Nuggets-Grizzlies: Denver Crushes Grizzlies in Sloppy Performance for Both Teams

Tonight’s game can be characterized in three ways.

The Nuggets' defensive intensity, sloppy play by both teams, and a domination of the whistle-blowers.

At halftime the Nuggets (now 30-15) were leading the bewildered Grizzlies (11-33) 54-45. Chauncey Billups and J.R. Smith co-led the Denver scorers with 15 each.

However, the scoring was not a major factor in the Nuggets winning the game, defense was.

Chris “Bird is the Word” Anderson led Denver with five blocks, four in the first half. In total, the Nuggets had 15 compared to the Grizzlies four. Denver had five players with two blocks or more.

In addition to blocked shots, the Nuggets had 15 steals, led by Kenyon Martin with five, and Chauncey Billups with four.

The Nuggets' swarming and hustling defense led to sloppy play by the Memphis Grizzlies. In all, the Griz' had 26 turnovers, which amazingly was less than the Nuggets' 27.

At times this game resembled more of a high school affair. Bodies flew this way and that, players scrambled for loose balls and overthrew teammates.

At one point, K-Mart tripped over his own feet and had to call a timeout before he was called for traveling.

The Grizzlies are a very young team with O.J. Mayo leading a laundry list of rookies which includes Mark Gasol and Darrell Arthur. This was also the first game for new head coach Lionel Hollins, which may explain why Memphis played extraordinarily hard and kept up with Denver for much of the game.

The Nuggets seemed out of sync beginning in the first quarter when, after going up 10-2, Denver was out scored 18-2 by Memphis.

Denver’s scoring has been lacking without Carmelo Anthony. They have pulled through, however, going 6-3 without their young star forward—an effort George Karl called “An A+”.

All of the sloppy play effected foul-calling, which was at times out of control. There was an inordinate number of charges (10), two technical fouls (one on Billups for “flipping a towel”, one on head coach George Karl), and a flagrant foul called on Lowry for his hard hit on Linas Kleiza.

In defense of the refs, it did look like Kleiza was hacked in the head in real-time. But once examined again on the replay, there was no cranium contact, and no real need for a flagrant foul to be called.

In the end, the Nuggs dominated the fourth quarter, out-scoring Memphis 25-17. The Grizzlies could not score from 7:45-2:10 in the fourth, and Denver went on a 12-0 run to put the game out of reach.

Chauncey Billups was pulled late in the fourth with a game-high 29 points, 16 of which he scored in the third quarter alone. It is good fortune for the Nuggets that he scored so easily on Tuesday night. Denver is now 17-1 when “Big-Shot” Billups scores 20 or more in a game.

Sitting in third in the Western Conference and leading the Northwest Division, the Nuggets are poised to make a playoff run. They increased their record to 17-2 against sub-.500 teams, something the Nuggets of old could not seem to conquer.

The Weave—It was not all sloppy play in the game Tuesday night. Billups’ 29 took him over the 12,000-point mark for his career…Joking with Altitude color commentator and self-proclaimed “slug” Scott Hastings after the game, “Did I pass you this game? I passed you by 4 or 6 points?”

The Nuggets are 23-4 when scoring over 100 points in a game...The 15 blocked shots for Denver was a season-high for the team.