to the perimeter. This year, that's been sorely lacking. It could be that he isn't getting as much lift off his injured ankle. That's my hope any way. If his problems persist through December, the Hornets might be looking at a serious issue since Tyson is by far the best rebounder on the squad. 

Pa&R:  While the James Posey addition was made primarily for his post season experience, but has he provided what the Hornets were expecting from him so far in the regular season?

@tH:  Oh, he's been amazing. Seems to come up with the timely trifecta every single night. The biggest thing with Posey is that even on his "off nights," he's worth having on the floor. He makes up for poor shooting games with terrific hustle and man defense. Having him guard guys like Kobe and LeBron has been a huge improvement over Peja, as you might imagine. 

Pa&R:  Even though the Nuggets won 50 games last season I contended that there was little to no intimidation factor.  No teams were saying, "Crap, we have to play the Nuggets tonight?"  I believe the Nuggets are better this year than last year now that they are focusing on playing attentive defense, actually moving around on offense and having added a point guard who can shoot and defend in Chauncey Billups.  As a fan of an elite team how close are the Nuggets to being a team you dread playing?

@tH:  Hmm. Interesting question. The thing that worries me most is Chauncey Billups, the defender. Billups absolutely torments Chris Paul. I know a lot of that must be credited to the Detroit Piston's excellent help defense. But Billups stays in front of his man as well as any player in the NBA. To me, that's really impressive since Billups isn't the quickest guy in the world himself. His footwork on D is what helps him accomplish it, and Paul has been stymied by it. As far as the rest of the Nuggets, I feel pretty good that J.R. Smith is coming off the bench instead of starting. The Hornets' bench struggles to score, but is up there with the best defensive units in the league. Between Devin Brown, Julian Wright, and James Posey, I feel confident that the Hornets can limit Smith. 

Thanks to At the Hive for the great insight.  Hopefully he is right about Chauncey being able to hound Paul.  

Box Score | Highlights

What the Sam Hill was that?

You know how you dream that you have already woke up, gotten ready for your day, go to school or work and everything is really weird?  Like you give your teacher a test or someone turns in a project you were working and does a horrible job, but your boss thinks you did it?

I feel like I just watched a Nuggets game where they took control early then the bench blew it and Karl blew it by sticking with the bench for too long.  Karl never plays J.R. Smith.  Mike Taylor plays like an all-star.  The Nuggets once again seem to be in control with a couple of minutes left only to lose control again and end up winning the game when a Marcus Camby three pointer falls short.

Can I wake up and watch the real game now?

You can say a win is a win until you are blue in the face, but I probably look green in the face because that game made me feel sick.  At least it had an appropriate ending with Marcus Camby holding the result of the game in balance with yet another shot from straight away that Nugget fans are all too familiar with.

The Nuggets left their new and improved defense at baggage claim.  Really if it was not for the fourth quarter of the Bulls game and the third quarter tonight the Nuggets would have strung together three straight poor defensive efforts in a row. 

Tonight was especially galling as Denver seemed to have the game in hand on a couple of different occasions only to have the defense let the Clippers back into the game.  The defensive breakdowns were far too numerous to focus on here.  Needless to say the rotations were nonexistent allowing Eric Gordon to have nine wide open looks from long range.  The main problem was the Nuggets inability to prevent penetration by Baron Davis, Gordon and Mike Taylor.  They were either able to score in the lane or pas to an open teammate under the basket.  When the bigs helped out on the drive no one on the off side was covering the player that the helper left open.  Camby must have had four or five layups and dunks due to that breakdown alone.

Offensively when the Nuggets moved without the ball they had very good success.  Unfortunately, they forgot to move, or chose not to for most of the fourth quarter.  Down the stretch things got even worse as players started playing selfishly.  On two straight possessions in the last couple of minutes of the game Melo had the ball on the wing and Kenyon flashed through the lane.  Typically the second player to flash is open and Kleiza was next to cut, but instead of cutting through the lane for a potential layup or foul, he just spotted up hoping to get a chance to launch another three pointer as if the five he shot were not enough.

The other example of selfish play was with just under two minutes left and up three Anthony Carter took a swing pass and instead of making the extra pass, a pass that even chucker by reputation J.R. Smith has been making this season, Carter took the three and did not even hit the rim as Kleiza sat there with his hands up waiting for the pass that never came.

Once again it is tempting to say that the Nuggets did what good teams do and that is win on the road even when they are not playing their best ball.  Well, not tonight.  Tonight the Clippers let the Nuggets off the hook.

Despite their many shortcomings tonight Carmelo carried them through.  He did not shoot a high percentage of shots and he only ended the game with three assists, but he willed them to win.  He made several determined drives to the rim and only took one three pointer.  Plus he hit the game winning shot on a pull up jumper off of a drive to his left.  He also had another great rebounding night pulling down four offensive boards, mostly off of his own misses though, and seven defensive rebounds pushing his average for the season up to 8.8 a night.

The Nuggets will face a much sterner test tomorrow night against the Hornets.  Hopefully we will find out the Nuggets were playing down to their competition tonight and the good to great defense we have seen them play will return with the introduction of one of the preseason favorites to represent the west in the finals.

Other Observations from Game 15:

• I made the comment during the game that any good feeling that Clipper fans had about the Zach Randolph era went out the window around his third or fourth horrible shot, which coincided with his first three or four shots.  He was an offensive disaster.  For a strictly offensive player, that is not good.
  
