Denver uses overtime to eclipse the Suns

First off, Denver is now 1-3 on TNT … 1-0 without Charles Barkely being in studio.

Shaquille O’Neal did not play last night. I am undecided on if that was good or bad for Denver. I think it was good for the Nuggets because Shaq’s size obviously would have been a lot to handle. Also, Robin Lopez aka Side Show Bob turned in a –19 while he was on the floor and starting in place of Shaq (meaning when Lopez was on the floor the Nuggets outscored the the Suns by 19.)

But this game wasn’t really about the numbers for me. If you watched the game or if you are just reading about it you could tell and you should know that both teams didn’t really shoot the ball very well at all. So to me, with both teams being cold – the game came down to who was going to play with more energy and who was going to take the ball to the rack. The Nuggets looked like they were on the ropes in the first quarter, but unlike the past two games they came out energized in the third quarter.

I thought Denver did a great job with both their energy throughout the second half and in overtime. The defensive pressure created 23 turnovers and lead to a variey of fastbreak buckets for Denver.

But the guys I’d like to focus on are JR Smith and Linas Kleiza. Both have obviously been shooting poorly (5-39 combined going into the game and a combined 14-29 or 48% vs. the Suns) and it seemed like last night that even though early they still didn’t have their shots going they decided to do something different.

For Smith he focused more on passing the ball. He turned in 7 assists and even gave up an easy layup on a 3-on-1 break to allow Kenyon Martin to get some glory with an electrifying dunk. JR seemed to sense his shot was still not on rhythm so he decided to get his teammates involved, much like he was doing at the beginning of the season and it was nice to see him return to form. He did manage to take 18 shots, but I was much happier with his shot selection in this one. The three-pointer he made to tie the game at 103 with a minute and a half left and about 20 seconds on the shot clock allowed Denver to get to overtime.

One other quick note on Smith. How about that breakaway dunk he had? Guy takes off just inside the foul line and is able to put home a windmill dunk – even Chris Webber on TNT after the game was amazed that JR was able to put that one in from such a distance.

Moving on to Kleiza. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him more determined to get to the rim than he was last night. Guy even made Sportscenter’s Top 10 with his up-and-under hate filled dunk. The guy was on a mission last night and I think all Denver fans would like to see him continue to get to the rim like he did against Phoenix.

I really thought that Leandro Barbosa was going to have more of an impact in this contest. He’d been averaging 16 points over his last five games and I thought his speed would present a problem for the Nuggets guards. In 29 minutes he shot 1-11 and scored 6 points. It was very nice to see Barbosa cool off in the snow capped rockies.

Denver improved to 27-13 on the season, which has earned them the second most wins in the Western Conference behind only the Lakers (31-7). The win last night got my buddy Rich and I talking about Denver being “the real deal” and a contender in the West.

Rich has been quite impressed with this current home stand without Melo as I think we all have been. Are the Nuggets as good as their record suggests? Our eight man rotation is as talented as anyone in the league and once Melo gets back they should be even better. Getting guys like Smith, Kleiza, and Nene these major minutes in key situations on the floor is only going to give them the experience they lack come playoff time. Chauncey Billups has changed the culture of this team.

Billups interview last night on TNT discussed how he is getting the team to realize that they need to win every winnable game now to position themselves for the playoffs now. You can see it with how Denver is able to start closing these games. Against the Mavs they were down 95-91 with just minutes left and came back to win in crunch time. Last night they were down 103-100 and found a way to force overtime (perhaps a non-call on a Dahntay Jones trip).

I have thought they have been very lucky with how some of these close situations have played out for them recently, but Rich reminded me “at some point you have to start calling close games what they are … good wins. Not luck.” Everything that leads up to the key moments only happens because Denver has put themselves in that place to begin with.

I haven’t seen a team like this here ever. I would say that as a fan I’m learning along with the team how important each possession is, each quarter is, and each game is. The model was recognized last year with the Boston Celtics, but perhaps Chauncey Billups and his former club the Detroit Pistons were on to this years ago.

It’s nice to see Denver now starting to get in line.


Observations:

• Billups played with the flu, missed shootaround and scored 26 points
• Anthony Carter turned in a –13 while he was on the floor
• Kenyon Martin led the team in shots with 23, scored 24 points and hit the key three-pointer in overtime – if anyone can find Kmart’s impression of the Sam Cassell dance on YouTube please feel free to post the link … TNT great job having that zoomed in as you took us to commercial break!