Nuggets Fall to Jazz Full Team Press 116-111

In the western frontier, you had to be tough to survive and prosper and in the Western Conference of the NBA the same rule applies. The Utah Jazz played smart and tough and held off the Nuggets in Utah, 116-111. It was a playoff quality game as both teams shot over 50% and the Jazz defended their home turf tooth and nail. The Jazz play rough defense and are not afraid to get personal fouls if that will help them win. The Nuggets had what was for them a very unusual high foul count at 31, although no Nugget had more than 4 fouls except Nene, who fouled out with 31 seconds to go.

The Nuggets three all-stars all played well enough to beat the Jazz, but there were two main missing ingredients. The main missing ingredient was J.R. Smith, who in 20 minutes took only one 3-point shot and made it. The Nuggets have been living off of Smith's magic 3-point shot and his breakaways during the 5-game win streak that is now over, and the huge reduction in J.R.'s scoring was a loss too big to handle easily. The other missing ingredient was Nene, who was looking like a major new Nuggets weapon in recent games, but was a non-factor on tonight's scoreboard in 22 minutes.

So the Nuggets tried to run everything through A.I., Melo, Camby, and Blake, but the rest of the Nuggets would not or could not contribute very much at all. It was as if the Nuggets gang rode into town, but only the three leaders of the gang were shooting it out with the Jazz, while the rest of the gang was hanging out in the saloon. This is exactly what happened during the 7 out of 8 losing streak during the suspensions: the forwards had trouble even getting layups and rebounds, and Iverson, Boykins, and Camby could not possibly win the games on their own.

George Karl and the rest of the coaches have to be very careful about falling into a trap with this roster. This loss proves that you can not expect to automatically win simply by allowing A.I., Melo, Camby, and Blake to dominate the minutes and the ball to the point where Nene, Evans, Kleiza, and Diawara do alot of standing around, with an occassional rebound or two. There are 3 major all-stars on this team, but you absolutely must get more from the others than you got tonight if you are going to be successful from here on out. George Karl has to realize fast that he has to give enough minutes and enough plays to Nene, Evans, Kleiza, and Diawara.

And I don't even want to think about how much trouble the Nuggets might be in if J.R. Smith does not play at least 24 minutes a game, or if he does not take at least 10 shots a game.

I know that this new roster is a learning process in progress, so what I am saying is that I hope and expect that the Nuggets coaches will learn this lesson from this loss: Do not rely on the starters to do almost everything! The drama that the outside "experts" thought there would be between Iverson and Melo is a no-show, but the Nuggets now need to avoid the trap that no one predicted.

All the Western Conference powerhouse teams get more contributions from their benches virtually every game than the Nuggets got from their bench tonight. The Jazz tonight had three backups in double digits. In just 15 minutes, SG Gordan Giricek had 13 points on 5/8 shooting, including 3/6 from 3-point land. G-F Matt Harpring played 22 minutes and was 3/4 and 5/8 from the line for 11 points. G-F Ronnie Brewer played for just 16 minutes, but had 12 points on 5/6 shooting. And to add insult to injury, Paul Millsap, who backs up Boozer at PF, had 2 key 4th quarter blocks. That, friends, is very well coached efficent teamwork, and this type of team is going to beat a team depending only on three all-stars on a regular basis.

You need more than all-star heroics as a foundation to winning in basketball. Tonight, the Jazz bench outscored the Nuggets bench 46-11! Ouch.

And whether or not the coaches are aware of the problem, it is time for Melo, A.I., and Blake to make sure that J.R., Nene, Evans, Kleiza, and Diawara get more than one or two shots a game. It is time for Melo to prove once again that he is the ultimate team player: he needs to help the coaches balance things out more and make sure the team does not turn into two teams in one, the stars and the scrubs.

Reggie Evans played just 15 minutes and was 2/3 for 4 points, and he had 5 rebounds and a steal. Najera played for 17 minutes and was 1/1, and 1/1 from the line, for 3 points, and he had 2 rebounds and a steal. Nene played 22 minutes and was 1/5 and 2/2 from the line for 4 points, and he added 4 rebounds.

Steve Blake played for 28 minutes and was 2/5 and 1/4 on 3's for 5 points, and he had 6 assists, a big 5 steals, and 2 rebounds. Blake badly missed the 3-point shot attempt to send the game into overtime with 12 seconds to play. Smith was in, he is the main three-point specialist on the Nuggets, and there was plenty of time to get the ball to him, so I can not figure out why Blake got the shot. Karl should have specified that Smith take the shot. Smith earned it.

J.R. Smith played just 20 minutes and he was 1/1 (a 3-pointer) and 1/1 from the line for 4 points, and he had 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

Marcus Camby was 7/11 and 7/7 from the line for 21 points, and the best rebounder and blocker in the NBA added 10 rebounds and 3 blocks.

A.I. was 10/21, 1/1 on 3's, and 12/15 from the line for 33 points. He also had 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and a steal.

Melo was 14/28, 1/4 on 3's, and 8/13 from the line for 37 points. He added 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Normally almost perfect from the line, this game could easily have been a win if Melo had hit 2 or 3 more free throws. But that is just another reminder that you can not expect to automatically win when you rely on just 3 or 4 players, no matter how good they are, to do almost everything.

The next game is tomorrow night, Saturday, Jan. 27 in Denver against the New Jersey Nets. The game will tip a few minutes after 7 pm mountain time.