The Nuggets made an outstanding series of smart, key plays in the last few minutes of the game to defeat the Ginobili-less San Antonio Spurs 80-77 in Denver. The Spurs predictably shut down the potentially high flying Nuggets offense as they almost always do, but PF Tim Duncan and especially C Fabricio Oberto were throttled back themselves by the suddenly dangerous Denver defensive Big 3: Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, and Nene. The Big 3 won it for the Nuggets by blocking the Spurs 14 times. Martin made a career high 7 blocks, Camby made 4 blocks, and Nene made 3 blocks in 20 minutes. Tony Parker was the primary victim of this onslaught of shots interrupted, as 7 of his shots were ruined. Duncan was also a major victim though, as 5 of his shots were mangled. All of a sudden, the Nuggets had something like a meat grinder defense out there, something rarely if ever seen in Denver pro basketball.
It seems like at least one of those and frequently two of those three expensive Nuggets defensive specialists have been out with an injury since the end of the Carter administration. When you see all three of them playing in the same game, and all playing well, no less, you have to rub your eyes and look again to make sure you are not seeing things. That all three will be injury free for the playoffs is almost every Nuggets fan's number one dream. But it's still only a dream, I am afraid, as all three have histories of being more injury prone than average.
A.I. made both free throws off the ensuing intentional foul, so now the Nuggets led by 3 with 6 seconds left. Camby rushed out to closely defend Finley in the left corner, and he was not even close with a three pointer that, had it been successful, would have sent the game into overtime. Camby, Martin, and Nene had won the game by force feeding the Spurs more of their own medicine than they could swallow.
Above are the first two and the last paragraphs of the full game report. The rest of the report, and informative stats, including the real player ratings for the game, are at the link.
Original Story:
http://nuggets1.blogspot.com/2008/01/den....
It seems like at least one of those and frequently two of those three expensive Nuggets defensive specialists have been out with an injury since the end of the Carter administration. When you see all three of them playing in the same game, and all playing well, no less, you have to rub your eyes and look again to make sure you are not seeing things. That all three will be injury free for the playoffs is almost every Nuggets fan's number one dream. But it's still only a dream, I am afraid, as all three have histories of being more injury prone than average.
A.I. made both free throws off the ensuing intentional foul, so now the Nuggets led by 3 with 6 seconds left. Camby rushed out to closely defend Finley in the left corner, and he was not even close with a three pointer that, had it been successful, would have sent the game into overtime. Camby, Martin, and Nene had won the game by force feeding the Spurs more of their own medicine than they could swallow.
Above are the first two and the last paragraphs of the full game report. The rest of the report, and informative stats, including the real player ratings for the game, are at the link.
Original Story:
http://nuggets1.blogspot.com/2008/01/den....
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