Fired Up J.R. Smith & Nuggets Bury Heat 123-107

The fired up Nuggets, still angry about choking in the loss to the Hawks at home two nights ago, came out of the tunnel charged up to show the ESPN viewers and the home crowd that they are a force to be reckoned with and they proceded to do just that. J.R. Smith exploded with a career performance that is as close as you can get to a perfect game for a guard. It was impossible for the Heat to slow down, let alone stop the offensive juggernaut of the Nuggets, who were .541 from the field and 9/17 for .529 from 3-point land, on the strength of J.R. Smith's 7/9 3-point land shooting.

And the Nuggets clearly got some heads up on how to close a game when you have a double digit lead in the 4th quarter. Miami was behind just 91-102 at the end of 3 quarters and when you have as little defense as the Nuggets do, and when Marcus Camby has been ejected and Evans is sick, that is not much of a lead. But the Nuggets were in no mood to let this one get away, and they properly closed out the Heat. They had a shot clock violation at one point that I thought was a good thing, because it shows they were chewing clock.

Smith is now the real deal 3-point threat that the Nuggets badly needed. Whether he will be a clutch go-to guy to take the heat off Melo in tight 4th quarters still remains to be seen. Whether Smith can also assume this role will probably determine how far the Nuggets can go in the playoffs. See this thread for more on this subject:
http://www.justbball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63040

Late in the 1st quarter, Melo yelled at an official because a loose ball that was off of Wade was called as off of him. When Melo got a technical foul, Camby got ticked off and knocked off old George Karl's cup of throat lozenges from the scorer's table onto the floor. The refs hit Camby with a double technical and ejected the last defensive presence the Nuggets had left on the roster. So if Denver was going to win, they would have to fire up the scoring engine and step on the gas. So they did. Melo and Smith combined were 24/45 from the field, 8/12 from downtown, and 13/15 from the line, for 69 points. Smith alone was 12/18 from the field, 7/9 from downtown, and 6/6 from the line for 37 points.

Andre Miller brought alot of order back to the offense and generally "ran things" with 20 assists. Najera was 5/6 and he had 5 rebounds and 3 blocks. Kleiza took advantage of his 26 minutes; he was 5/8 from the field and 5/6 from the line for 15 points and he added 4 rebounds and a block.

The Nuggets (11-6) don't have any time to enjoy this win. The next game is tomorrow night against the Dallas Mavericks (13-6) in Dallas, and the Mavs did not play tonight so they will be more rested. Let's hope the Nuggets at least don't get blown out like so many teams do when they play in Texas. Tomorrow we will get another big clue about whether the Nuggets have the skill, the heart, and the will to use their scoring talents to stay in games. Game time is 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time.