Camby Blocks Hornets in Last OKC Game; Nuggets Win 8th Straight 107-105

The Nuggets rallied from a 13-point Hornets lead with 8 minutes to go and swiped what will now be the last NBA game in Oklahoma City for awhile, as the Jazz are going to return to New Orleans for the 2007-08 season, and when they lost to the Nuggets, the chances that they will make the playoffs went down to between slim and none. The Nuggets won it late, 107-105, to clinch the sixth seed in the West and a most probable playoff series with the San Antonio Spurs.

The Nuggets won the game with heavy scoring from in the paint, and from almost flawless execution. They had a season low 8 turnovers, and only 13 fouls. That was just about as error free basketball as you will ever see from any team in any game, and for the Nuggets, the 8 turnovers is phenomenal, because they average more than double that this season and until recently they were the worst team in the NBA with respect to turnovers. Now the Nuggets are 28th on turnovers, and the Magic and the Knicks are worse than the Nuggets.

The Hornets were more or less devastated with injuries. G-F Peja Stovakovic was lost way back in late November for back surgery. Stojakovic was averaging close to 18 points and 4 rebounds a game. Their other quality G-F, Desmond Mason, broke his nose and was lost for the season on April 5. Mason was averaging almost 14 points per game with a shooting percentage of over 45%, and he was also getting more than 4 1/2 rebounds a game. And rounding out the three injuries which killed the Hornets playoff chances was the loss of starting center Tyson Chandler, who injured his toe on April 5 and has not been able to return due to severe pain. Coach Byron Scott said of Chandler "It's that bad. But I know in his heart how much he wants to play. Am I ruling him out completely? No, because I know the type of warrior he is. It just doesn't look good." Scott had to put in Marc Jackson, who is more of a power forward, at center.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets are down to just one injury, the early November loss for the seaon of Kenyon Martin to knee surgery. Martin's rehabilitation from that, by the way, is said to be going very well, so if you think these Nuggets are good now, wait until this fall when Martin returns, because they will be even at least a little better then.

Carmelo Anthony, who had given up on his 3-point shot as a lost cause for much of this season, has made a few lately and attempted alot of them for almost the first time this season, making 2 of 6 of them. Also from long range, Iverson was 1 of 3, Kleiza missed both of his two tries, and J.R. Smith made 2 of 3 in 5 minutes of playing time. Overall, the Nuggets were a mediocre 5 of 15 from long range. Meanwhile, the Hornets, knowing they were hurting up front without Chandler, Stojakovic, and Mason, allowed G-F Rasual Butler to put up a dozen three-point attempts, and he could only get 3 of them to fall. Overall, the Hornets were a dismal 6 of 25 on threes but, led by quality play from PF David West, the Hornets were .473 overall from the field. West had 13 rebounds and 31 points on 13 of 22 shooting. But the Nuggets were a very impressive .524 from the field, enough to scare anyone including the Spurs and those like Charles Barkley who wrote the Nuggets off earlier this season.

When Butler buried a three very late in the 1st quarter, the Hornets had a 16 point lead, 35-19. A jump shot from PG Jannero Pargo made it 45-29 with 9 to play in the half, but then Melo and Camby went to work and brought the Nuggets back into the game. In the final minute of the 1st half, Butler missed a three, Camby blocked Butler's put-back attempt, and then he blocked another layup attempt by PG Chris Paul. PF David West got the rebound, but the Hornets lost possession when Melo got a steal, and then Blake made a long 22-foot 2-pointer from near the right baseline with 15 seconds left. These are the kind of results you get when your team is firing on all cylinders, and when you have a center who is successfully playing basketball as if he was a goalie in hockey who can stop a whole lot of shots. So at the half, the Hornets big early lead was gone, and it was 56-53 Hornets.

In the third quarter, the Hornets got a bigger lead back, as Butler hit two threes and the Nuggets were held to 24 points in the quarter as they missed six of eight three-point attempts. The Hornets led 85-77 at the end of the 3rd quarter. After Marc Jackson made a three with 8 minutes left in the last quarter, it was 98-85 Oklahoma, and it looked like the Nuggets would lose despite the fact they were playing very well from a technical standpoint. But every one of the Nuggets starters were hitting their shots in this game, and every one of them were on the court for much of the final quarter, and all five of them: A.I., Melo, Camby, Nene, and Blake, helped the Nuggets to rally back from a 12 point deficit in the final 7 minutes. A Nene reverse dunk made it 101-98 Hornets with 3:06 left. And after Paul missed a jump shot, Melo made a layup, for 101-100 Hornets with 2:26 left. After SG Devin Brown made a dunk, Iverson made a 16-foot jumper, so it was 103-102 Hornets with 1:22 left.

Then West was blocked by Camby. At the other end, West was whistled for a foul on Melo, who made both free throws, so now it was 104-103 Nuggets with 49 seconds left. So whereas most other centers would be fouling or giving up the shot, or both, Camby was blocking and winning the game for the Nuggets. After Butler missed yet another three, Blake, yes, that Blake, made a layup, so now it was 106-103 Nuggets with 32 seconds left. Every Nugget including Blake has learned that you should go inside if at all possible very late in the game when you are trying to win a very close game.

After a timeout, PG Bobby Jackson made a layup and then Paul intentionally fouled Melo, who made just 1 of 2 free throws, so it was 107-105 Nuggets with 17 seconds to go. So this should have been an overtime game, or even a 1-point Hornets win in regulation, but everything is bouncing the Nugget's way these days, as they make up for some of the many games they really won but that went down as losses from earlier this season. The Hornets had three chances to tie or win the game and missed all three. Chris Paul missed a driving layup along the right baseline, Devin Brown fumbled a putback, and Bobby Jackson's 3-pointer from the right wing at the buzzer was way off.

