Anthony is Back on Track as the Nuggets Romp Over Struggling Wizards 118-92

It was just what the Nuggets needed after losing 3 straight, a game against one of the worst teams in this young season. The Nuggets are continuing what they started last year, beating the poor teams on the road, losing easily winnable games at home, and not having a prayer against the really good teams either on the road or at home. I know it’s confusing, but what is important is what all this strange winning and losing means. I have followed this team long enough to decode the morse code that is behind their winning and losing pattern. The code reads as follows: “Help, we have a ceiling on our real potential that is less than our talent and less than our effort. We need help to be able to finally compete with the Texas teams, Phoenix, Utah, and now Boston. We don’t know what we need, and nor do we care much, because we have plenty of fun beating up on the teams with half our talent and that offsets our not having an answer for the really good teams. Against the bad teams, we love to showboat and to get a few alley oops, and to shoot lights out from beyond the arc, just to remind everyone about what they are missing when we shut ourselves down against the really good teams.” And you thought there was no hidden code with a team’s winning and losing pattern.

So there you have it, the Nuggets are a team that goes through the season with enough talent to compete with the best in the NBA, but no system or scheme with which to do that, and they are generally a contented team despite how miserable they look when they are playing a San Antonio or a Boston. They are surprisingly contented with their limitations and are ready to, for the umpteenth straight year, drop out quickly when the playoffs come around.

If you’re a Nuggets fan, it’s like watching one of those horror movies where you know where the monster is lurking, and you are screaming inside your head to the characters to not go into that room, because that’s where the monster is at. You scream at the Nuggets to come up with offensive and defensive schemes that would work against San Antonio and Boston, so that the team will not be eaten alive by those monster teams, but the Nuggets fall into the “we have no system” trap every time and get devoured. The Nugget’s story, like the monster movie stories, always ends with victims who seemed happy go lucky but were really playing the fool. Silly Nuggets, getting cheap thrills from beating up on poor teams while not having a clue as to how to deal with the monsters. Until you get offensive plays that work and defensive schemes that make sense, you are doomed to be eaten alive by San Antonio. Boston, and other similar beasts every time.

So the Nuggets showboated and dominated their way to a 118-92 rout over the helpless Washington Wizards in D.C., taking advantage of this very poor starting team that can’t shoot straight and has a bench clearly less talented than that of the Nuggets. The Wizards were playing on back to back nights and the Nuggets were not, which more or less wiped out the home court advantage. Gilbert Arenas is still from time to time having to have water drained from his surgically repaired knee, and is missing practices and is having a heck of a time getting his scoring touch back into the high gear that the Wizards have to have as a starting point on offense. In this game, Arenas was only 4/12 on jumpers and 5/13 overall for 18 points. Just as if Melo is under 20 points the Nuggets lose, the Wizards definitely lose when Arenas is under 20. Both teams need their top scorers to get at least 25 points before they have a solid chance of winning, and the odds are they win if Melo or Arenas get 30 or more points.

PF Antawn Jamison was 6/17 for 18 points, which was no where near enough to make up for the Wizard’s bench, which had a limited 30 points on 12/30 from the field, and for the center Brendan Haywood, who had just 3 points on 1/3, and for the shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson, who had 0 points on 0/6. Overall, the Wizards were just 31/81 or .383 from the field, whereas the Nuggets, eager to remind everyone that they actually are a really good team even though they have no plan and no hope of beating the really good teams that have plans, were 45/88 from the field or .511.

Neither team was careful with the ball, but the Wizards could not maintain possession to any extent at all; with 24 turnovers, they practically gave the ball away every third play. Camby had 4 steals, Melo 3 steals, Iverson 2 steals, and six other Nuggets had 1 steal each, for 15 steals altogether. That’s almost double the average number of steals by a team in a game, and is 3 more steals than the Celtics are getting per game so far this season.

So what happens when the Celtics play the Wizards? Does the mercy rule go into effect, so that the game ends when the Celtic’s lead reaches 60? Or does the rout continue until every reserve has had the honor of playing during garbage time? There's no mercy in the rules, only rules, so it's the garbage time.

All sarcasm aside, Carmelo Anthony emerged from a deep but short early season slump to have his best game so far this season; he was 11/20 on jumpers, 2/3 on 3-point shots, and 14/24 overall for 32 points. In the first half, he finally became a presence on the boards after almost disappearing during the 3 game losing streak just ended. In the 2nd half, he left the rebounding to the rest of the team, business as usual for Melo, and gave his full concentration to banging down midrange jumpers and the occasional three pointer. In all, Anthony made 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals to go along with the 32 points that will start to get Melo back on the road to competing for the NBA scoring title, which does not require that your team have a good offensive system, by the way.

