First loss to Thunder (Nuggets/Thunder recap)

when they mentioned afflalo, they said that afflalo is a weak defender

just thought i’d share that

How the heck are you supposed to grab them against Pau (I look like a Llama) Gasol and the Lake show boys

Every team has games that remind you that they’re mortal. I hope we can dispel the myth that the Nugs can keep rolling without Melo it was clear today when the offense isn’t there we need that fall-back dump the ball into Melo plan. Durant had such a ridiculous advantage over Graham, AA and Smith it was the easiest/quietest 30pts I’ve ever seen. After games like this there’s no arguing that having another rotational big could put this team on the next level. Nene and Andersen are just not going to be game-changers consistently. What can you say about Nene’s performance tonight when a facepalm is more appropriate. There is no need to panic, all throughout the win streak our defense has been good and the offense a little inconsistent. It cost the win today but we would have been right in it had we acted like a half decent offensive team for an extra 5 or so minutes of the game. A lot of posters have pointed out that Lawson coming off the bench with Smith is not ideal especially with trigger happy JR looking to find his stroke. He would do better paired with Afflalo or Billups and Andersen off the bench. Having Melo back should bring balanced offense back to the rotation.

The only reason I’m not freaked out about it is because if you look at our history with the Thunder you could say that they owed us a beating. Credit their team but the Nugs just looked to me like they were playing third game in a row just not ready to compete and not very intense in any facet of the game pretty much.

They never showed up to win. This game was tossed to OKC. A discrace.

there were no surprises with this game. ok city head coach scott brooks was an assistant for george karl and knows denver’s players. kmart continued with his consistent play falling 1 rebound short of another double double. where melo is missed most on offense is the opponent is forced to commit to defending him. when a team needs to use 1 and 2 defenders it opens things up for the rest of the players. durant was not forced to use energy on defense and it helped him on the offensive end.

It’s disheartening to hear about a lack of effort, but hopefully this is not the beginning of another bad streak.

Here’s hoping Melo is ready to play in San Antonio Sunday.

I think in our heart of hearts we know that this particular game would be difficult to win without Melo. I’m ok with this as long as we get Melo back for San Antonio.

They did everything they needed to do. They passed, they ran, they defended, they found their spots and they executed. Durant is an amazing player. They deserved this win just as much as Denver deserved this loss.
I’m not sure that Denver would have beat these guys last night with Melo. You never know, perhaps he would have done a good job defending Durant but the Nuggets lost because they had NO inside presence on offense OR defense.
Nene absolutely took himself out of the game. He was out of position and practically asleep on defense, and didn’t look for the ball on offense. He only attempted to set screens, but then never rolled to the basket. He obviously didn’t want the ball. Anderson, like usual, has no idea that he’s even supposed to play on the offensive side. What, you’re passing to ME??? And played the same crappy matador defense as usual. Let the guy fly right by and then I’ll swat the shit out of it! The problem is that he only blocks about 1 out of every 10 attempts, and is obviously out of the position for the rebound. Eazy Bucketz.
JR looked to be finally working out of his slump, but after 7 failed pass attempts to the bigs, he realized that he might as well keep shooting. He did. I don’t fault him for jacking up 15 shots (10 threes), no one else was even trying. He also played pretty decent defense, at least, while he still thought the Nuggets were in the game.

But, back when we were talking about the 11 game monster schedule that they had coming up, I said that the 2 games the Nuggs were going to lose were going to be against the Thunder and the Jazz.

No surprises here.

The Thunder are rapidly becoming a pretty solid team. Very much in the race for a playoff spot, and I’d put money on them to grab it. They’ve given the Lakers a couple really, really tough games this year. They aren’t the “gimme” win they have been the last couple of years.

was bound to happen without the services of a superstar player. The defensive intensity wasn’t there, and the shooting was suspect at best.

he was not without mistakes, but I was disappointed to see Chauncey (and Graham…and AA) force it too much and try to make something out of nothing. Nene had it going very early, and they just stopped giving him the ball. Yeah he was out of position a few times, but it was like the entire nuggets team just didnt even bother looking for the low post option. AA is a great player, but has anyone noticed that when he takes the ball to the rim, he more often than not gets blocked, travels, or gets the ball swiped? Now that I think about it, I can think of a few instances where AA had to finish on a fast break and just flat out missed. I am NOT saying he is a bad player, but I hope AA doesn’t think he has to replace Melo in our offense. JR played a decent game, but he didn’t drive in as much. I thought K-Mart should have gotten the ball a bit more than he did.