Rockets 90, Nuggets 86, but Help is on the Way

With the exceptions of Allen Iverson and Marcus Camby, the Nuggets played poorly and without a decent game plan tonight, losing to the Rockets 90-86, despite the Rockets shooting just .427 from the field. True, the Rockets play tight defense, but when you are playing two players (Blake and Diawara) who take alot more 3-point shots than regular shots, and another player (J.R. Smith) who takes almost as many 3-point shots as regular shots, how good on defense do you have to be?

The Nuggets made 9 of 28 3's, but made just 23 of 64 2's. Not counting A.I., the Nuggets managed just 14 of 45 2-point shots. The Nuggets other then Iverson missed 31 of 45 2-point shots! Not good.

Trades, suspensions, and injuries have made the Nuggets an ever changing team where there are no established patterns of moving and scoring the ball. The extreme lineup turmoil has not only destroyed the fast style of play that the Nuggets wanted to emphasize, but has in fact damaged the team's ability to play any kind of coherent basketball. It is sad to see a team that was averaging close to 110 points a game in mid December now frequently scoring in the 80's. And I have a simple question to the Denver front office: given that you were bent on trading Boykins, couldn't you at least have waited until the Melo suspension was over 10 days from now? That tactical error made the home crowd and Nuggets fans miserable tonight and probably cost the team one win already.

All home games are very important, and good and great teams are supposed to win most of their home games. But the Nuggets have squandered 4th quarter leads in 3 home games, and the suspensions have led to 2 or 3 additional losses, so that the team is now just 10-10 at home, which is the kind of home record that a lottery team might have. Most of the excitement surrounding the Nuggets explosive scoring lineup has left the arena now.

With J.R. "off the reservation" again like he was at the beginning of the season, in the catch 22 of needing alot of playing time to play well but not getting playing time because he is not playing well, the Nuggets have essentially been reduced to 3 superstars (Melo, A.I., & Camby) and a whole lot of roll of the dice players, where the dice are right now clearly loaded against the Nuggets. The current state of the team is clearly not going to be enough to get to the Western Conference Championship this year, let alone the NBA Championship.

When Melo returns, he, A.I., and Camby must help the coaching staff teach and inspire the other Nuggets who are all falling short of what is needed. George Karl has to avoid the mistake of overly restricting J.R.'s playing time, and also that of Reggie Evans. And most importantly, the revamped Nuggets must get on the same page with respect to the overall game plan strategies they will use to win, and with respect to the tactics during games that can be used to win.

Melo thought it would disrupt the team if he appealed the 15 game suspension, to try to get it reduced to 10 or 12 games. I think he sees now that the team is more disrupted by his not playing than it could possibly have been disrupted by anything else.

Has Carmelo Anthony become a wiser young pro basketball player from this ordeal: the asinine brawl in New York, his punch, his incorrect decision to not pursue an appeal, and now the dismantling of his team's ability to play coherent basketball due to the suspensions, trades, and injuries? Of course, but the cost has been huge to the team and at least a small threat to the young star's game for the remainder of this season. We now know that if Melo does not play at a superstar level, this team is going to be lucky to win half its games. This experience of watching the Nuggets play so badly on his big screen has probably been almost as miserable to Melo as playing hard in but losing a close playoff series 4 games to 3. Melo has psychologically aged 18 months or 2 years in a month.

When bad things like this happen, all great sports players dig in and resolve to try as hard as they can to play even better the next time. The best basketball players, unlike more average ones, don't risk playing worse by trying to play even better. Melo is now being tested and challenged by real basketball adversity, the kind he has never seen before, and it is up to him to coordinate with A.I., Camby, and his coaches to rescue his team from a total disaster for the season as a whole. Because the Nuggets are not going to automatically win in the state they are in even when Melo returns.

Although he grew up in a low income and high crime area of Baltimore, he has largely led a charmed life since getting out of there. He must remain as loyal to his team as he has always been, and he must take all the time necessary to inspire and teach everyone on the Nuggets he can get to. And he must try to expand his own game, such as in 3-point shooting.

The plus side of this season gone haywire is that if Melo will think in this way, and do these things, then he can achieve a real understanding of what it takes for a professional basketball team to win, which will be a priceless thing. He will have arrived several years earlier than most stars do at the powerful connections between playing as a superstar, being an ultimate team player, and knowing how to get his team to play better. There is no way to teach this. Melo either perceives, understands, and acts, or he does not. If he perceives how these three things connect together, and how to use one or two of these things to achieve the other, then and only then can the Nuggets compete with the powerhouses of the League. Then and only then will it actually be possible for the Nuggets to win a Championship.

In tonight's game, of the 9 Nuggets who played, only two picked and made shots well enough to be considered veteran pro players: Iverson and the new acquisition Steve Blake (PG). Camby was once again a rebounding and defensive star, and he was battling an illness, so I don't care that he was a shot or two short. The other 6 Nuggets picked shots poorly and couldn't make enough of the shots they took. pure and simple.

For some unknown reason, Reggie Evans played just 8 minutes, and was 2/2 from the field for 4 points, and he had 2 rebounds. Najera played 21 minutes, and was 1/7 for 2 points, and he had 3 rebounds. Nene played just 17 minutes, due to the threat posed by his knee, and he was 2/8, 0/1 on 3's, and 4/7 from the line for 8 points, and he added 7 rebounds and 2 steals.

Diawara (37 minutes) was 5/14, and 3/12 on 3's, for 13 points, and he had 2 assists and 2 blocks. Kleiza played 25 minutes, and he was 0/5, and 0/1 from beyond the 3-point arc, for 0 points, and he had 5 rebounds.

Marcus Camby, who was slightly sick, held down the paint for 38 minutes and grabbed a massive 24 rebounds. He was 3/10 from the field, and 1/2 from the line, for 7 points. He had just one block in this game.

Blake, the new PG backup, played 28 minutes and was a respectable 5/8, and 3/5 on 3's, for 13 points, and he added 6 assists and 4 rebounds.

George Karl pulled a mini Byron Scott on J.R. Smith and limited him to 19 minutes, during which time, though, Smith did not pick his shots well. Well, maybe Smith knew his minutes were going to be limited and that's why he rushed all those shots. Smith, who was one of the biggest surprises of the season at the time he was neck tackled in the Big Apple, was just 4/17, 2/7 on 3's, and 1/1 from the line for 11 points, and he had 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 1 block.

Allen Iverson must be wondering whether his basketball career is ever going to change, or whether it is a Law of the Universe that Iverson must play many games where he is the only one on his team playing at the star level offensively. The Nuggets have actually been playing at least slightly worse than the Sixers since the trade and the Nuggets (17-17) are no longer a winning team, which was the main point of his coming to the team. Yet Iverson himself is actually playing more and more solidly with each passing game, an is an island of stability in a sea of turmoil and lousy games by teammates.

A.I. was 10/21, 1/2 on 3's and 7/7 from the line, for 28 points. Hang on Bubba Chuck, help is on the way and will arrive January 22.

The next game is Sunday Jan. 14 in Portland to play the Trailblazers at 7 pm mountain time.