Portland and Utah suddenly aren't so far back...

by Andrew Feinstein on Mar 1, 2009 4:41 PM MST

Nuggets/Pacers Recap...

I suppose it's fitting that on the same day Denver Stiffs advocated strongly for a "crunch time" lineup of Chauncey Billups, J.R. Smith, Carmelo Anthony, Nene and Chris Andersen, said lineup was on the floor for about two of the final four minutes and gave up something like four offensive rebounds while contributing nothing on offense against the Pacers in Indiana tonight. I'll still standby my belief that that's the Nuggets strongest lineup. I'd just like to see them play more than a couple minutes together in the fourth quarter.

I'm convinced the Nuggets suffer from multiple personality disorder, because this wasn't the team we saw on Friday night.

What a depressing, unnecessary loss. Granted, these Pacers have beaten several other "elite" NBA teams at Conseco Fieldhouse this season (including the Lakers and Celtics), but that was with their All-Star Danny Granger on the floor. In case you didn't notice, Granger was wearing a white suit and blue tie while sitting on the sidelines tonight. And if you're scoreboard watching like I am right now, it's more than likely that both Portland and Utah will be winning their games tonight, in addition to Houston and New Orleans already winning theirs.

I miss the good old days of pre-February 7th when a victory against a sub-.500 team was all but a guarantee with these Nuggets. From that date forward, on which the Nuggets were humiliated by the Nets in New Jersey, the Nuggets are a shocking 0-4 against sub-.500 teams. 0-4!! Had the Nuggets just split those winnable games, they would be watching Portland and Utah from their rear view mirror tonight. Instead, those teams are about to end up in the Nuggets' back seat.

Nuggets/Pacers Preview...

We all know what happened the last time the Nuggets played the Pacers: the Nuggets lost Carmelo Anthony to 10 games after Pacers' center Jeff Foster inadvertently broke Melo's hand while swiping at the ball.

As mentioned on this blog the other day, Phil Jackson says that the key to a successful season is getting your 40th victory before your 20th loss. If the Nuggets beat the Pacers today, they'll be right there - 40-20. Go Nuggets!!

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Comments

Kleiza is terrible. What happened to this guy. AC blew again too. Lazy teams lose.

by john on Mar 1, 2009 7:19 PM MST reply actions

I didn't catch the first 3+ quarters of this game, but the last 8 minutes have been the most lethargic, lazy, whiny and overwhelmingly pathetic performance that I have ever seen this team turn in during a winnable game. Horrible.

by Anonymous on Mar 1, 2009 7:22 PM MST reply actions

Just a bad loss

by markp on Mar 1, 2009 7:28 PM MST reply actions

the laziness of melo the terrible play of Kleiza and mr karl with his lover AC whenever he was in the game the other team went on a run what

by Anonymous on Mar 1, 2009 7:41 PM MST reply actions

what do you tell me about offensive rebounds... ridicolous.

we need to beat DET and POR... Utah is just lost game already, 2nd of back to back, and in Salt lake city...

by Lucas Navarrete on Mar 1, 2009 7:46 PM MST reply actions

Basically the opposite of whatever you claim happens, so make a "Nuggets will never win another game" blog, please. They'll run the table.

by Anonymous on Mar 1, 2009 8:26 PM MST reply actions

OK, OK...bad loss i get it. Portland and Utah both won tonight. On the bright side San Antonio lost. We're still a game and half up on the Blazers and two and half over the Jazz. Yeah, I'd love to see the 13 1/2 game lead the Lakers have over the Suns, but that's not gonna happen in the NW division. We're not blessed with having the Clippers in our division. Anyway, it doesn't matter if we win the division by 13 games or by a half game. Winning the division is the important part. Big games coming up this week, with Portland at home and in Salt Lake. If we lose both then I'll worry. We knew the division and the West would end up being close before the season even started. But, to panic now and say the Nuggets are done is about 6 weeks premature. We still play Utah the first week in April and Portland the very last game of the season. 12 of the 22 games left are against sub .500 and 12 of 22 at home.

by emptytwo629 on Mar 1, 2009 9:28 PM MST reply actions

I just wanted to say a few things.

One is that not getting those rebounds in the stretch absolutely killed us. I don't think I saw Chris there....if he wasn't he needed to be there....he has the hustle to make those rebounds.

The game plan at the end may have worked but the clutch shots didn't come down. I really think the problem in this game was that the Nuggets didn't shoot well....too many jump shots more of the drive...I suppose they had a lot of turnovers trying to pass the ball in the rim...I guess teams are figuring that one out....I don't have any answer...boy are they in a tough division. Just 2 or three games from being at the bottom and every other team is beating each other....kind of like a bunch of lobsters pulling each other down in a pot...Something is missing...I think that MANY of the players are not 100% and it affects their performance...which why we need to go with reserves first and rest the starters...if they can't do the job then take them out..

by Anonymous on Mar 1, 2009 9:52 PM MST reply actions

We need to get Nenê more shots.

by Julian from Australia on Mar 1, 2009 10:24 PM MST reply actions

Got to love how all of our former potential back up point gaurds are blossoming. Blake, Nelson, and J Jack. We actually drafted two of these guys and gave them away for nothing and we didn't want to keep black because AC was better .... Great eye for talent...

by AN from Dubai on Mar 1, 2009 10:28 PM MST reply actions

This game was extremely boring. I don't know how the Pacers ended up with 100, because I didn't see either team hustle. This was another example of the Nuggs playing to the level of a lesser team and suffering the consequences. I was wowed by the fact that GK was calling timeouts when needed.

