Dantley & Camby Lead Nuggets Over Lakers 111-105

Adrian Dantley was one of the great NBA players from the mid 1970's through the late 1980's. He was an all-star in 9 of his 15 seasons, and he led the League in scoring twice. An intelligent and intense competitor and one of the best pure shooters in history, he had a career scoring percentage of .540, one of the highest scoring percentages for a non-center of all time. He had 30+ points per game over four straight seasons, and he scored 23,177 points during his career, which placed him 9th on the all-time scoring list at the time he retired. And on April 3, 2007, Dantley was Head Coach of the Denver Nuggets and ensured their win over the Los Angeles Lakers in L.A., for only the second Denver win in L.A. in the last decade.

Dantley had the right players on the court at the right time, was masterful in his player time allocations, and called timeouts at the most strategic moments. The most critical moment of the whole game was probably with 2:30 left and the Nuggets leading 105-102. At that time, a minute and a half had gone by with no score by either side, following a 3-pointer by J.R. Smith that broke the tie with just under 4 minutes left. So Dantley called a timeout, allowing the somewhat tired players to catch a breather and to steel themselves for the final couple of minutes that would decide the game. The Nuggets had the lead and the ball and all they needed was a play. Following the timeout, Melo's missed jumper was rebounded by Camby, and when Camby's layup would not fall, Melo was right there to stuff it in, and that turned out to be the play that was all that was needed for the win,. So Dantley used that timeout to nail down a win.

Dantley was animated and inspiring while he was directing the team on the sideline, and now the Nuggets will have to worry about the possibility that another team will try to hire him away to be an assistant coach or even a head coach elsewhere. You don't go into Los Angeles and coach a team to a win in a game that your team was supposed to lose without being noticed. In any event, unfortunately, the big Dantley coaching success is probably going to be nothing more than a one hit wonder for Denver this season.

J.R. Smith was let out of the George Karl doghouse and had a very good if not spectacular 20 minutes. He hit on 4 of 8 shots for 10 points and he had 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Kleiza played 16 minutes, not as many as he has frequently been getting lately, but enough for him to contribute to this win greatly, as he hit on all 3 of the three-point shots he put up, and had 11 points on 4/5 shooting overall. The Nuggets were a very efficient 5/10 from long distance.

Making sure that both Kleiza and J.R. get at least 16 minutes or so is a strategy that has eluded George Karl, but it provides the Nuggets with just enough long range shooting power for them to have a chance to get a few playoff wins. The Nuggets are never going to get close to the Suns 9.6 3-pointers per game, or even to the Rockets and Warriors, who get more than 8 per game, but they may be able to get enough to have a chance to win a few playoff games, despite Melo's poor 3-point shooting this year.

J.R. Smith also upset the flow of the Lakers game. In a little throwback to the first 6 weeks of this season, when Melo and J.R. were the best scoring tandem in the NBA, the Nuggets had 15 fast break points versus just 6 for the Lakers. The Nuggets had 7 steals in this game, whereas the Lakers had just 3; Melo and J.R. had 2 steals each. And the Nuggets were not at all reckless or sloppy on execution, they had a reasonable 14 turnovers.

Kobe Bryant, since the Lakers lost big to the Nuggets in Denver on March 15, has gone on a scoring rampage, in order to overcome his team's injury quagmire and the scoring problems of various teammates. In so doing, he has all but clinched the individual scoring title for this season, which he will earn unless something really crazy happens. The Nuggets held Bryant to 39 points on 14/31 shooting, and with Bryant scoring from 43 to 65 points in 6 of the last 8 games, that was actually half way decent. But Lamar Odom was just 2 of 9 on jumpers, with 3 of the 7 misses being rejections by Marcus Camby. Camby also had 2 blocks on staring PG Smush Parker, whose scoring slump continued in this game. The Lakers played without starting center Kwame Brown for the final 28 minutes. Brown collided with Camby with 6:59 left in the second quarter and aggravated his sprained left ankle. After Brown left, neither PF Brian Cook nor C Andrew Bynum could get much of anything going, and starting SF Luke Walton remained reasonably contained.

Meanwhile, Marcus Camby had one of his best games of the season, and was the huge defensive force in the paint that forced Kobe Bryant to try to win it for the Lakers with his great jump shooting. Camby seems to play his best games on the road against winning teams, which is good because that is exactly what the Nuggets will need him to do in the playoffs. Camby had 20 rebounds and 6 blocks. He also had 21 points on 8/14 shooting. He hit on everything at the hoop, and was 3 of 9 on jump shots, most of which were short jumpers, which is the perfect shot for Camby, who wants to shoot some jumpers but needs to be alot closer to the basket than he will be if he's shooting longer range 2-pointers.

A.I. picked up on the positive vibe created by Dantley and ran the point well, with 10 assists and just 2 turnovers. With Melo missing most of his jumpers in this game, A.I. provided that type of shot in abundance; he made 7 midrange jumpers. A.I. played sort of like he used to in his very first years in the NBA, avoiding drives to the hoop and putting up mostly jumpers. Melo made only 2 of 12 jumpers, but offset that by getting all six layups and dunks attempted, and also by getting plenty of foul calls and making 15 of 18 free throws.

Ironically, Phil Jackson, the coach of the Lakers, with nine NBA titles under his belt, was admitted to the NBA Hall of Fame earlier in the day, whereas Dantley was overlooked. Dantley should know that a tiny number of very fortunate folks in almost all fields are showered with so many awards and honors that the later ones don't have any new effect on them, whereas many of the most talented people are never honored for the great things they do. But I am sure that if Dantley were allowed to coach the Nuggets for awhile, he would easily be admitted to the Denver Hall of Fame, were such a thing to exist. And people who have read my reports the past few weeks know that I am definitely not going to forget this outstanding coaching performance any time soon.

Reggie Evans played for 10 minutes and was 1/1 for 2 points and he had 2 rebounds. Linas Kleiza played for 16 minutes and was 4/5 and 3/3 on 3's for 11 points. Steve Blake played for 22 minutes and was 1/4 for 2 points, and he had 6 assists and a steal.

Nene played 35 minutes and was 4/9 and 6/8 from the line for 14 points, and he had 6 rebounds.

J.R. Smith played 20 minutes and was 4/8 and 2/6 on 3's for 10 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and an assist.

Marcus Camby played virtually the whole game and was 8/14 and 5/6 from the line for 21 points, and he had 20 rebounds, 6 blocks, 2 assists, and a steal.

A.I. played virtually the whole game and was 10/24, 0/1 on 3's, and 0/4 from the line for 20 points, and he had 10 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

Melo played virtually the whole game and was 8/18 and 15/18 from the line for 31 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

The next game will be Wednesday, April 4 in Denver to play the Kings at 8 pm mountain time.