Nuggets-Spurs: Denver Defeats San Antonio to Take Tiebreaker

In a game that stacked up as one for the ages on paper, the actual game lacked the luster any hardcore NBA fan was hoping for.

The San Antonio Spurs came into this game at 33-14, good for second place in the West, one game ahead of the Denver Nuggets at 31-16.

The Spurs are the seventh-best team on defense; while the Nuggets are once again one of the NBA’s highest scoring teams at sixth overall.

Matchups like Kenyon “K-Mart” Martin versus Tim Duncan or Chauncey Billups versus Tony Parker were unseen, due to an illness Martin had come down with and the DNP on the stat lines of the Spurs big three.  Only Ginobili was not a coach's decision.

K-Mart-Duncan is one of, if not the best, matchup in all of basketball because Kenyon always plays Timmy physically and frustrates him to the point of crying to the refs.

Of course, we all know it doesn’t take much to get the “Big Crybaby” (Duncan) cranky, and sequentially yelling at the men in grey and blue. His constant complaints, in accord with longtime head coach Greg Popovich, Tony Parker, and Manu “Flops A Lot” Ginobili, seem to sway the referee’s decisions more nights than not.

The Spurs are the least-penalized team in the league, while shooting the most amount of field goals.  What other explanation is there for this team that plays every game as physically as they played tonight? The Spurs hacked and pushed and grabbed Nuggets players trying to lay the ball up all night.

However, tonight they did not have their stars, and were out shot from the free-throw line 37-14 by the Nuggets. Luckily for Denver, their shooting from the charity stripe was on and they had 31 points from the line, dwarfing San Antonio’s nine. Every one of them was needed as Denver won 104-96.

The Nuggets played solid in the first half, going into the break up 12 points, 56-44. The biggest story of the half was Chauncey Billups going down with an ankle injury, near the end of the second quarter. Although Chauncey sat out the rest of the game in the locker room, early reports are the sprain is minor and he should not miss a significant amount of time.

In the third quarter, Denver, without it’s on-court leader in Billups, came out strong and ballooned their lead to 15. When asked about the team’s mentality after losing Billups Carmelo Anthony said, “I kept tellin’ them(teammates)…’we winnin’ the game.’ We just stuck with it and kept our composure”, in an interview immediately following the game.

However, Denver let San Antonio back into the game, only up 10 to start the fourth, and letting the lead slip to as little as four points with nine minutes left in the game. The Spurs came back thanks to a 17-4 run in which Denver played little defense and shot only jump-shots.

J.R. Smith was seen missing many during the stretch, and went only 1-10 all night.

At one point, it was so bad the crowd could be heard calling for his benching. “D’Oh Dummy” Smith—at some point, you just have to stop shooting, player.

The Nuggets were able to hold onto and expand the lead starting with defensive intensity on one end, and followed by good passing and high-percentage shooting on the other.

The leading scorer and Player of the Game was Carmelo Anthony with 35 points, nine rebounds, and 14-15 shooting on free throws. He was all over the court, in a possible attempt to show the NBA he deserves an All-Star spot.

With the win the Nuggets improved to 32-16, a half of a game behind the Spurs for the second spot in the Western Conference. This win also gave the Nuggets the tiebreaker over the Spurs with a 2-1 head-to-head reacord. With the injury to Andrew Bynum of the Lakers, and Ginobili of the Spurs, this is the time for Denver to climb into first place in the West. 

The Weave

This game was sloppy as Denver had 16 turnovers compared to only 18 assists. San Antonio was even worse, with 18 turnovers themselves.

Denver dominated to boards Tuesday night, winning the battle 49-37…Bench scoring was big in this game as Kleiza had 13 points, six rebounds, and “Birdman” Andersen had 11 points, and four blocks.

The Nuggets improved to 20-6 at home this season.

This game was the last before a season-long eight-game road trip starts tomorrow night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Tonight marked the ninth-straight game the Nuggets have had a technical foul called on them.