Another piss poor performance by AC. Did anyone get his +/- for this game? I know it was awful, but it's kinda like looking at a car accident wreckage...You just gottta know what it looks like.

JR couldn't get it going. Melo just didn't look too good tonight. K-Mart is still having back pains. I wish GK would rest him for 2-3 games and give Balkman a chance. He couldn't be worse than LK as of late.

I now hate Jeff Foster for some reason. He reminds me of a taller whinier Ginobli.

by joelsopinion on Mar 1, 2009 10:38 PM MST reply actions

Now THIS was an ugly game! I knew right from the start we weren't ready for tonight's game. We came out sloppy and lethargic, almost like we felt we didn't even need to show up to win, but the Pacers are a much better team than their record shows and you can't take nights off against them, just ask the Celtics, Lakers and Magic, 3 of the NBA's elite teams. Melo really needs to get it together, sure I like that he is focusing on other areas of his game but he needs to realise he is our primary source of points and if he doesn't score it makes it a lot tougher for us to win. He isn't being aggressive enough. Just a bad game in general though, not much needs to be said except that we need to show up for each and every game and we have to box out. The very reason we lost tonight is because we didn't box out and rebound. Sure we shot bad but bad shooting can ALWAYS be made up via discipline on the glass. There was a period of time, about 9 minutes left in the 4th where the games was tied and it truly was anybodies game, we just didn't want it bad enough. Andrew is right though, this team is totally bipolar. Even going into the last few minutes when it looked like we weren't going to win yet the possibility was totally there, we just looked like we, dare I say, gave up! I am not going to look to hard into this loss but I am beginning to become a little bit concerned about how we are losing games and now THAT we are losing games. All the games we have lost, except for the Celtics, have been totally winnable! Hopefully Detroit has AI back (sounds weird in way too many ways) when we play them as he really is a cancer to them it seems like.

by Goldennugget on Mar 1, 2009 11:12 PM MST reply actions

sorry for stupid typo, was trying to put "because" and for some stupid reason it was black in my post.

and i have no way of editing it i guess

by AN from Dubai on Mar 1, 2009 11:14 PM MST reply actions

Goldennugget is right...not much is needed to say.

You can analyze this game and find many faults...but the truth is we are inconsistent, or consistently inconsistent.

We have a very bad habit of not coming out hard in games like these. The problem is that we some how won ALL those games before it. But going back, how many of them could we have lost? The thunder could have beat us twice, thats for sure.

Now all of a sudden, we are not able to recover. This shouldnt surprise anyone. This is the NBA, Boston and LAL cannot take 3 quarters off and still win 50% of their games.

Also, the players need to realize that they are not that good and they are this close to being the 8th seed. Lose to Detroit (who suddenly looks good), lose the back to back with the rivals....there is a very good chance we have as many losses as the 8th seed. If Karl and Melo dont understand that...we are screwed.

by danjustin on Mar 2, 2009 12:50 AM MST reply actions

Nene is only as good as the rest of the team will let him be. If the guys are looking for him he can be a force. The problem is that JR, Chauncey and Melo all had poor shooting nights. The second problem is that I don't think that is an anomaly. The rarity is when more than one has a good shooting night.

by Anonymous on Mar 2, 2009 7:11 AM MST reply actions

Kleiza is a useless gunner, and not a very good gunner at that. He's taken over for Camby in my book as the most useless (and soon to be way overpaid by some team) Nugget.

Nugs, go get Gooden, our bigs are tired and/or injured.

by Anonymous on Mar 2, 2009 1:34 PM MST reply actions

I'll quote someone off the DP "You're only as good as your weakest link"
AC is the weakest link, you get no points from Chauncy's postion when AC is doing his " backup" of Chauncy. This is playing four on five, and we lose if we need scoring. AC can't hit a bucket except on a layup. This guy is shot challenged, and shouldn't be allowed to play anywhere near the Nuggets or any other team. AN from Dubai is correct.

by samiam on Mar 2, 2009 8:14 PM MST reply actions

Comments For This Post Are Closed

STIFF LIST (as of 4/26 by Andrew Feinstein)

1. METTA WORLD PEACE

Metta resorted back to Ron Ron last Sunday by clubbing James Hardenwith an "inadvertent celebratory elbow", landing him a 7-game suspension. Apparently, changing his name didn't prevent NBA commissioner David Stern from overlooking Metta's past behavior problems.

2. CHARLOTTE BOBCATS

The 'Cats are on the verge of securing the worst winning percentage in NBA history. Given that the guy who runs the team - Michael Jordan - had previously drafted Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison, should this really be a shock?

3. OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
The team that was supposedly built to overcome the lockout-shortened season managed to lose 7 of its last 14 games, ceding the Western Conference's 1-seed to the Spurs in the process. Their reward might be a first round matchup with defending champion Dallas.

4. BILLY HUNTER AND DEREK FISHER

With report after report coming out about NBPA union head Hunter's shady, nepotistic dealings and questions arising about Fisher's own role in dealing with NBA owners behind Hunter's back during the lockout, this off-the-court scandal could prove to be more exciting than the playoffs themselves!

5. STEVE NASH AND THE PHOENIX SUNS
The Suns are on this list for squandering the last few great seasons from Nash. Nash is on this list for his stupidly stubborn loyalty to a franchise as awful as the Suns.