• We all were flabbergasted at how Altitude gave us no clue as to why J.R. did not play at all.  However, they did provide the news that Chris Kaman was going to miss the rest of the game soon after he departed.  How can they have news about a Clippers player and not J.R.   If they did mention J.R. none of us noticed it and when a key player is benched wouldn’t you mention it more than once or twice?  And we all owe Karl an apology for questioning his sanity and competence for not playing J.R.  So ultimately Altitude owes George Karl an apology for all the nasty things we said about him.  Particularly about how long he stayed with the bench in the second quarter when it was obvious they could not score and were going to surrender the lead the starters had built in the first quarter.
  
• For the third time in the last five games the Nuggets have allowed their opponent to shoot at least 45.8% from the field.  I mentioned that their defense seems to be slipping and that is as good a sign as any.
  
• Kenyon Martin continues to play very well following his 10-10 performance with a 7-10 night made complete with ten rebounds, three steals, two blocks and two assists.  I have only slight recollections of Kenyon playing in New Jersey, but I think it is safe to say that over the previous few games he is playing as well as he ever has.  Kenyon did a great job grabbing rebounds in traffic tonight and he looks as athletic as he has been since joining the Nuggets. 
  
• Nene had a great start to the game.  He started out perfect from the field and the line in the first quarter.  He played very good individual defense throughout the game, but fouled out trying to play help defense on Baron Davis and Mike Taylor as they drove into the lane time and time again.   
  
• I thought the Nuggets did not do enough to exploit Camby’s defensive weaknesses during the game.  I really wanted to see them pick and roll him to death, but that did not happen.  As it was Denver did get a few open perimeter shots off of Camby’s unwillingness to leave the paint and at the end of the game they did go small and put Melo on him in the last couple of possessions.
  

Razzle Dazzle Game Stats

The pace factor for the game tonight was 96.5, which is on the quick side.  For the season the Nuggets are posting a pace factor of 94.3.

The Nuggets defensive efficiency was a horrendous 108.8 brining their rating for the season up to 102.9.

Offensively the Nuggets had a solid game thanks to the first and third quarters as they ended up with an offensive efficiency rating of 109.8.  The Nuggets are getting better on offense as they have had offensive efficiency ratings above 107.9 in five of their last eight games.  Their overall offensive efficiency for the season is up to a pretty solid 105.2.

Head on over to Clips Nation and Clipper Blog to see how Clipper fans are coping with another loss. 

The Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers played less than four weeks ago, but the two teams that take the floor tonight will bear little resemblance to the two teams that played on Halloween.  The Nuggets will have Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups on the floor this time and the Clippers will have Marcus Camby, Zach Randolph and presumably Baron Davis for a full game (he left in the second quarter in the first meeting).  

In addition to those changes rookie Eric Gordon has been moved into the starting lineup.  He was red hot in his first career start scoring 25 points on 9-18 shooting including 4-8 from downtown.  The Nuggets will have to pay attention to where Gordon is at all times as he is their only high percentage three point threat.

With all the changes the Clippers are clearly a more talented team than they were when the season started, but I am not sure they fit together any better.

The matchup between Baron Davis and Chauncey Billups will be fun to watch.  Both are bigger point guards who like to spend some time in the post.  Chauncey should be able to limit Baron’s penetration and the more Baron plays on the perimeter the better it is for the Nuggets.

With the addition of Zach Randolph along side of Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby the Clippers have a strong front line that will cause the Nuggets problems.  I think George Karl needs to make sure that Nene is in the game whenever Chris Kaman is on the floor.  We have seen Kaman dominate Kenyon and I shudder to think of Kaman being guarded by Renaldo Balkman who is even smaller than Kenyon and has been filling in at center on defense while Chris Andersen has been out.  Fortunately the Nuggets can put anyone they want on Camby because we all know he will never go down on the post.  However, whoever is guarding Marcus better be ready to box out because you know Camby will be looking to grab 20 boards and block ten shots. 

It will be interesting to see if the Nuggets can exploit Camby’s defensive shortcomings.  Chauncey could end up with 30 points on open 16 to 18 foot jumpers as long as they play pick and roll with Marcus’ man and if Camby is ever caught on Nene I hope the big man takes him down low to take advantage of his skinny build.  We also know if Marcus is on Kenyon, Martin will see a plethora of open looks form the perimeter and he has demonstrated he can knock jumper after jumper down from 20 feet and in.

It will again be important for Denver to have a fluid half court offense as the Clippers will try to pack the paint with their shot blockers.  Without motion it will be difficult to get them out of position to open up the paint and then we will see Denver turn into a jump shooting team.  I expect Melo to have the chance to put up another seven or eight assist night as the Clippers like to bring help as soon as he gets the ball and double him after he puts it on the floor.

Defensively the Nuggets will have to find a way to contain Al Thornton as he tends to have big games against Denver.  He has played all but six minutes of the last three games for the Clippers and played 48 of the 53 minutes and dropped 30 points the first time these two met this season.

The game tonight is the first of a stretch where the Nuggets play four games in five nights that include home games against the Hornets and Rockets sandwiched around a roadie to Minnesota to close out the month of November.  Tonight’s game is important to ensure they get started on the right foot. 

I strongly recommend you check out Clips Nation for some great Clipper insight and I would also be remiss if I did not direct you over to Clipper Blog as well.

Game Notes