DENVER (AP)—The Denver Nuggets are so much more than just Carmelo Anthony(notes).
A dominating effort on the boards and a great performance by the benchhelped the Nuggets overcome a below-par effort from an ailing ‘Melo on Mondaynight, when they raced past the Los Angeles Lakers 120-101, evening the WesternConference finals at two games apiece.
They did it with their star hobbled by a sprained ankle and slowed by astomach virus that had him hugging the commode before tip-off and getting IVs athalftime.
“Even before I twisted my ankle, with my stomach, I didn’t have my legsearly in the game,” Anthony said. “I felt like I didn’t have any energy. ThoseIVs were a must. They helped a little bit. I’ll be OK for Wednesday.”
Anthony finished with 15 hard-earned points on 3-of-16 shooting, but ithardly mattered because, unlike in Game 3 when his shot also wasn’t falling, histeammates came to the rescue.
Six of them scored in double digits, led by Chauncey Billups(notes) and J.R. Smith(notes)with 24 apiece.
“It was important for everyone to step up,” Anthony said. “We had a bunchof guys step up today. I know the past two, three games our bench hasn’t been asproductive as they have been in the playoffs, but tonight those guys stepped up.J.R. stepped up big, Linas Kleiza(notes) came in and hit some big shots, he was justphenomenal out there.”
Kenyon Martin(notes) and Nene each had a double-double as the Nuggets posted theireighth blowout of the postseason but first against Los Angeles following threegames that came down to the final seconds.
“They whooped us, period,” said Kobe Bryant(notes), who scored 34 points. “Theywhooped us on the glass. They whooped us to loose balls.”
They whooped them in every which way as Denver dominated the glass, thepaint and the stripe, outrebounding, outmuscling and outhustling the tiredLakers, whose fatigue after their grueling seven-game series with Houston andthe quick turnaround to Denver is really starting to show.
“But that’s not a very good excuse,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.
The Nuggets beat the Lakers on the glass by 18, outscored them in the paintby 18, beat them on the fast break by 10 and outscored their bench 42-24.
“It just shows we have heart and can play with a man down,” Smith said.“We did a lot this year and kept it up.”
So, the Nuggets didn’t need to worry about a botched inbounds pass in theclosing seconds like the ones that cost them wins in Games 1 and 3.
“I had forgotten about that,” Nuggets coach George Karl cracked.
The series shifts to Los Angeles for Game 5 Wednesday night, and the onlything that put a smile on Jackson’s face on this night was the memory of theLakers’ win 48 hours earlier.
“What we’ve done is we’ve won a road game and brought the home-courtadvantage back to L.A.,” Jackson said.
Martin had 13 points and 15 boards, Nene pitched in 14 points and 13rebounds, and Chris “Birdman” Andersen added 14 rebounds for the Nuggets, whooutrebounded the Lakers 58-40.
“We got hammered from every direction tonight,” Lakers forward Luke Walton(notes)said.
In Jackson’s view, the hammering went overboard.
Jackson complained about Dahntay Jones’(notes) trip of Bryant in the third quarter,calling it unsportsmanlike.
“I just fell on my face for no reason,” Bryant deadpanned. “I’m aklutz.”
Was Jones playing him dirty?
“Good defense,” Bryant said.
Jackson also griped about Denver’s lopsided 49-35 advantage in free throws,a reversal of Game 3’s 45-31 Lakers advantage.
“Basketball is a game where the aggressor gets the advantage. And tonightwe didn’t know what a foul was and what wasn’t a foul,” Jackson complained.“Start of the game, we got guys knocked around going to the basket, they said,‘We’re going to get those things go.’ By the end of the ballgame little foulswere being called all over the place.”
The game featured four technical fouls and 84 free throws overall.
The Lakers’ only lead was 1-0 on Bryant’s free throw 14 seconds in as Denverled for the final 46:46.
The Nuggets, who haven’t lost back-to-back home games all season, werecoming off their first loss in the Mile High City since March 9. They knew theyblew a golden opportunity 48 hours earlier by trying for the dagger andmisfiring on 22 of 27 3-pointers.
This time, they shot 7-for-24 from 3-point range. One of them was Billups’pull-up 3 after a steal by Smith that gave Denver an 83-70 lead with 10 minutesto go.
The Lakers and Nuggets had the Pepsi Center to themselves Monday night afterWorld Wrestling Entertainment moved their Monday Night Raw card to the StaplesCenter in Los Angeles because of the double booking in Denver that WWE chairmanVince McMahon milked for all it was worth.
The fans saw plenty of gripping and grabbing in this rough-and-tumbleseries. This game featured 55 fouls, and plenty of plays that weren’t whistledbut could have been.
Billups said he likes Denver’s chances in Los Angeles, where the Nuggets wonGame 2.
“I’m sure the world wants to see Cleveland and the Lakers” in the NBAfinals, he said. “You’ve got the best two players in the world, a chance to seethem play in a seven-game series. I don’t want to see it. Man, I don’t want tosee it. And I’m trying my best not to make that happen.”
Notes
The Nuggets are the first team with three players grabbing 13-plusboards in a playoff game since Utah in 1994 against Denver, but that game wentdouble-overtime. … Denver is closer than it’s ever been to the finals. Intheir only other trips to the conference championship, the Nuggets trailed 3-1to both Seattle in 1978 and the Lakers in 1985. |
發表於 2009-5-26 05:55 PM
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