Nuggets Blown Out Very Quickly By Raptors, 121-94

Playing on the road on back to back nights, after blowing a game last night by allowing an undefended Bulls player to tip in a shot at the buzzer, the Nuggets didn't have anything to blow in this game, as they were blown out quickly and easily by the Toronto Raptors, who, to be fair, were playing with rest. Both Iverson and Melo, who were a combined 6/27 and who scored just 24 points combined, had one of their worst full games ever. George Karl started Reggie Evans due to Marcus Camby being out with back spasms, but since Evans had not played at all in about three weeks, his effectiveness was less than what it could have been. Although Evans had 15 rebounds in 19 minutes, he was 0/4 from the field and only 2/6 from the line.

Even worse, Nene came up empty from the field, at 0/6. Najera played for only 5 minutes, so it appears likely that he was hurt somehow, although there is nothing in the news about this as of yet. All in all, it was another game, the first one in about a month, where the entire front court of the Nuggets could hardly put the ball in the hoop at all.

Toronto had a few injury problems of their own. Starting PF and NBA all-star Chris Bosh didn't return after spraining his right ankle with 5:07 left in the third. Toronto was also without the first pick of the 2006 draft, Andrea Bargnani from Italy, who was out due to an appendectomy. Bargnani, who backs up Rasho Nesterovic at center, is averaging 11.5 ppg. and 3.9 rpg. in his rookie year. And Anthony Parker, the starting shooting guard, was out due to a sprained right ankle. But Toronto backup point guard Jose Calderon returned after missing three games with a sprained left ankle. The Nuggets were so out of sync both offensively and defensively, though, that the Raptors probably would have beaten them even if their entire starting lineup had been injured.

This nightmare of a game started with one of those runs that makes you think you might be watching what will be one of the worst routs in history. The Raptors came out hitting 6 of their first 9 shots, whereas the Nuggets missed every one of their first 15 shots. That combination produced a 12-0 Raptors lead with 7:55 to play in the 1st quarter. It actually went downhill from there, because the Raptor lead was 21 points at the end of the 1st quarter, 29 points at the end of the 2nd, and 31 points at the end of the 3rd. At least you can say that the Nuggets were able to fall farther behind more slowly as the game went along.

Apparently, the Raptors, unlike the Nuggets, do not have a reverse gear mode of play characterised by alot of turnovers and missed shots, because they never let up at all after they achieved their big 1st quarter lead. In fact, the Raptors kept building a bigger and bigger lead, until almost all starters on both squads were pulled out of the game for the entire fourth quarter, which was a very heavy dose of garbage time. You know it is heavy duty garbage time when a player named Uros Slokar, a rookie who averages just 2 minutes per game, is in there losing the ball to Blake, missing an alley oop dunk, missing a hook shot, and committing a shooting foul, all in the space of half a minute. But to be fair to Slokar, he did have 3 points in just 4 minutes on 1/4 shooting, whereas it took Nene 29 minutes to get his 3 points. So Slokar's only problem that I know of is that he is an unknown, so we should stay off his case.

J.R. Smith came in half way through the 1st quarter, and played 25 minutes. He led the Nuggets with 20 points on 9/15 shooting, including 2/5 from long range. Smith has been stuck half in and half out of George Karl's doghouse the last few weeks, and has been playing only about 10 minutes a game. But Karl, at least, thinks J.R., who is one of the very best 3-point shooters and fast break dunkers in basketball, is good enough for garbage time, so since there was plenty of that, Smith finally got a chance to show that he has not lost his shooting touch by all the bench sitting. Now we will get to see if Karl returns the player who led the Nuggets in this game back to his spot on the bench for most of the upcoming games.

