Nuggets Get Easy Win Over Hurting Wolves 122-107

Neither the Wolves nor the Nuggets had a whole lot to play for here, as the regular season fates of both teams was already decided before the tip. The Nuggets shot with an accuracy of 50%, whereas the Wolves were 47.8% accurate, so you can see right away that neither team was playing remotely like the Spurs do on defense. The Wolves were devastated due to the injury loss of Kevin Garnett, and in any event are near the bottom of the Western Conference and are already thinking about the draft and about prospective off-season trades they need to make if they want to challenge the Nuggets in the Northwest division next year. The Nuggets were locked into the 6th rank of the West before the tip of this game, and the Spurs were locked into the 3rd rank, meaning that the Spurs and the Nuggets already knew they would be meeting in the playoffs even before this game was played.

In this game, the Nuggets worked on defending the pick and roll, in preparation for Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, and the Spurs. Offensively, they worked on penetration, and they ended up with an impressive 60 points from the paint.

The Nuggets used their big skill advantage and their motivation to stay charged up for the playoff series with the Spurs to overwhelm the Wolves in the 3rd quarter and cruise to a win that was much easier to get than the score indicates, 122-107. For the game, the Nuggets had a huge 34 points off of fast breaks, whereas the Wolves had 19. Each team had 17 turnovers.

The Nuggets drew twice as many shooting fouls as did the Wolves and made 32 of 40 free throws, whereas the Wolves were limited to 17 of 22. Despite the fact that Marcus Camby sat out this one with a sore right knee, the Nuggets, led by 10 rebounds by Nene and 10 by Kleiza, out rebounded the Wolves 44-37. We are starting to see more and more evidence that Camby's defensive skills have finally started to rub off on others. In this game, played without Camby, the Nuggets nevertheless had 10 blocks, twice as many as the average for an NBA game. Reggie Evans made 3 blocks, Melo made 2, and Jamal Sampson made 2 in just 5 minutes. It will be practically a crime if Camby is not named the Defensive Player of the Year. Heck, he should be named the Defensive Coach of the Year to boot.

George "Scrooge" Karl, being much more of a scrooge than an intense basketball coach these days, decided to use the fact that the game was not in the least a must win to allow all of his doghouse players out on the court, so that they could shed some bench rust. In the cases of Yakhouba Diawara, DerMarr Johnson, and Jamal Sampson, though, the minutes they played in this game were not enough to get rid of the majority of the rust, and so none of them are going to be ready to be a significant asset in the Spurs series. Mr. Karl's move goes under the category of too little, too late.

And just when you thought that the Coach could not be any more mean to J.R. Smith then he already has been, Coach Karl disrespected J.R. Smith in this game, hopefully but probably not by accident. Smith was put in with only 2:20 left in the 4th quarter, with the game long since decided. Not only was Smith the only Nugget from the doghouse who was not given substantial playing time in this game, he was by far the last one to appear in the game and was the only one besides Sampson given just a token amount of playing time. And the 2:20 he played was all in garbage time. It would have been better if Smith had not played at all rather than to be put in at the very end, as if he was not worthy of being on the team at all. I hate to say this, but if George Karl returns as the Coach of the Nuggets next season, which is very, very likely now, J.R. Smith would be much better off if he playes for another team next year. Even getting just 12 minutes a game on a different team would be an improvement over what he is getting from the Nuggets now, due to the fact we have a Scrooge for a Coach.

And before we leave the subject of who would be better off on another team, let me say that in my opinion it is time for Kevin Garnett to follow in the lead of Allen Iverson and try to get traded to a contending team. Or if that is not quite possible, he should try to get traded to any team, because after he arrives on a losing team, they have a good chance of becoming a contending team quickly. This would be at least as good for the Wolves as it would be for Garnett, as they could get truly valuable, mostly younger players for Garnett, and together with the draft make big strides toward becoming competitive, as they were for so many years until just a few short years ago.

The Wolves have the promising rookie guard Randy Foye, who led them in this game with 19 points on 6 of 10 shooting, and he had 9 rebounds and 5 assists. And keep in mind the Wolves have one of the better scoring centers in the League, Mark Blount, who had 18 points in this one on 8 of 15 shooting, along with 7 rebounds. Ricky Davis had 11 assists, but only 11 points on 4 of 12 shooting. Just these three alone could form the nucleus of a post-Garnett Wolves, dominated by promising younger players and a skilled veteran or two to help lead the rebuilding effort. If the Wolves just tinker around the edges in the off-season, than they will be in for more frustration next year. The Nuggets are most likely going to be even better when Kenyon Martin returns, the Jazz are going to hold their own as they always do, and either Seattle or Portland, but I'm not sure which, is probably going to be somewhat better next year too. So let the Wolves liberate Garnett and let the Nuggets liberate J.R. Smith if not George Karl, and let bygones be bygones.

DerMarr Johnson played 12 minutes and was 1/5, 0/3 on 3's, and 3/4 from the line for 5 points, and he had 1 assist and 1 block. Diawara played 24 minutes and was 1/3 and 2/4 from the line for 4 points, and he had 2 rebounds and an assist. Najera played 28 minutes and was 3/7 and 2/2 from the line for 8 points, and he had 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 assist. Reggie Evans played 20 minutes and was 3/4 and 1/1 from the line for 7 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, an assist, and a steal. As was the case in the early days of this season, when he got much more playing time, Evans produces almost every time he is on the court, and is the second most cheated player in terms of playing time this season, so he has the second strongest reason to play for someone else next year instead of for the Scrooge.

Blake played 34 minutes and was 2/6 and 1/3 on 3's for 5 points, and he had 10 assists.

Kleiza played 23 minutes and was 7/12, 1/5 on 3's, and 8/8 from the line for 23 points, and he had 10 rebounds.

Nene played 23 minutes and was 6/9 and 6/8 from the line for 18 points, and he had 10 rebounds and 3 steals.

Melo played 25 minutes and was 7/16, 1/1 on 3's, and 6/7 from the line for 21 points, and he also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal.

A.I. played 33 minutes and was 10/17, 1/2 on 3's, and 4/6 from the line for 25 points, and he had 3 steals, 3 assists, a block, and a rebound. Iverson made 5 of 11 jumpers and 5 of 6 layups during his great game.

The next game will be Wednesday, April 18 in San Antonio to play the Spurs at 6 pm mountain time. That is the final regular season game.