Eat Your Heart Out Chi-Town

(Boulder-CO) Mmmmunchhhh, mmmmunchhhhh, mmmmunchhhh, can you hear that Nuggets fans? It’s the sound of Bulls fans eating their hearts out! The Bulls traded J.R. Smith to the Nuggets for Howard Eisley, whom they later waived, and two second round picks in next year’s draft. So what does Smith do? He just burns the team that burnt him for a career-high 36 points on 5-11 from the three-point line! Not to mention that four of those career-high 36 came on nasty crams at the cost of Chicago defenders.

I think that Matt over at Blog-a-Bull might be rethinking his post, click here http://www.blogabull.com/story/2006/11/21/193725/25, from earlier today…

Nevertheless, the Nuggets were victorious tonight, and sent the Bulls packing with their fifth straight loss, to the tune of 113-109. The Nuggets can be thankful for the 14-point run they put on the Bulls to end the third quarter that led to tonight’s win. Otherwise, who knows how this one could have turned out…?

Carmelo Anthony played another rock-solid game tonight, but didn’t break Alex English’s record and for now will have to share the record for most consecutive games scoring 30 or more points at six with the 1980’s top scorer. ‘Melo did have a shot to break it, but with about twenty seconds remaining he missed two consecutive free throws and found himself with 29 points when the buzzer went off. Ahh rats, but something tells me that when things are all said and done for Carmelo Anthony in Denver that this record, along with a lot of others, will bare his name. Anthony also gave the Nuggets four assists and four rebounds despite fighting foul trouble throughout most of the game.

Denver finished this game with more rebounds (51), assists (25), and steals (9) than the Bulls and finally looked as if they believed in themselves down the stretch. Much of the aforementioned third quarter run can be attributed to the heart, and hustle, of Reggie Evans. The box score only indicates that Evans finished with eight points and eight rebounds, but the Nuggets bench energy was conducted through Reggie all night long. He brought great energy to this team by tipping loose balls to teammates and by keeping rebounds alive with sometimes two or three tips to himself. The guy is a specialist. It is just that simple. He gives the Nuggets much needed toughness and swagger in the form of rebounding and intimidation around the basket in the place of the injured Kenyon Martin. Nuggets management looks genius right now for signing him late this summer.

However, in the end it was all about J.R. Smith. He was simply amazing tonight! He hit a three point buzzer beater to end the half and you could just tell it was his night. The two monster sized yokes he had both came on the fast break. The first came from the left side and J.R. went up stairs to the penthouse suite before nearly landing on Kirk Hinrich. The second came off of an Andre Miller pass that posterized a couple of Chicago Bulls about midway in the fourth quarter! This was the point I heard that chewing sound…

Next up for the Nuggets is a double-take with the Golden State Warriors. This Warriors team is improved and with Don Nelson’s help should give the Nuggets some stiff competition. Tomorrow night’s game at G-State tips off at 8:30 pm. Friday’s game is at the regular tip-time of 7 pm right back here in the Mile High City. Remember the formula, Nuggets fans. Six wins out of every ten leaves the Nuggets with a damn good shot at winning fifty games this year. Right now they are 5-4. Now it’s time to take care of business out in California.