Along with Smith, Steve Blake and Linas Kleiza were the other two Nuggets who prevented the kind of monster blowout that would have gotten the Nuggets into the record books for futility in a game, for the "worst rout ever" or "sorriest excuse for a game ever" or something. Blake had 15 points on 7/12 shooting and Kleiza made 4/8 of his threes and finished with 20 points on 7/17 shooting. With Smith and Kleiza a combined 6/13 from downtown, the Nuggets overall managed to shoot 8/20 from beyond the arc, so that their accuracy from long range, .400, was better than their accuracy overall, .379. That only happens in very unusual circumstances, and a team has to have a whole lot of layups rejected and dunks missed for that to occur. Sure enough, led by the center Nesterovic who had five, the Raptors had 9 blocks against the overwhelmed Nuggets, whereas the Nuggets had exactly none.

Both teams took about the same number of shots, but the Nuggets were just .379 and the Raptors were .570. The Nuggets, who lead the NBA in turnovers, had 14 turnovers, which would be mediocre for most teams but was pretty good for them. Toronto had 13 turnovers and they had 8 steals versus 5 for the Nuggets, with Melo getting two of those.

Tonight's blowout is the type of thing that happens to mediocre and bad teams from time to time, roughly once every 15-20 games for a mediocre team, or about 4-5 times during a season.. A truly good team that executes sound fundamental basketball will have this happen only roughly once every 30 or 35 games, or just two or three times a season. By my approximation, this is the sixth blowout for the Nuggets this season. So now the Nuggets, who have lost most of their losses by close margins, have been blown out at least as many times as they should be blown out for the entire season, and there are still 15 games left, 10 of them on the road, including road games in San Antonio, Utah, Phoenix, and Detroit. So the Nuggets could still end up by the end of the season blown out of more games than they are allowed to be according to the laws of probability, in which case I will have yet another reason to call for and hope for the replacement of George Karl with a new coach who will get more out of secondary players and who will be able to instill some real team pride instead of fake pride, which may be all the Nuggets actually have right now. A blowout game like this suggests that, public statements to the contrary, the Nuggets have little faith in George Karl and not much more faith in themselves to ever get it right, to play with more discipline and less defensive laziness, and with fewer sloppy turnovers.

The Nugget's record is now 34-33 with just 15 games left. The Lakers, meanwhile, have won 4 straight since their 27-point loss to the Nuggets on March 15, and Kobe Bryant has scored 215 points in those four games, leaving Melo, whose 10 points tonight looks pathetic compared to Kobe's 50, in the dust in the race for top scorer honors. The Nuggets, who for a few short days were even with the Lakers, are now two games behind them, in the 7th position in the West. The Nuggets are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Clippers, 3 games ahead of the Warriors, 4 games ahead of the Hornets, and 5 games ahead of the Wolves. If any 2 of those 4 teams pass the Nuggets, the Nuggets fail to make the playoffs, which would increase the pressure on the Denver front office and owner to make big rather than small off season moves, including the possible replacement of the head coach.

Diawara played 14 minutes and was 1/2 and 2/2 from the line for 4 points. Reggie Evans played 19 minutes and was 0/4 and 2/6 from the line for 2 points, and he had 15 rebounds, a steal, and an assist. Kleiza played 29 minutes and was 7/17, 4/8 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 20 points, and he also had 7 rebounds and a steal.

Nene played 29 minutes and was 0/6 and 3/4 from the line for 3 points, and he had 7 rebounds and an assist.

J.R. Smith played 25 minutes and was 9/15 and 2/5 on 3's for 20 points, and he also had 6 assists and 5 rebounds.

A.I. played 32 minutes and was 3/12, 0/3 on 3's, and 8/8 from the line for 14 points, and he had 3 assists. Iverson was 2/11 on jumpers and made 1 layup. All the other drives and layup attempts resulted in shooting fouls committed by the Raptors, and A.I. made them pay by making every single free throw.

Melo played 32 minutes and was 3/15, 1/2 on 3's, and 3/3 from the line for 10points, and he had 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 rebounds. Melo attempted 9 jump shots, and the only one that scored was the three pointer from near the left sideline.

The next game will be Sunday, March 25 in Cleveland to play the Cavaliers at 6 pm mountain time.