Suns Shoot the Lights Out On Nuggets 125-108

In a game that left a clear majority of Nuggets fans concluding that George Karl has lost his previous abilities to coach an NBA game well, the Phoenix Suns buried the Nuggets in the second half with 3-pointers and the kind of ball movement that most teams can only dream about. The Suns bench outscored the Nuggets bench 39-9, but the even more alarming fact was that because George Karl essentially played just 6 players for the entire game, with Najera thrown in for just 9 minutes, there wasn't hardly any opportunity for Denver reserve players to score, because they simply did not play. The 6 Nuggets who played most of the game were worn down and out by the fast passing and accurate shooting of the Sun's scoring machine. The Suns were getting regular breathers on the bench, while the Nuggets were huffing and puffing for almost the whole game. While A.I. and Melo are the kind of super athletes who have enough stamina to play well for almost the whole game without breathers, it's not clear that players such as Nene, Camby, Kleiza, and Blake, who were the other four on the court for most of the game, have the kind of super athletic stamina needed to play at top performance for that long.

J.R. Smith, one of the best 3-point shooters in basketball, and an improving defender who has shown some Iverson-type ability to get steals that could have disrupted the flow of the Sun's passing and scoring onslaught, simply did not play at all. There was no report that he was injured, and Smith was observed sitting on the bench the whole night, apparently in good health. While it is true that Linas Kleiza has had 4 or 5 nice games from 3 point land in the last month, that's not enough good games yet to offset the 1/7 and 1/8 type games that he had regularly earlier this season, and then again tonight. So Kleiza has a long way to go before he can be considered comparable to J.R. Smith. When Kleiza failed in his bizarre mission to match J.R. Smith, the Suns buried the Nuggets with 10/20 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc, while the Nuggets floundered at 3/16. Notice that had the Nuggets hit half of theirs, or 8/16, they would have scored 15 more points and would have from that alone been in this game to the final buzzer.

I am not going to beat around the bush. Leaving Smith completely out of the game, while the Suns were rotating in their 3-point aces, such as SG Leandro Barbosa and SF James Jones, made it impossible for the Nuggets to win, unless either A.I. or Melo had transformed into Kobe Bryant and scored at least 50 points on 20/33 or better shooting. When that did not happen, and the Suns predictably crushed the worn out Nuggets, the fans were left hoping that George Karl is transformed into being the coach of another team no later than the start of the 2007-2008 season. This would require the owner of the Nuggets to buy out the remainder of George Karl's contract, and I am going to try to find out the details of that contract for a future report.

Actually, Karl presented a twin gift to those who want to see him fired; not only did he totally bench Smith for no good reason, he did the same to Reggie Evans, who is a rebounding machine and who would have been especially useful in the 2nd quarter, when the Nuggets led by as many as 18 points, to deny the Suns offensive rebounds and second chance opportunities.

And with Evans and Smith completely benched from game to game, neither DerMarr Johnson nor Yakhouba Diawara have any hope of getting any playing time for the foreseeable future.

And not only did the coach not make the moves that are expected of a professional basketball coach, he didn't really look like one either. He seemed too detached and unemotional, almost comatose at times. He did not at all look like someone who was very able to or very interested in trying to motivate his players to keep playing hard and smart. I know looks can be deceiving, but I thought I had to report this because many other fans who watched the game had the same reaction to Karl's demeanor.

The Suns had 30 assists to just 12 for the Nuggets, even though the Nuggets were a respectable .476 from the field. The Suns had 31 points off fast breaks, while the Nuggets had just 14. By half way through the 3rd quarter, the Nuggets were getting too tired to make many cuts away from their defenders, and assists and passing in general became more and more difficult. By not passing much, the Nuggets were able to keep their turnover count within reason and avoid a monumental rout. Even though Denver did keep it's turnovers under control overall, the Suns stole the ball 12 times from the Nuggets, whereas the Nuggets stole from the Suns just 8 times, with 3 of those being Anthony steals.

Both teams had plenty of opportunities inside, and the Suns had 58 points in the paint while the Nuggets had 52. The Suns shooting was so impressive that it would scare teams like the Spurs and the Mavericks if they didn't know that most of the Nuggets were too tired for most of the second half to deny very many open looks to the Sun's gunners. So dont worry Mr. Avery Johnson and Mr. Greg Popovich, the Suns are most likely not as good as the Nuggets made them look tonight.

SF Shawn Marion was the most outstanding Sun of all; he had 33 points on 13/17 shooting, along with 9 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. And the Suns have the best shooting guard tandem in the NBA, with Raja Bell and Leandro Barbosa. Combined, they had 38 points on 15/27 shooting. PG Steve Nash had 18 points on 7/12 shooting, and he had 11 assists. Nash could have had 20 assists, but he shared the wealth with the Bell/Barbosa tandem, which had 12 assists.

Both Melo and Iverson played very well. Melo made 9 of 13 layups and dunks and 4 of 11 jumpers, including 1 of 3 from long range. He had 10 rebounds, and he led the Nuggets in assists with 5 and in steals, with 3. So now Melo is doing more of the non-scoring things, but the Nuggets have not been transformed into a better team as a result of that, so that appears to have been a miscalculation on the part of the Denver coaching staff. As for the Answer, he drew almost twice as many fouls as Melo did, and made 5/11 of his jumpers, 3/5 of his layups, and 10/13 of his free throws. A.I. and Melo, however, were offset by Camby and Kleiza, who were a combined 1/13 on jumpers and 7/21 overall.

All in all, it wasn't so much the loss that frustrated Nuggets fans as it was the realization that, without J.R. Smith and Reggie Evans in the game, the Nuggets did not stand a chance of winning. That and the coach seeming to be in a daze most of the time were the truly alarming things.

Kleiza played 28 minutes and was 1/7, 1/7 on 3's, and 1/2 from the line for 4 points, and he had 3 rebounds. Steve Blake played 39 minutes and was 4/8 and 1/2 on 3's for 9 points, and he had 2 assists, a steal, and a rebound.

Nene played 35 minutes and was 7/11 and 4/5 from the line for 18 points, and he had 9 rebounds, a block, and an assist.

Camby played virtually the entire game and was 6/14 and 2/2 from the line for 14 points, and he had 13 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

A.I. played virtually the entire game and was 8/16, 0/2 on 3's, and 10/13 from the line for 26 points, and he had a steal, a block, and an assist.

Melo played virtually the entire game and was 13/24, 1/3 on 3's, and 5/7 from the line for 32 points, and he added 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals.

The next game will be Sunday, April 1 in Seattle to play the Sonics at 7 pm mountain time.