The Nuggets did not establish a substantial lead until late in the 2nd quarter. An Antawn Jamison three with 8:18 left in the half briefly gave the Wizards the lead 36-34. But it was 26-15 Nuggets the rest of the quarter, as both Melo and Kenyon Martin got into high gear and Linas Kleiza buried two three-pointers late in the quarter. For the game, the Nuggets were an amazingly good 12/25 from 3-point land, whereas the Wizards were a decent 7/20. Melo and Linas Kleiza were both 2/3 from long range, and GF Yakhouba Diawara, SG J.R. Smith, and F Bobby Jones were all 2/4 from that distance. A.I. was 1/3, and Camby buried a 27 foot three from the top of the key with about 3 minutes to go in the third to make it 83-60 Nuggets. This was Camby’s first made three since he made one in the 2005-06 season, and was only his 8th made three pointer in his pro career. This is Camby’s 12th year in the NBA, and now his career 3-point record is 8/52.

A Kenyon Martin half time buzzer beater slam made it 60-51 Nuggets at the half, and then it got a lot worse for the Wizards in the 3rd quarter. The Nuggets like to beat up on teams they think are inferior to them in the third quarter especially. By then, the Nuggets are ready to put on the track shoes and take their show without a script on the road. The Nuggets overwhelmed the Wizards in the 3rd quarter 33-11, with Carmelo Anthony getting 16 of these points. The Wizards were 3/10 and committed a stunning 12 turnovers in the quarter, as they were severely booed by their fans.

It was 93-62 after 3 quarters, so the 4th was all garbage time. The Nuggets have now had 2 straight games with a lot of garbage time, which was the best thing that could happen for J.R. Smith, who can always be found on the court during garbage time these days. He played 25 minutes in this game and 23 minutes in the Boston game. Nuggets fans can hope that J.R. Smith’s bench rust is just about gone.

During this rout, the Nuggets exposed the Wizards defense for 32 assists. A.I., Camby, and Melo were joined by J.R. Smith for 5 or more assists. A.I. led with 8 assists.

The difference between very good and very bad can be one injury and rehab to your best player, as the Wizards plight illustrates. And the difference between good and great can be the confidence and highest gear performance that good defensive and especially good offensive schemes can give you, as the Nuggets plight illustrates. The Nuggets are the NBA’s Lost. They are on that strange island, where no one is going anywhere no matter how good they are.

Eduardo Najera played 24 minutes and was 1/4 and 0/2 on 3’s for 2 points, and he had 7 rebounds, an assist and a steal. Yakhouba Diawara played 20 minutes and was 2/4 on 3’s for 6 points, and he had 2 assists, a steal, and a rebound. Bobby Jones played 17 minutes and was 3/5, 2/4 on 3’s, and 3/4 from the line for 11 points, and he had an assist, a steal, and a rebound. Jones is already showing signs that he can be a capable replacement for the injured Nene.

Linas Kleiza played 24 minutes and was 4/8, 2/3 on 3’s, and 1/2 from the line for 11 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal.

Kenyon Martin played 20 minutes and was 6/11 for 12 points, and he had 3 rebounds, an assist, and a steal.

J.R. Smith played 25 minutes and was 4/8, 2/4 on 3’s, and 6/7 from the line for 16 points, and he had 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and a steal. How Smith plays is usually connected with how the Nuggets as a whole have played. If the Nuggets have had a good game, Smith has had one two, and vice versa. I’m still trying to figure out which causes which; it's one of the great mysteries of J.R. Smith. I’ll let you know later on that.

Marcus Camby played 31 minutes and was 6-10 and 1/1 on 3’s for 13 points, and he had 12 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals, but 0 blocks. The Nuggets had no blocks at all in this game; the Wizards weren’t throwing much up that needed to be blocked.

A.I. played 36 minutes and was 5/13, 1/3 on 3’s, and 4/4 from the line for 15 points, and he had 8 assists, 2 steals, and 2 rebounds.

Melo played 35 minutes and was 14/24, 2/3 on 3’s, and 2/2 from the line for 32 points, and he had 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.

The next game will be Saturday, November 10 in Indianapolis to play the Pacers at 5 pm mountain time. Both the Pacers and the Nuggets are going to be playing on back to back nights in this game.