(AP Photo/Chuck Burton)(Boulder-CO) Despite a gritty effort by the few that were able to play, the Denver Nuggets lost to the Charlotte Bobcats tonight, 119-116. Four Denver starters scored in double figures, but Gerald Wallace’s 40-point effort was too much for the Nuggets to overcome.
Nene is still hush-hush about what is ailing him, Chucky is going to be gone for awhile, Eduardo Najera was a game-time scratch due to a hyper-extended elbow, Steven Hunter is, well, somewhere, and Von Wafer was a DNP per usual leaving Coach George Karl a very limited roster to work with.
But despite all the available excuses the Nuggets that did play, played well. In the first half, the Nuggets overcame a nine point disadvantage from the first quarter and exploded for a 43-point second period. Paced by Carmelo Anthony’s 21 points at the half, Denver was clinging to a single point lead at intermission.
The Nuggets once again outplayed the ‘Cats in the third, but a dismal 17-point offensive showing in the forth in combination with Gerald Wallace’s continued offensive barrage were too much for the Nuggets to counter. Wallace scored nine of his game-high 40 points in the final quarter with the nail in the coffin being a three-point basket to put the Bobcats up, 117-112, with only 45 seconds remaining in the game. Denver did have one last chance to win with the score, 117-115, and Carmelo Anthony at the line, but ‘Melo was unable to tie the game with the second attempt missing and being rebounded by Anthony before he shuffled his feet and turned the ball over on the traveling violation. Ironically, ‘Melo finished with a team-high 35 points but struggled from the free-throw line all night concluding just 11-17.
Marcus Camby grabbed a game-high 23 rebounds, swatted six shots, and scored 20 points and Allen Iverson scored 23 while passing out six assists.
Up next for the depleted Nuggets is a trip to hot-lanta tomorrow night to play a very talented Hawks team that is on the verge of getting back to .500 after starting the year 3-7. Eduardo Najera is expected to be ready, but the Nuggets will need to search deep for the fortitude needed to stop a potential slide before getting back to Denver on Thursday night to play the division rival Utah Jazz.
Go Nuggets!
4 comments:
Argh, they battled all game, that's one of those games you really want to get out of there with a win and no one knows how you did it.
Hopefully they bring the A game in Atlanta.
Great update Nugg Dr.
Thanks, james. Glad to have you aboard!
Thanks for reading,
The Nugg Doctor
Hah, is it just me, or was that one of the most exciting, fun games all year? Poster after poster... JR, K-Mart, Wallace.. just NASTY. Haha, poor Okafor got dunked on twice in a row.
The 'Cats and the Hawks are two of my favorite teams to watch (mostly because of Josh Smith and Gerald Wallace), so I'm looking forward to tomorrow night. It sucks that we lost (and are down to Portland again), but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and think that tomorrow will be no different.
Nice to see JR finally getting some solid minutes. 50% shooting, no TOs, made a clutch 3 to try to keep us in the game... just solid play from him. He and Kleiza should both be getting about 15-20 minutes per night -- that should be the main goal of the rotation... Yak played Eddie's role pretty well and made me feel better about a possible trade at some point.
Let's hope we can contain Joe Johnson (who has been pretty hot lately) and that Smith doesn't shut Melo down. The Hawks at least don't have a bunch of legit bigs to contend with, so hopefully Macrus and K-Mart will be able to hold down the middle in Nene (and possibly Najera's) absence.
It was a good game to watch, but I constantly felt like the Nuggets were takin' the Bobcats one inch too lightly. We played with an "It's gonna be fine, don't worry"-attitude and although the Nuggets didn't really play that bad, the Cats just played with a little more urgency and seriousness throughout the whole 48 minutes.
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