Quite the roller coaster ride for your Denver Nuggets tonight, a tale of highs and lows. A solid effort by all, but some cold-shooting performances, and that sort of inconsistency is all it takes to lose a game to the defending-champion San Antonio Spurs. Let’s go out of order and talk about the bad first, as this loss already left a bad taste in my mouth…
The BAD
Ty Lawson's shot: Ty took a beating tonight, and has the stitches abnove his eye to show for it. He continued his double-digit assists tear as well, putting up 10 for the game. But with six points on 2-10 shooting, Ty left a hole in Denver's scoring punch, and the difference was a big part of the final tally. Ty is also still struggling mightily from the free throw line, going 2-4 tonight. Lawson needs to find his shooting groove, and soon. That's a tall order with his assists totals through the roof this season. Between that and his high minutes totals (another 39 tonight), Ty is carrying a very heavy load.
The second quarter: Twelve points. Twelve lousy points. Turnovers, botched plays, and inconsistent effort led to everything but a banana peel in the quarter. Denver won the other three quarters (granted, by two, one, and two points, but….) but could not make up for that 25-12 second quarter stink bomb.
Manu Ginobli's flops: Good god, man… You should give out acting lessons. I live in Hollywood, and very few people sell the scene like you. Bravo. Oh, wait… this is supposed to be REAL. Another solid performance by Manu. Emphasis on performance.
The GOOD
Arron Afflalo: 40 minutes, 31 points, five rebounds. I could have done without at least half of the six turnovers, but an active and impressive game for AAA tonight.
Jusuf Nurkic: Nurkic put up a 10 spot tonight, primarily going head-to-head with some nobody named Tim Duncan. Since we all know first-ballot-hall-of-famer-Duncan, Jusuf had a very nice night against Timmy. Duncan got his points, and drew several fouls against the young rookie, but Nurkic got his share of points and boards, even drawing a few fouls against TD. A nice night for the 20 year old.
Gary Harris: Harris is still struggling with his shot, but changes the game regularly with his defensive intensity. One of the nicest things about seeing Harris excel on that end of the floor is the time he’s buying himself to work his shot out, unlike so many other recent rookies whose cold streaks have banished them to the bench, rarely to be seen again.
Wilson Chandler: Chandler had 14 points and three rebounds in his 36 minutes tonight, and was harassing the Spurs into several mistakes of their own. When Afflalo left the floor, the only Nugget regularly left scoring tonight was Wilson.
The UGLY
It doesn’t get any easier from here, as the Houston Rockets come to town on Wednesday night.
We needed our best to beat the champs tonight, and a few letdowns stole that from our grasp, Nuggets Nation! With so many wounded on the bench tonight (Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried, Randy Foye, and the now-extended injury time for JaVale McGee), Denver is going to have to dig deep to find some wins in a very tough portion of the schedule. How do we ride it out?
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