2007-2008 Game 44: Denver Nuggets 93 - New Orleans Hornets 117

Box Score

The Nuggets made me sick last night.  

Not metaphorically sick, physically sick.  I had to tivo the game since my son was playing at the same time.  After we made it home I queued it up and watched the entire thing.  

This morning I was sick.

I might not be able to prove it in court.  The jury may find that there is reasonable doubt that the Nuggets made me sick because there is a chance I caught it from my sick daughter, but I know it was the Nuggets.

Obviously New Orleans is playing great basketball right now.  They are topping many of the power rankings in various places around the internet and Chris Paul is getting MVP chants from the home crowd.  The Nuggets knew going in that they would have to play with great intensity and focus in order to challenge the Hornets.

I thought they would.

I learned my lesson, again.  With this team we can never be safe from the potential of having to watch a big turd like last night.

There was a warning sign to me on the first Hornets possession when the Nuggets started switching the high screen and roll between Paul and West.  I have no idea why a team would voluntarily offer up a mismatch to start off a possession.  That is what switching a screen does.  It is lazy, and trust me, I know lazy.  Just ask my wife.

What makes it even more frustrating was, as I had mentioned in my preview, the Nuggets did such a great job of jumping Paul off the screen, rotating  and recovering to stop West in the last game against the Hornets, which they won.

It is easy to give the Nuggets the benefit of the doubt as it was the fourth game they had to play without Melo, they had played very hard the night before and they were playing the hottest team in the league.  

But ask yourself this.  Did the Hornets have more talent than the Nuggets or did they just play harder and smarter?

The Nuggets are now in a tie with Portland for the 8th seed in the west and given Portland’s 2-1 head to head advantage the Nuggets are as of now not in the playoffs.

Other Observations Form Game 44:

• My son and I always used to notice that it seemed like Peja Stojakovic was a better shooter if someone had a hand in his face than if he was wide open.  Well last night the Nuggets gave him a chance to prove show us how well he could shoot when left wide open.
• I thought Kenyon Martin played pretty hard and pretty well all night.  He is starting to look pretty good again which means it must be time for some kind of nagging injury to bring him back down.
• A lot of Nugget fans, and some objective media members, are pushing for Camby to be named to the All-Star team.  After watching Chandler play against Camby last night can you honestly still argue that Camby deserves that sport over Tyson?

Check out Hornets 24/7 for some good commentary from the Hornets perspective.