Denver Nuggets Breakdown: Nearly Flawless

The Nuggets throttled a crippled Cavaliers team Sunday 113-83 in a game that was more lopsided than even a 30-point margin of victory would indicate.

While the Nuggets didn’t reveal too many flaws, even after 30-point victories there’s room for improvement...

What Denver did well

Post Carmelo Anthony

By my unofficial count, Anthony either caught the ball in the pivot or backed his defender (usually Eric Snow or Devin Brown) down a total of eight times. The results were as follows:

• A made turnaround fadeaway over Eric Snow from the left box.
• A forced and bricked fadeaway from the right box after Cleveland sent a double team.
• An accurate pass out of a double team to Anthony Carter who missed the ensuing jumper.
• A powerful backdown of Brown that earned a non-shooting foul.
• From the right box, a beautiful post, baseline shimmy, right turnaround over Brown was drilled with ease.
• From the right box, he spun away from a double-teamer and hit a fadeaway baseline jumper over two defenders.
• Another turnaround over Eric Snow was good.
• A pass out of a double team to Linas Kleiza who moved the ball to Camby led to a made jumper.

That’s a total of 4-5 with a hockey assist, a should’ve been assist, and a foul. And if the game was still tight in the second half, no doubt Carmelo would have been given free reign to post and toast some more.

Since he had no trouble shooting over Eric Snow even with a double teamer on him, Carmelo was hardly asked to pass out of the pivot, but his passing skills from the post have allowed him to take the next step as a player over the past two seasons. In fact, aside from Tim Duncan and Yao Ming, there is no player in the entire league more effective from the post than Carmelo Anthony.

Unleash Allen Iverson into the middle of the defense

Against Cleveland’s slow arriving help defense, Iverson (9-18 FG, 2-3 3FG, 13 AST, 2 STL, 0 TO) was able to get into the paint off of high screen/rolls with regularity and dazzle with floaters, pull-ups, layups, dish-offs, and kick-outs to perimeter shooters all game long.

Even on iso’s where Larry Hughes stayed with Iverson’s ball fakes and body shakes, Iverson was able to hit a pair of rapid fire jumpers under heavy defensive pressure. If Iverson isn’t hounded by help defenders throughout the duration of a game, he’ll pick apart defenses from the inside out.

Attack the offensive glass

Not that there were many missed baskets, but Marcus Camby (six), Carmelo (two), Kenyon Martin (two), and J.R. Smith (two) were able to suck in any missed shots.

Make free throws

The Nuggets shot a combined 22-26 from the charity stripe led by Iverson’s 5-6 and Melo’s 4-4.

Let Marcus Camby roam the paint and block shots

Camby blocked two shots, altered several others, came away with three steals, and was omnipresent whenever a Cavalier managed to encroach the attack zone. Eduardo Najera also hustled his way to two blocks with Smith chipping in with a shot swat of his own.

Gamble for steals

While defenses that gamble brazenly for steals are usually taking the easy way out, with the depleted Cavs short on ball handlers, passers, and creative scorers off the dribble, defensive pressure was able to yield 11 steals for the Nugs.

If Denver failed to swipe the ball, they could count on Eric Snow (0-5 FG), Larry Hughes (6-15 FG, 1-7 3FG), Devin Brown (2-10 FG, 0-2 3FG), or Ira Newble (1-6 FG) to brick the resulting open shot.

Play with admirable unselfishness

While there were a handful of iso’s and plenty of quick jumpers, the Nuggets drove and kicked with alacrity, resulting in 30 assists to 40 made baskets, a terrific statistic. Anthony Carter (8) and Allen Iverson (13) paced the assist parade.

What Denver didn’t do well

Handle

Anthony Carter made several bad decisions with the ball, and while Iverson didn’t commit a turnover, was lucky to be bailed out a couple of times after over-penetrating and jumping in the air with nowhere to go.

Get anything out of Anthony Carter

Carter (1-8 FG, 0-2 3FG, 8 AST, 4 TO, 1 STL, 4 PTS) missed nearly every jumper he took (the majority unguarded) made several bad decisions with the ball, and was ineffective guarding LeBron James.

Carter is best served to being a useful backup, but since the Nuggets lack any perimeter defenders, any point guards, and any glue guys, they have to make due with Carter in the starting lineup.

Box Out

The Nuggets gave up an unsightly 17 offensive rebounds to the Cavs with Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby unwilling to put their body on a Cavs rebounder.

And that’s all!

Still, despite the impressive victory, with Sasha Pavlovic, Daniel Gibson, Drew Gooden, and Anderson Varejao out, it seemed like Denver beat LeBron James and the D-League All-Stars rather than the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Teams who can defend Anthony with stronger double teams, with better interior rotations to fluster Iverson, with clever point guards who can draw out Camby and dish to cutters, and who can force Denver to play 20 seconds of defense will still give the Nuggets fits in the postseason.

How good are the Nuggets?

It’s still too early to tell.

But the Nuggets certainly have the explosive offense and the defensive playmakers to give the Spurs, the Lakers, and the Suns nightmares.