By adding to the starting lineup, the Nuggets were taking a stand on defense. This team rode a late-season groove of acrobatic, fast-paced basketball that made tongues wag. “O” for the Nuggets meant living their best life.
“D” was often an afterthought.
Even though in reality it set up all of the “O.”
Unable to replicate that kind of “O” against San Antonio, the Nuggets opted for a dose of Buckner, their defensive stopper, in Game 3 against San Antonio. This was basketball that would be played under their usual 100 point-plus standard. This was supposed to be gritty stuff.
Buckner would lead the brigade against San Antonio’s first level of playmakers.
And it was plenty gritty for the Nuggets for, oh, the game’s first five minutes. Their defense made the Spurs shrivel. Nuggets up 10-3 and then 14-8 in the opening stretch.
Then Manu Ginobili entered.
He would crack the Nuggets. The Spurs began setting hard screens and then harder ones. Ginobili and Tony Parker started using those screens to dance around the defense and often made each Denver guard look as if he had cement in his shoes.
The Spurs guards would slide cleverly behind those screens and turn a step advantage into a four-step one. That led to easy jumpers and easy drives for layups.
Then they would dribble, drive and kick. Open shooters made open shots.
It was astonishing to watch the Nuggets lose 86-78 to the Spurs on Saturday night at the Pepsi Center in a game in which their guards were so thoroughly outplayed. A game in which the Nuggets looked so much like the slower team on the perimeter.
San Antonio’s guards outscored Denver’s 35-17 in the first half. By game’s end, it was 55-29.
Rocked by a 28-point loss in Game 2 of this series, the Nuggets returned home and were sent reeling by the offensive execution, playmaking, penetration, shooting and fierceness of San Antonio’s guards.
Ginobili wrecked them most with 32 points in 31 minutes.
Is there a player on the Denver roster who can stay with this guy? With Parker (10 points, three assists)?
In the past two games, with Ginobili strolling in off the bench, the answer is no and no. By Game 4 here Monday night, the Nuggets need to find an answer or they have no chance then or beyond.
It is actually laughable, the way this thing is going. Tim Duncan is scampering around, still, making an impact but not a dominant one. Duncan was in foul trouble much of the night and played only 27 minutes. He is the face of the Spurs.
He is not the issue. The San Antonio guards have taken over this series. They watched torch them for 31 points in Game 1 and have been seething since. And responding.
The Nuggets had the right ideas before the game. Their written messages in their locker room before the game emphasized finding their home court pace; using their heads and their hearts; controlling their rage and envy.
This one was nice: Attack the gaps and attack the rim.
That is what the Spurs guards did best. Buckner said before the game: “We don’t have to change anything, especially our offense. We know we can find a way there. Everybody just has to pull their own weight. We can get something going.”
No, they cannot, not with Ginobili and Parker and the rest of the San Antonio guards ripping through the Denver defense with so much ease.
The Nuggets must attack these guards more at half-court with traps. They must attack these guards earlier in their dribble in their set offense. They must make the San Antonio guards work harder on defense, chase more, fight through a few rougher picks like those of the Spurs.
It is about footwork and angles and hustle.
A tango the Spurs guards are mastering.
One the Denver guards are tangling.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
