Rockets Turn Out the Lights in Denver 108-97

Denver can turn out the lights, the basketball party is over. Dikembe Mutombo's inside defense and offensive rebounding, the great 3-point shooting of PG Luther Head and SF Shane Battier, and the Nugget's continuing inability to avoid turning the ball over enough times to make it next to impossible to get a win against a good team, ensured an easy win for the Houston Rockets 108-97.

The truth, if you can handle the truth, is that the hapless Nuggets were handled by the Rockets second string 40 year old center who doesn't score. It was easy, but imagine how much easier still it would have been for the Rockets if Yao Ming, who fractured his right tibia on December 23 and is out 6-8 weeks, had been starting, backed up by Mutombo. Had Ming played, for example, Tracy McGrady could have dished to him for easy layups and forgotten about taking 30 shots, which he took in this game. He led the Rockets offensively with 28 points on 11/30 shooting.

Mutombo, with 22 rebounds, got both his rebounds and those of PF Reggie Evans, who is in George Karl's doghouse because he misses half his free throws and is kind of awkward with his layups. Imagine how little playing time you get on a George Karl team if you are truly bad! Evans was exactly who the Nuggets needed in this game to make things more fair on the boards, so Mutombo had better write a little thank you note to Karl thanking him for setting up his "Oldest Man Ever to Get 20 or More Rebounds Award". And what's next, someone on Social Security torching the stripped down Nuggets roster for a triple double?

Yes, more and more the relevant question is not whether the Nuggets are going to get beat, but how much effort the other team needs to make to capitalize on the Nugget's well known faults and get the almost certain win. If the owner and the general manager are not at least becoming increasingly frustrated, and preferably angry, with George Karl and his team, then there may be no hope for basketball in Denver for years to come. Since life is rarely that cruel, Nuggets fans can hope for a change in coaching for next season and/or a partial blowup of the roster, with many players other than A.I. and Melo heading for other teams in exchange for a new crew for 2007-2008. It's virtually impossible, though, that Melo is going anywhere and extremely unlikely that A.I. is going anywhere. How can things get any worse for the Nuggets in basketball poker if they get several new cards to go along with their two aces, as long as the trades are fair? They can't lose.

The Nuggets never had a chance in this one, what with both Iverson and Melo shooting below their normal accuracy. The Nuggets would have lost unless one of the two pumped in a season best 45 points or so, with accuracy of at least .50 and preferably .60. But Melo is more steady than explosive, and A.I. is not having many games like this in his wise old basketball age. And heck, even Earl Boykins going on a scoring spree would not have pulled this one out.

The Nuggets and probably their season were buried in 3's, as the Rockets went 14-30 from long distance and made the Nuggets pay dearly for J.R. Smith's injury and Coach George Karl's refusal to play DerMarr Johnson, the only 3-point specialist left on the roster. Admittedly, it would have been unlikely for Johnson to have gotten four or five 3's to try to contend with the Rockets, but unlikely is much better than no shot at all.

The Rockets buried the Nuggets in the paint 46-28 and, after the game, George Karl complained that his team took too many jump shots. Maybe a few too many, but Melo, A.I., and the entire NBA has alot of respect for the Rocket's front court of Mutombo, PF Juwan Howard, and SF Shane Battier, let alone Yao Ming. The Rockets are top of the heap when it comes to defending in the paint, and they do it, unlike the Jazz, without much fouling.

Meanwhile, at the other basket, lost in the Rocket's easy win was yet another masterful defensive game from Marcus Camby, who solidified his lead over the rest of the League in blocks, with 7 of them. However, Camby was left completely out of the offense in this one, along with Diawara. Since Karl only played 8 men in total, there were only 6 Nuggets who contributed offensively, which is another part of that scientific formula for losing that the Nuggets have dreamed up. Neither Najera nor Kleiza are ever very explosive offensively, but the Nuggets needed someone besides Melo and A.I. to explode for 20 or more.

By lacking in 3-point shooting and offensive rebouding, but excelling in turnovers and soft jump shot defending, the Nuggets have discovered the perfect formula for losing. These shortcomings guarantee a loss even when they are much more accurate than their opponent, as they were tonight. The Nuggets shot with a .474 accuracy, while the Rockets were only .418. The Rockets hardly care about this, since the forumula from basketball hell the Nuggets are using produces a big gap in shot attempts. In this one, the gap was like the Grand Canyon: the Rockets had 98 shots and the Nuggets 78. It would be extremely rare for a team to be in a game while being out shot to that degree. About the only way for a team that has 98 shots on goal to lose would be if they had to play at least three grandmothers on the court at all times. Think about how disruptive the grannies would be to the flow of the offense.

The last fan thinking that the Nuggets have a great chance in the playoffs threw in the towel after this one, and thoughts now turn to next season, specifically about whether Kenyon Martin will be back full strength or not, about what kind of trade the Nuggets might be able to pull to get rid of players Karl refuses to play, and about whether Karl himself will be returning. But there is another disadvantage of consistently not playing someone at all: that player loses trade value. How can teams be sure of the abilities of Reggie Evans and DerMarr Johnson if they are sitting on the bench all the time?

Can anyone besides me begin to smell that nasty smell of a basketball team beginning to implode and ending up as a major loser in defiance of the dramatic moves of the owner and the front office? Colorado fans, while not as vicious as Philadelphia fans, are not potted plants either. Although they won't get nasty in your face very often, they will move on from the scene of a basketball train wreck, and will not patronize very many games of a losing team just to see a few alley oops performed by Melo and A.I.. They will move on to another sport, and Denver has teams in all 3 of the other major sports for them to move to: baseball, hockey, and football.

So the Nugget's 2006-2007 season grave stone should read: "Here Lies Melo, A.I., and the Nuggets, Who Fooled Many Fans Into Thinking They Would be Contenders but Whose Defense, Turnovers, Inconsistent Offense, Inconsistent Offensive Rebounding, and Coach Caused an Early Death. R.I.P." That would be alot of words so the owner will have to cough up some serious money for engraving for that grave stone. But heck, I'm sure he will want an impressive stone for the basketball graveyard.

Diawara played 17 minutes and was 0/2 and 0/1 on 3's for 0 points. Kleiza played 19 minutes and was 2/4, 2/4 on 3's and 4/4 from the line for 10 points, and he had 5 rebounds and an assist. Najera played 24 minutes and was 5/6 for 10 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block.

Blake played 30 minutes and was 6/8 and 2/3 on 3's for 14 points, and he had 6 assists and 6 rebounds. He had a good game but the Nuggets needed someone to have a great game.

Nene played 34 minutes and was 6/9 and 1/1 from the line for 13 points, and he had 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Camby played for 34 minutes and was 0/2 and 1/2 from the line for 1 point, and he had the 7 blocks, 4 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal.

A.I. played 39 minutes and was 7/19, 0/1 on 3's, and 5/8 from the line for 19 points, and he added 5 assists and 4 rebounds.

Melo played 39 minutes and was 11/28, 1/6 on 3's, and 7/8 from the line for 30 points, and he added 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, an assist, and a steal.

The next game is Tuesday, March 6 in Denver to play the Hornets at 7 pm mountain time.