Let’s start off with the positives.
The Nuggets outscored the Jazz by six in the fourth quarter, which is usually a very important quarter.
Kenyon Martin was able to rest for the last 39 minutes of the game.
AI and Melo combined to shoot 17 for 32 and got to the line a combined 22 times.
Denver held Deron Williams to 5-13 shooting.
Um, OK, enough of that.
The only thing I can compare that game to was a fart in the bathtub. A regular fart smells bad, but a fart in the bathtub is completely rancid.
That game was rancid.
What a pathetic effort. What a horrific game. There are no excuses for Nugget fans to have been subjected to a game like that. Any good feelings or optimism created by last night’s win over the Spurs was completely demolished in the first half of this game.
The team oriented energy that was present last night on defense was nowhere to be found as the Jazz shot over 60% from the floor, scored 60 points in the paint and they added another 33 on three pointers where they shot 11 for 15.
Some may argue that no team could have contained the Jazz tonight, but my contention is that the Nuggets allowed the Jazz to get off due to their atrocious defense.
Denver had a chance to make a big statement with consecutive wins over Phoenix, San Antonio and Utah. Many people even said that they did not need a win tonight as long as they put forth another great effort.
The only statement I received from this team was that they had no heart and no concept of what they have to do over the last month and a half of the season.
I did see two positives tonight though.
J.R. Smith played a very good game. He was aggressive with the ball and he completed several strong drives to the basket.
The other positive was Linas Kleiza played 31 minutes and shot the ball well resulting in 14 points and six boards.
That is about it.
The good news is if the Nuggets can go into San Antonio and beat the Spurs on Monday night, this game will not be nearly as devastating as it seems to be now.
Of course, after tonight’s performance do we really expect them to do that?
No other observations from game 62 tonight and no links to gloating Jazz sites either.
At least North Carolina beat Duke.
