Nuggets dominate Lakers in impressive win
By John Livingston | November 14, 2009
The Denver Nuggets trounced the Los Angeles Lakers last night with a big 105-79 win. While the Lakers remained within 2 points at half-time, the Nuggets took over the third quarter with high-light reel offense and shut down defense.
The Nuggets came into the game having lost three of their previous four games including an embarrassing defeat to the Milwaukee Bucks where the team did not play up to their caliber. It was important that the Nuggets play not only a good game against the Lakers, but a great game to help ease the sting of last years Western Conference Finals loss to the same Lakers.
The Lakers were doing what they wanted offensively in the first quarter while the Nuggets struggled to slow them down. The Nuggets got their offense rolling in the second quarter as they outscored the Lakers 32-28 to take a two point leads into the second half which would ultimately not be so close.
Carmelo Anthony got his offense firing on all cylinders early in the third quarter, continually finding his jump shot and leaking out on the fast break to get easy lay-ups and dunks. A key point in the quarter came when things started to heat up between the two squads and Kenyon Martin found himself battling for a rebound with the Lakers Lamar Odom. The two teams barked at each other and it was clear that the game was getting physical and emotional. Martin and Odom faced off in a jump ball and Martin got an emphatic tip up court that Melo eventually was able to dump down for a quick two points. This gave the Nuggets some separation with the score and the momentum to push the lead by as much as 23 points by the end of the third quarter. The Nuggets outscored the Lakers 29-8 in the third; an absolutely remarkable statistic that would almost seem impossible against a team with a player like Kobe Bryant.
Bryant had 19 points in the first half and it seemed as though he was set to have a big night. However, the defense of the Nuggets, especially that of Arron Afflalo, made it so that Bryant did not score the rest of the game. Bryant shot just 2-10 when Afflalo was guarding him and he was unable to create anything for his team mates as he had just 2 assists. Afflalo and Anthony were the two key pieces to the Nuggets victory and Nuggets fans have to be impressed and excited about the stellar play of Afflalo, who not only is getting it done defensively but is also stepping up hitting open shots offensively. Afflalo stepped into the starters role and after last nights performance fans can assume he will regularly get the starting call to play a similar role of Dahntay Jones from a year ago.
Anthony finished with 25 points, 18 of which came in the second half. J.R. Smith returned to the Pepsi Center for the first time this season after serving his seven game suspension, and he did not miss a beat; entertaining the crowd with big time three pointers and getting good penetration in the paint to create easy lay ins. Smith also played solid defense on Bryant and it is clear that he now too is buying into playing team defense. He finished with 20 points in 23 minutes of action off the bench.
Not to be left out was another great performance out of Ty Lawson. I am going to quit calling him the “Nuggets rookie guard” because he is clearly playing at a level higher than that of a rookie. Lawson finished with 13 points including an emphatic dunk over two Lakers defenders late in the 4th quarter that would eventually be named ESPN’s #3 play on their nightly Top Plays segment. Lawson was fouled on the dunk and finished off the 3 point play, much to the amusement of the Nuggets starters who leaped to their feet with excitement after the dunk. For a 5′11″ point guard, Lawson certainly showed that he has some serious hops.
Chris “Birdman” Andersen also played a key role off the bench as he grabbed 11 rebound and added 8 points. The Nuggets need every rebound they can get out of anyone who will provide them as Nene has been struggling to box out and collect double digit rebounds as he should be. Unless Nene turn this around it could come back to haunt the Nuggets in future games so they will continue to need plenty of rebounds from the rest of the team to keep up.
After playing seven of their first nine games on the road the Nuggets will now get the comfort of playing seven of their next nine at the Pepsi Center as they hope to build upon their Northwest Division lead. The team is off until Tuesday when they will welcome the Toronto Raptors to town.
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