So the Nuggets scrooged their way to yet another win, by the thinnest of margins. But since they lost so many games earlier by tiny amounts, they deserved this one and all of the other close wins they have gotten lately, didn't they? It's only fair. And don't get me started on how they lost 3 games due to David Stern's all-time biggest one-punch suspensions handed out to Melo and J.R. in December. In fact, the Nuggets have still lost at least five games more than they would have lost had things been bouncing their way half the time, and bouncing their opponents way the other half of the time. This means that the true underlying record of the Nuggets, poor coaching and all, is at least 48-31, which puts them right up there with the Rockets and the Jazz, in the second tier of the West, trailing only the first tier teams, the Mavs, the Suns, and the Spurs.

With Steve Blake playing great all of a sudden, the Nuggets at the moment have all five of their starters playing at the top of their games. Can any other team say that, including the Spurs? Well, actually the Spurs and the Suns can probably say that, so it may be out of the fire and into the frying pan when the Nuggets meet the Spurs in the playoffs. Blake led the Nuggets for 10 assists and he had 10 points on 5 of 11 shooting. George Karl brought out Yakhouba Diawara and Reggie Evens from the doghouse for a short time in the first quarter, but then changed his mind and rode his starters again for the whole rest of the game. There is probably no team in the NBA getting fewer minutes and fewer points from their bench than Denver, which means that the Nuggets are one injury to any of their starters, including Blake, from total self-destruction. The injury margin of safety is zero; even a minor injury to A.I., Melo, Camby, Nene, or Blake would most likely result in the Spurs winning every game over the Nuggets in the playoffs.

But George Karl, who may have perceived a threat to his job had the Nuggets not made the playoffs, and may in fact been secretly warned of that, went with these five with Kleiza in a supporting role from about the first of March on, and kept everyone else out of the picture. When all five finally learned how to play together like a well-oiled machine as of the 1st of April, this payed off at the last moment, just before the Nuggets dropped off the face of the playoffs and just before Karl would have dropped off the face of the basketball earth and would have had to go into hiding. And now that this has happened, it may be next to impossible to get that security blanket away from Mr. Karl.

So when you think of the Nuggets, and how the Nuggets might do against the Spurs, don't worry about what J.R. Smith or Reggie Evans or Diawara or DerMarr Johnson might contribute, because they most likely will play very little and will have alot of bench rust when they do play. So the Nuggets will stand or fall with fewer players than any other team in the playoffs, just six. Or six and a half, if you count Najera, with Najera counting as only 1/2 because he seldom if ever does much of anything offensively against tough defensive teams such as the Spurs. The Nuggets are not going to win any games with a surprise huge performance off the bench, if hardly anyone from off the bench is playing, whereas the Spurs very often win that way.

It would seem that relying only on your starters and Kleiza would be especially foolish when playing the Spurs, since they are a defensive powerhouse. Frequently, the only way to upset a top defensive team is to have someone that team is not worrying about defensively come off the bench and have a big night largely from the perimeter, but that is not going to happen here unless Karl has some bizarre plan in mind of using J.R. Smith as a kind of secret weapon, to be brought out on a rare occasion and used to try to shock the Spurs into defensively breaking down. If there is no such bizarre plan, and Karl really intends to keep J.R. on the bench for the Spurs series, then the only hope for the Nuggets may be to be blown out by the Spurs in the first two games, which may force him to play Smith rather he wants to or not.

Because if the Nuggets were to be bounced 4 games to none, Mr. Karl's huge doghouse of unused players would look very foolish and Karl himself would be in the doghouse of the Denver front office and probably also the doghouse of the owner. Now that the Nuggets have won 8 straight, which makes them on the surface anyway the hottest team in basketball, a 4-0 sweep by the Spurs now would be regarded as a complete failure and much of the blame would go on Mr. Karl if that were to happen. And a 4-1 Spurs win in the series would be almost as bad. At this point, the Nuggets would have to win at least 2 games against the Spurs in the series or Mr. Karl's scrooge-like coaching style will be considered a failure despite all these late season close wins.

Najera played 18 minutes and was 3/5 and 2/3 from the line for 8 points and he had 2 rebounds, 1 block, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Kleiza played 16 minutes and was 1/3 and 0/2 on 3's for 2 points, and he had 2 rebounds.

Blake played 39 minutes and was 5/11 and 0/1 on 3's for 10 points, and he had 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Nene played 37 minutes and was 6/9 for 12 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.

Camby played 34 minutes and was 6/10 and 3/4 from the line for 15 points, and he had 9 blocks, 11 rebounds, and 2 assists. Camby has run away from everyone else in the NBA for most blocks per game, and is averaging 3.3 blocks per game for the season, but more like 5 blocks per game since the all-star game. If he continues on this path, and averages 5 or more blocks per game against the Spurs, and the Nuggets pull the upset, then it will likely be the first playoff series in many years where the margin of victory was provided by a player who has mastered the extremely difficult skill of blocking a shot without fouling the player. You might see history in the making, so stay tuned.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 9/21, 1/3 on 3's, and 4/7 from the line for 23 points, and he had 7 assists and a steal.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 12/22, 2/6 on 3's, and 5/6 from the line for 31 points, and he had 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. Melo was an excellent 5/10 on jump shooting.

The next game will be Saturday, April 14 in Memphis to play the Grizzlies at 6 pm mountain time.