The Denver Nuggets once again were taken to task on the road, falling to an offense primarily powered by Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith, 109-93.
Brian Shaw's post game press conference here.
First Quarter
The Nuggets started absolutely hot, shooting 5-8 from three-point stripe in the first 6 minutes of the game. They only shot one more three for the rest of the quarter, but made that one too.
The bad part of the quarter – the Nuggets allowed the Knicks to shoot 70% from the field. If they played any semblance of defense they would have had a ten-point lead.
Arron Afflalo led the Nuggets in the quarter with 13 points. Brian Shaw only played six players in the quarter. Is this this a sign he is tightening up the rotation?
|
FG |
3FG |
FT |
REB |
AST |
TO |
PTS |
||
|
New York |
14-20 |
0-3 |
3-4 |
8 |
7 |
4 |
31 |
|
|
Denver |
12-25 |
6-9 |
1-3 |
9 |
11 |
5 |
31 |
|
|
|
48% |
66.7% |
33.3% |
|||||
Second Quarter
Hold that thought, Shaw sends out as many bench players as he can legally play at one time to start the second quarter.
Nuggets started 0-16 (missed 17 straight carried over from 1st quarter) from the floor and their only points in the first 11:59.99 of the quarter came via six free throws. Ty Lawson finally makes a basket on a driving layup at the buzzer.
The Nuggets shot 1-17 in the quarter which is 5.8% from the #&@$*!#% field!
Thanks to Chris Marlowe for pointing out that on November 27, 2002 against the Spurs, the Nuggets made only one field goal in the first quarter then and scored just three points.
Your Nuggets starters for that game? Kenny Satterfield, James Posey, Mark Blount, Ryan Bowen and Juwan Howard. Just check out this box score from that game.
Couple of quick take-aways from the quarter: the refs got a bit ridiculous with their calls against the Nuggets, Danilo Gallinari looks a bit like Randy Orton with that haircut, to stop Carmelo Anthony just chant "M-V-P" at him and Jesus things were just bad overall this quarter.
|
FG |
3FG |
FT |
REB |
AST |
TO |
PTS |
||
|
New York |
12-22 |
1-3 |
5-8 |
17 |
6 |
4 |
31 |
|
|
Denver |
1-17 |
0-5 |
6-12 |
8 |
0 |
6 |
8 |
|
|
|
5.8% |
0% |
50% |
|||||
Third Quarter
I’m awake and apparently so are the Nuggets! Shaw decided to up the defensive pressure and if the desired result was to force more turnovers, that didn’t happen, but the Nuggets did not allow a single offensive rebound during the quarter and turn some of those force shots into running opportunities.
Before the end of the quarter the Nuggets were able to cut the lead down to 12 points.
|
FG |
3FG |
FT |
REB |
AST |
TO |
PTS |
||
|
New York |
10-19 |
3-5 |
0-2 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
24 |
|
|
Denver |
13-21 |
5-9 |
4-4 |
13 |
5 |
2 |
35 |
|
|
|
61.9% |
55.5% |
100% |
|||||
Fourth Quarter
Things looked great to start the quarter with a couple easy baskets and a big Nate Robinson steal that led to an and-1 to cut the Knicks lead to single digits at nine points.
The Knicks then promptly went on a 10-2 run, pushing the lead back up to 17 and basically icing the game in the process. No coincidence that J.R. Smith and Anthony returned to the game at this point. This also coincided with the Nuggets going 0-8 from the field right after Nate made the three point play, the next basket came over five minutes later via Kenneth Faried on another three point play.
|
FG |
3FG |
FT |
REB |
AST |
TO |
PTS |
||
|
New York |
5-15 |
2-3 |
13-13 |
14 |
1 |
7 |
23 |
|
|
Denver |
6-19 |
5-13 |
5-7 |
9 |
4 |
7 |
19 |
|
|
|
31.6% |
38.4% |
71.4% |
|||||
The Nuggets were maddening on offense for most of the day, passing around the perimeter and taking a lot of threes early in the shot clock.
We'll be back soon with your full recap.
