Denver Nuggets fans were pretty pumped and ready going into Thursday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers, despite my warnings this could be another situation where Denver played down to the competition. That’s exactly what happened and then some. After a feel-good win over the San Antonio Spurs, Denver came out abysmal, effortless, and looking like a bunch of cockroaches scurrying about. Portland would take the cake on this one, 101-93.
The Ugly…
Shooting was putrid.
Extremely putrid.
You know how someone passes gas and if you’re too close it smells like rotten eggs? It’s worse than that. Yeah, pretty freakin’ putrid right? But, hey their horrendous perimeter shooting, 0-of-22, got ‘em in the record books. Awesome.
At some point, you would think the players, or even George Karl would be like “Ok, guys, we suck monkey balls at the perimeter. So no more shots from downtown, ok?” Of course that didn’t happen. If they had attempted just 15, instead of 22, and made a few layups or anything else, this could have been a win.
At some point, the front office, needs to realize a shooter is needed. As much as they want to wait on Gallinari, Lawson, or even Iguodala to “get it”…Consistency in terms of shooting — especially from beyond the arc — is not happening.
The three-pointer – -as I have mentioned NUMEROUS times — is a staple to the basketball offense, without it, Denver will be struggling all year-long not to mention how it would look in the playoffs. Even some perimeter defense would be nice, this game, there were MULTIPLE times the Nuggets left the opponents wide open.
I’m not even touching their lackadaisical effort, playing down to the competition, and not being mentally prepared for this game. It was just awful and similarly to the Los Angeles Lakers, it was lost in the first quarter.
George Karl AND the players need give a damn, if they want the fans to give a damn and this was a game, where they CLEARLY didn’t give a damn.
It was like they adopted Andrew Bynum’s IDGAF mentality when it came to shooting and defending the perimeter. Seriously, it was that distubing and awful.
The Bad…
Most of the players had an abysmal game, we can start with Kenneth Faried’s lazy defense (can we even call it that?), Ty Lawson’s sporadic display of defending anything that was moving, Danilo Gallinari’s shot selection, and the list goes on.
Wasn’t Andre Iguodala supposed to help with Denver’s perimeter defense?
Although JaVale McGee wasn’t horrendous in the 2nd quarter, he lacked any sort of energy, and looked completely winded.
The Good…
George Karl did try to empty his bench to get anything going, and the bench did get Denver back in the game, and of course Karl did what Karl always does and went back to his starters who were abysmal most–if not all — of the game.
Corey Brewer brought some offense, but Denver can’t possibly win when Brewer is your main shooter.
There’s not a ton to take away from the game, unless it’s the fact Denver had a horrid — nearly comedic — shooting game, and they are in need of a change. A change could be a player’s meeting, or a change could be a trade, or a change could be giving some sort of effort during games in which they aren’t mentally prepared for.
The fact is, Denver should have won that game. The fact is Denver should have went into that game mentally prepared as if it was the New York Knicks. The fact is Denver shouldn’t have shot so many bricks from the perimeter.
This could have been an anomaly game, or a screaming reminder Denver is barely keeping their head above water and need to reexamine their team.
