Melo & Unrested Nuggets Fall Short to Mavs 105-90

This game had loss written all over it, because the Nuggets were called on by the schedule to play in Dallas with no rest from the night before, which was a late night because of the demands of ESPN television. Dallas was completely rested and Denver was as unrested as a team can get. In the end, the score was a reasonable loss instead of a 30 or 35 point blowout that tired teams frequently have in San Antonio or Dallas, Texas. Melo had his worst game of the season, which made it impossible for Denver to have a chance here.

So if Melo had a bad night, how was the 30 or 35 point blowout avoided? Most of the rest of the team, other then Anthony, had good nights when you consider the circumstances. J.R. Smith, who can now be considered virtually as important to the team as Melo, was 4/9, 2/6 on 3's, and a perfect 8/8 from the line for 18 points. He also had 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.

Najera and Camby had enough defense to prevent a demoralizing blowout. Eduardo Najera tangled with the Mavs from the start, and actually fouled out very late in the game. He was 4/6, and 2/2 from the line, for 10 points. He also had 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. And the other defensive presence was of course Marcus Camby, who has been in a sour but aggressive mood lately. He took more shots than normal. He was 5/15, and 3/5 from the line for 13 points. He also had 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. He had only 2 personal fouls but he did get a t again.

Since Denver could never get any offensive rhythm going, Miller had just 2 assists, but he as a very respectable 5/9 and 2/3 from the line for 12 points. Boykins was energetic as usual so he was 5/9 for 10 points, and he added 2 assists and 3 steals.

Diawara was aggressive off the bench and he was 1/3 on 3's, and he had 2 rebounds and a steal in just 17 minutes. But he was called for 3 fouls and lost some playing minutes and a couple more shot attempts as a result. Kleiza had 5 rebounds, and Nene Hilario had 4 rebounds, but neither one could hit shots; they need more practice or at least more playing time than they have been getting to have a chance to produce.

So you can see that all of the Nuggets who came in with substantial playing time actually had good nights. If Melo had a "normal" game, the Nuggets would have been able to at least test the Mavs at the end. But Melo had a miserable game, which I have to report was even worse than the stats make it seem. For the record, Melo was 8/26, 0/3 on 3's and 2/2 from the line for 18 points. He had 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal, but 5 turnovers and 4 fouls. Although this was the worst game of the season for Melo, I'm not worried; this happens to all great shooters from time to time. Even Michael Jordan had lousy shooting nights every now and then.

The one thing that you can worry about is that Melo MUST go to the hoop and get to the line alot more than he did in this game for the Nuggets to win playoff games. When a player like Melo goes to the hoop, he gets more respect from the refs; notice how he's picking up a bunch of offensive fouls lately from refs who will key in on any shooter who doesn't go to the hoop much. I think you have to earn respect from the refs if you want to avoid marginal offensive foul calls. Anyhow, the idea that Melo was going to have some kind of perfect season was nothing more than a fantasy that lasted longer than it could have. It was great while it lasted.

This was the nasty start to the nastiest road trip of the year for the Nuggets. There are 4 more straight games on the road, and they come in the form of two pairs of back to back games.

The next game, which is in Atlanta, is against the same team that stole the game from the Nuggets last Wednesday, the Hawks, this Tuesday Dec. 12 at 5 pm mountain time.