Nuggets give royal mistreatment to Kings

In honor of the Arizona Cardinals making it to their first Super Bowl I’ll borrow an infamous line from former Head Coach Dennis Green, “They are who we thought they were.”

The Nuggets improved to 28-15 overall and are now 18-1 against sub .500 teams after last night’s lopsided 118-99 win over the Sacramento Kings (10-32).

Before tipoff we learned that Dahntay Jones was a late scratch after he suffered a separated shoulder in pregame warm-ups. Starting in his place would be Renaldo “The Crime Stopper” Balkman. You have to hand it to George Karl: throw a DNP – Coach’s Decision at a guy in Houston and then start him the next night! The NBA … where sporadic play of reserves happens. On the season when Balkman plays Denver owns an 18-7 record; the guy makes plays on the court and is very effective in stretches – so Balkman starting was a good sign.

Denver seemed to be suffering a Houston hangover to start the game and found themselves down 31-23 at the end of the first quarter after Francisco Garcia completed a four-point play when he was fouled by Kenyon Martin after burying a 30-foot running three-pointer with time about to expire.

Fortunately Denver was able to turn the second period into a one-team track meet. The Nuggets outscored the Kings in the period 34-16 and took the lead back for good at the 6:22 mark following a 13-2 run punctuated by an Anthony Carter layup giving the Nuggets a 37-36 advantage.

The game turned in by Denver through three quarters was quite impressive. In the third quarter the Nuggets shot 13-17 (76%) and held a 94-75 lead. Through three quarters Denver held a 25-4 advantage in fastbreak points. And that is where the game was won – on the fastbreak.

The Nuggets don’t run as often as they used to, but last night Head Coach George Karl wanted his team to push the pace and run the Kings out of the building. Denver did just that.

In the second and third quarters Denver was able to score multiple fastbreak buckets in a hurry. JR Smith at the 2:50 mark in the second quarter took a pass on the break from Chauncey Billups and flushed home a beautiful left-handed dunk where he seemed to float to the hoop from a distance typically untested by other players (JR is an athletic freak). JR doesn’t use the left hand often, but last night he had it going and finished the game with 19 points and turned in a team high +32 when he was on the floor (again that means with JR on the floor Denver outscored the kings by 32 points).

Linas Kleiza led the Nuggets with 27 points and continued to attack the hoop like a rabid dog. I’m not quite sure what has possessed Kleiza to drive the ball like he has been, but his confidence in doing so has been overwhelming.  

The Kings were led by Kevin Martin, 25 points and rookie power forward Jason Thompson, 18 points and 11 rebounds.

The play of the night occurred midway through the fourth quarter. Anthony Carter said after the game in his interview with Altitude television that Chris “Birdman” Anderson has been complaining to him all season that he never gets any lobs, so Carter remedied that.

Carter worked a pick-and-roll from the left elbow with Birdman at the 8:37 mark of the fourth quarter. As Birdman rolled to the rim, Carter lofted a beautiful pass as the Bird took flight, caught the ball and was able to blindly put in a reverse alley-oop over Brad Miller. The crowd at Pepsi Center erupted and the Nuggets bench exploded! The game was basically over at that point (105-79), but the fans were treated to an amazing play.

It was good to see Denver get back on the winning track and gain some confidence going into Sunday’s HUGE matchup against Northwest division rival Utah Jazz (25-17).

Although Denver really played a sloppy first quarter there is just a feeling with this team that they are not going to drop games to teams, who on paper, they should beat. There was just never a feeling of doubt, even when Denver trailed by 10 points the game was never in jeopardy. At some point you just knew that momentum was going to swing and Denver was going to win this game. The game swung in the second quarter as expected thanks to the running game.

After two tough games Denver needed a win in this fashion last night. Listening to local sports talk this morning you can tell that the players sense a big showdown this Sunday with Utah. So, to come out and dominate an opponent and have a little fun while doing so took a little weight off the players’ shoulders after a tough loss against the Rockets.

The team expects to focus on defense in practice this week and coach Karl with the loss of Dahntay Jones was discussing working some zone defense into practice in preparation for the Jazz.

Observations:

• Kenyon Martin is now 13-24 on the season from three-point land, good for 54% for a career 24% three-point shooter
• Anthony Carter turned in a career high 10 assists on a night in which he split his left eyebrow open after getting upended on a rebound attempt … team trainer Jim Gillen said the cut should require 6-7 stitches, but Carter insisted in his post-game interview that he would let the cut heal on its own
• Nene recorded his 13th double-double on the season with 13 points and 12 rebounds