Nuggets 122, Thunder 120
Observations, news and notes from Friday night’s game……
* Can you believe some Nuggets fans want to trade Carmelo Anthony?
* As good as Anthony is, and as smooth as he looked on his game-winner, I couldn’t believe George Karl didn’t go to Billups. He’s nicknamed Mr. Big Shot for a reason.
* Kevin Durant is growing up before our eyes, and I wonder if fans are appreciating what they’re seeing. After a magnificient December, Durant started January with yet another all-around performance, this one nearly stunning Denver and sending a playoff team home with a humiliating defeat. His nine rebounds and five assists are more impressive than his game-high 33 points. He’s learning how to contribute in other areas of the game and be an impact even when he’s not scoring. Look out.
* OK, so KD still isn’t perfect. He misses too many layups and had a few roll out tonight. That’s when he at least gets the shot up when driving to the basket. He frequently loses the ball on drives, either getting it stripped, fumbling it away or missing bunnies because of the incidental contact. He’s got to be stronger with the ball in traffic.
* The Thunder made 22 of 26 free throws tonight. Unfortunately for OKC, Denver made 30 of 39. The Nuggets got a lot of calls tonight, especially Melo, who attempted 13 foul shots.
* The turnover game was interesting. OKC had 20 points off 10 Denver turnovers in the first half but scored only four more points off four second-half Nuggets turnovers. And after the Thunder took fairly good care of the ball in the first half, with only seven turnovers (leading to eight Nuggets points), OKC committed nine turnovers in the second half, leading to 12 Nuggets points.
* Desmond Mason’s 11 points marked only the second time he’s scored in double figures in the past eight games. You can say he’s in a mini-slump. He’s shooting only 34.3 percent over that same span. And Mason has had more than five rebounds only twice in the past eight games as well. Chalk up much of his recent struggles to his opponents. He’s had to sacrifice on offense while focusing on guarding guys like LeBron James, Joe Johnson, Jason Richardson and Melo.
* You almost feel bad for Mason. It seems like whenever another team’s star hits a game-winner or a big shot it’s more often than not over Mason. This was the first time, however, that the game-winner has been in Mason’s grill. Mike Miller hit Minnesota’s game-winner over Damien Wilkins. Allen Iverson hit Detroit’s over Russell Westbrook. And Matt Barnes was essentially wide open when he hit Phoenix’s game-winner with 25 seconds left. (Mason didn’t play against the Suns because of injury). But I guess facials come with the territory when you’re your team’s best defender.
* Mason explained his last-second D on Melo after the game: “Good players are going to hit tough shots. The thing is to not beat yourself up because it happens. Only thing I could have done any different is he wouldn’t have caught the basketball. But that would have been tough anyway, denying him and giving up a back door. Everybody was above the 3-point line so I didn’t want to give up a back door and a quick layup. So I pushed him out to the 3-point line and he made a tough shot.”
* Robert Swift played solid minutes although his three points and one rebound in 24 minutes don’t indicate it. But he came up with three blocked shots, including one in the third quarter that momentarily stymied the Nuggets’ rally. Swift was visibly angry about something after the game but it’s not clear if he was upset at the loss, not playing in the fourth quarter or if he got some bad news like a new injury. Stay tuned.
* Earl Watson played his best game of the season with 15 points, seven assists and two steals off the bench. He made 6-of-9 shots in 32 minutes and willed the Thunder to a 38-21 second quarter. As I said during the live blog, fans are too hard on Earl. He’s been solid this season. He’s struggled at times to make the smart and simple play, but he’s gotten his teammates involved consistently thus far, is poised more often than not and is normally productive without much flare.
* The Thunder’s 38 points were a season high for a quarter.
* Damien Wilkins scored 16 points on 5-for-7 shooting, adding some much-needed scoring off the bench.
* OKC had no answer for Nene Hilario, whose season-high 27 points and 14 rebounds went overshadowed by Anthony and Durant.
* I’d rank this one as the most entertaining game of the season. Nine ties, 11 lead changes, including two in the final 2.7 seconds on heavily contested 3-pointers. My ranking through 34 games would look a little something like this….
1) Denver on Jan. 2 (Wild and whacky.)
2) Detroit on Dec. 26 (Iverson’s game-winner.)
3) Phoenix on Nov. 26 (Steve Nash takes over fourth quarter. Barnes hits game-winner. Thunder loses by one.)
4) Dallas on Dec. 13 (Durant and Jeff Green combine for 47. Dirk Nowitzki goes off for 46. Thunder hang with a West power.)
5) Orlando on Nov. 12( Dwight Howard records first career triple-double — WITH 10 BLOCKS!)
-DM-
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
I said this in the forums, but didn’t the emotional rollercoaster remind you of the Oklahoma – Boise State Fiesta Bowl? Even after the loss, you just had to say, “Wow, what a game!”
The other day, Mike Sherman said he thought hiring Ron Adams might have more impact that getting Krstic. I noticed that at every timeout, Adams would grab one of the players on the way back to the huddle. Admittedly, their defense was bad last night – efficiency wise our worst game of the season – but you can already tell they’re more active on that end of the court. They doubled up on whoever had the ball more often than I’ve ever seen, though that did seem to get Swift into a little trouble when he would lose Nene.
As far as Earl goes, you have to say he’s played much better of late. Ridnour’s shown some spark this year, but you have to remember that he was injured a lot last year. Coming into the season with a rookie point guard, health considerations probably figured into the equation.
I’m hearing that the Thunder could be one of the NBA teams that will teater on bankruptcy over the next couple of years. With Aubrey gambling and losing in the stock market, it sounds like he won’t be able to make his Thunder Capital Calls that would cause cash flow problems unless the NBA steps in and bails them out.
Is anyone else hearing this?
Great numbers by Durant, and I can’t believe they almost beat Denver. Wow! That would have rivaled last year when the Sonics beat Denver in double OT and Durant had 37-8-9. Too bad.