Nuggets scorched by Heat and Hawks, handed first two losses
By John Livingston | November 8, 2009
The Denver Nuggets fell back to earth after their perfect start through the first five games by dropping back-to-back road contests to the Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks.
The Nuggets were handed their first loss Friday by the Heat 96-88, as they were never able to overcome a first quarter deficit; this despite a 30 point performance by Carmelo Anthony. Nene was the only other Nuggets starter to finish in double figures in scoring with 11 points. Chauncey Billups struggled to gain any rhythm and finished with just 6 points and had only two chances from the foul line. Turnovers caused the Nuggets to struggle offensively as the team gave the ball away 19 times.
The poor play of the Nuggets starters caused Coach Geroge Karl to give his bench long minutes in Friday night’s game and the back-ups took advantage of their opportunity. They led a furious fourth quarter comeback when they outscored the Heat 32-18. Arron Afflalo continued to impress for the Nuggets as he added 18 points off the bench and Ty Lawson also filled his role by collecting 11 points in 23 minutes of action. However, whenever the Nuggets got the score within reach late in the 4th they were unable to secure a defensive rebound to give themselves a chance to cut the lead down further. The Heat racked up 14 offensive rebounds on the night and it was clear the Nuggets were lacking one of their big men inside the paint to collect rebounds.
This perhaps can be attributed to an injury to the left leg of Kenyon Martin that he sustained during the game. After a stellar double-double performance by K-Mart against the Nets, he left the Heat game with what was believed to be perhaps a break in his left fibula. Fortunately, K-Mart had an MRI taken after Friday’s game which showed no break, and he is considered day-to-day with a bruised left fibula. This is good news for the Nuggets and their fans as they will need Martin to be a main-stay in the starting lineup to remain competitive for an NBA title. The Nuggets did, however, miss K-Mart’s presence once again when they traveled to Atlanta for Saturday night’s game.
The Nuggets were outscored the entire night by the Hawks leading to a 125-100 route. K-Mart’s injury forced him out of the starting lineup in the game which led to some interesting decisions from Coach Karl. He elected to start Renaldo Balkman at power forward and Joey Graham at shooting guard as Anthony Carter has struggled scoring early this season. Clearly Karl felt that Balkman and Graham would help add something to the starting lineup after their solid 4th quarter performances from the night before. However there was no carry over effect with Balkman totaling just 2 points and 1 rebound and Graham being held in check with just 4 points. It was a bit peculiar to see Balkman get the start ahead of the Nuggets sixth man Chris “Birdman” Andersen. Andersen contributed 6 points and 11 rebounds off the bench and provided the rebounding that the Nuggets needed early in the game to remain close but it wouldn’t be enough. After the loss Nuggets fans could also scratch their head at the start of Graham. Graham has played well off the bench at times this year but he lacks the explosiveness that a starting NBA player typically has. Many fans would have rather seen the rookie Lawson get the start at point guard and the Nuggets could have slid Billups to the two guard as they have at times this year. Karl clearly wanted to keep his bench in tact to serve their usual roles but perhaps with the injury to Martin they could have experimented further with Lawson at the point.
Anthony went on to record another 30 point game against Atlanta and Billups added another 27 but the rest of the Nuggets were outshined by the play of the Hawks Josh Smith, Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford who each scored 20+ points.
The Nuggets will look to rebound Tuesday when they travel to Chicago to face the up and coming Bulls. This is slated to be J.R. Smith’s first game of the season as he will be eligible to return after serving his seven game suspension. It will be interesting to see how Coach Karl works Smith into the lineup and what exactly his role will be through his first few games back with the squad.
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