The above pics show only one reason for the loss, although it was a major one - Gordon Hayward. He had his way with the Nuggets, and here is a real gem - Hayward and the Jazz back-court scored 53 points, and Denver's back-court scored 0. That's right, zero, zip, nada, the big goose-egg, etc. And, continuing a very bad trend, the Nuggets shot only 14 for 24 from the free-throw line whilst the Jazz were 19 for 20. I think that I could shoot 50% at the charity strip with my eyes closed.
Last year, the Nuggets lost three home games the ENTIRE season. They just lost their third last night, which means 6 and 3 at home, and 13 and 9 over all thus far. I think that is not indicative of how their record will end because they haven't been playing any good teams - a lot of tough games are coming up soon and it is doubtful that they will win half of them.
I said it previously, but will say it again - the change from a run-them-out-of-the-house style to a walk-it-up-and-watch is disheartening. Good grief - it's a mile high in Denver and as last year showed, you should be able to wear down any team that comes to town. Denver still has some fast guys, but I don't see much emphasis on quickly getting the ball up the court. Everyone tells me what a great coach Brian Shaw is, but I haven't seen it yet. Last night, the third quarter crew was clicking, getting the lead back after being down by 16. Shaw substitutes [not unreasonable] but his choices were very dubious, particularly going with Lawson who missed several games because of a hamstring pull, and had a grand total of 0 points for the evening.
Hopeful that the Nuggets will prove me wrong - not holding my breath. Go Avs!
4 comments:
Liked the pictures of Gordon Hayward. He was a star on the Town of Brownsburg's high school basketball team, then played for Butler in Indianapolis. Had he not left Butler early for the pro's, Butler may have won the NCAA championship that year he left. They sure could have used him that final game.
Biz - I remember Gordon at Butler, and agree about his leaving. Seems like a remember Butler being one shot away from the win, and it rimmed in and then out..... I really do not like guys leaving early for the NBA; I wrote about Roberson leaving CU last year and said that he would be lucky if he got drafted. Well he did get drafted in the second round, meaning no guaranteed contract, and after spending a bit of time riding the bench, is now down in the developmental league. He could have been developing his game at CU with a possibility of making it deep into the NCAA tournament - but the $$ and 'prestige' of the pros was too much to resist.
Have to correct myself about Roberson - he actually got drafted in the first round, got traded a couple of times and ended up at OKC. He just got called back up to the bigs because of an injury.
Also - last night's home game vs OKC went exactly as I would have predicted. OKC - far superior in virtually every aspect, and Denver failing to execute and to take advantage of the altitude. Twelve point loss and it wasn't that close.
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