A.I. Guides Nuggets Past Celtics 116-105

The Celtics were every bit as disadvantaged as the Nuggets were, being devastated with injuries. Swingmen Paul Pierce and Wally Szczerbiak, every bit as important to the Celtics as Melo and J.R. are to the Nuggets, were both out with injuries. The newest injury was to Szczerbiak (right ankle). Pierce is expected to be out 2-3 weeks with a foot injury. Along with these two, most of the Celtic's other veterans are out with injuries as well (Theo Ratliff, Michael Olowokandi, and Kendrick Perkins). The Celtics were left with only rookies and players in their second and third years. They were little more than a warmed over college team.

The Nuggets are also devastated right now, in their case due to two factors. There are the injuries to Camby (broken finger) and, of course, K-Mart, who is out for the year after knee surgery, with many fearing his career is over. And, thanks to the Huge, By Far The Biggest Of All Time David Stern Suspensions, handed out to Melo and J.R. Smith, the Nuggets roster was at least as devasted as that of the Celtics.

So the stage was set for a match up of the lineups from the twilight zone, featuring alot of players who are trying to earn playing time in the future who suddenly had alot of playing time right now. Except that the Nuggets had the crafty old veterans Najera and Boykins to take advantage of the Celtic's inexperience. And they had that guy who moved 1,600 miles so that he might not feel the burden of winning every game himself, yet still be in the running for a Championship. A guy who thinks he deserves to play without a superman suit on from now on, now that he is a respected 10-year veteran.

Of course, I suppose Iverson reserves the right in theory to "take over a game" if he thinks the conditions are right. There will be a few 4th quarters where we will see Iverson playing like superman, especially in the playoffs. Tonight, although Iverson wasn't going to allow the crippled Nuggets to lose to the crippled Celtics, he correctly sensed he did not need to take 30 shots to insure the win. He relied on his new second-team teammates, ran things with his 13 assists, and managed the win without unnecessary drama, exactly like the 10-year veteran who got tired of playing superman that he is.

Iverson's critics never thought that he would become one of the wisest veterans in the game, did they? And it looks like everyone who prediced that Melo and A.I. would "not get along" are going to have to try to forget they made that goofy prediction.

The forwards finally got some points tonight! Najera had points, for a change, to go with his 11 rebounds: 6/12, and 4/5 from the line for 16 points. And Nene had points, for a change, to go with the 14 rebounds he had: 5/11, and 2/4 from the line for 12 points. And Evans, who has already been getting points along with his rebounding, but only in limited playing time, got a whopping 30 minutes tonight and, sure enough, he got more points: he was 5/10, and 4/8 from the line, for 14 points, which went nicely with his 14 rebounds and 2 steals. For a while there, I was worried that Evans, who wants to go to the hole more often than not, and who is becoming a rebounding machine, might not be able to make even half his free throws, but he did get half of them tonight so I'm gonna say Evans played extremely well.

Diawara, whose game against the Kings on Friday was so bad that it apparently scared him into not taking hardly any shots in this game, was 1/2, getting a long-ranger, and picked up 5 rebounds. Like all rookies put into confusing starting roles by the thundering rulings of the League Commissioner, he ended up on last Friday trying to play outside his current level. Hopefully, tonight's game shows that he has gone back to the drawing board and will now try to stick to "playing within himself," instead of trying to do miracles, during the remainder of the marathon suspensions.

DerMarr Johnson played just 21 minutes and could not hit on any of four 3-point attempts. Not counting the shots from downtown, he was 3/7 for 6 points and he had 2 rebounds and 2 steals.

The sheer energy of Boykins continued to impress A.I., and he fed the little guy several times rather than take the shot himself. The dynamic duo had 56 points, exceeding the Melo/J.R. dynamic duo average. Boykins was 8/19 from the field, a huge 4/5 from downtown, and 8/8 from the line. He added 4 assists, 2 rebounds, and a steal. The Nuggets are 19th in the league from the line, so anyone who goes 8/8 earns respect just for that. But what about those 3's from the little guy? A.I was impressed, and since he was running things, that's all that mattered.

Iverson was 9/22 from the field, 1/2 from 3-point land, and 9/13 from the line for his 28 points, and he added the 13 assists, 4 steals, and 2 rebounds.

The next game will be Thursday Dec. 28 at home at 8:30 pm mountain time against Seattle.