As tired as the Nuggets felt Saturday, they came up with a simple equation to ease the pain – hit one shot, make one stop and everything’s better.
That’s the Cliffs Notes version of how Denver snapped its three-game losing streak with a 101-99 victory over Miami at the Pepsi Center that helped earn them a day off today after a long week.
After blowing a 14-point fourth-quarter lead, the Nuggets (9-9) found themselves down 99-98 after Antoine Walker’s running hook shot with 29.5 seconds left.
But after a timeout, Earl Boykins found himself so alone behind the 3-point line, the Heat might as well have quarantined him. The Nuggets might rank last in the NBA in 3-point shooting, but Boykins proved they deserved at least a bit of respect by hitting his shot with 17 seconds left.
Denver’s subsequent defensive stand was most notable for who didn’t get the ball. Greg Buckner kept the lid on young star Dwyane Wade, leading to a missed 3-pointer from the baseline by former Nugget James Posey with 3.9 seconds left.
For the first time this season Miami (10-7) utilized a zone defense, which members of both teams said helped with the comeback. But coach Stan Van Gundy said that with Boykins’ shot, he stayed with it one play too long.
“I’m ready to hang myself,” he said. “It was a ridiculous coaching decision going into a zone defense. I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t in my right mind. You don’t want to leave anyone open.”
Wade, who led all scorers with 32 points, said his coach did not deserve the blame.
“Coach wanted to go man. As a team we wanted to stay zone,” he said. “When we were down 14 it got us back in the game. So it was a team choice, man.”
The Nuggets say the play happened because of Andre Miller’s strong penetration.
“We had a play drawn up just in case they ran the zone,” said Miller, who finished with 22 points, seven assists and six rebounds. “My thing was just to attack and to look for an open shot or find somebody else open. And I saw Earl on the other side waving.”
Boykins added, “Andre, he had great vision and he was able to find me. It felt good. I was able to get my legs up under me. It was just about following through with the shot and I was able to do that.”
The Nuggets still needed a key stop. Buckner provided it by bottling up Wade.
“That started it,” coach George Karl said. “Then I think everybody made good reads on scrambling and rotating.”
The final rotation fell to Marcus Camby, who was able to get his long arms in Posey’s face. He was happy to give himself credit for the play.
“Great defense. Great D. I mean, I was right there,” Camby said. “He was trying to pump fake, trying to lean in and get the foul. But I was able to slither out the way a little bit and force him to double-clutch and miss. That was the ballgame.”
Footnotes
The Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony accidentally hit a young girl in the face after throwing the ball in disgust at a call he disliked in the second quarter. Anthony, who led the Nuggets with 23 points while playing with a sprained left ankle, apologized to the girl at halftime and talked briefly with her after the game.
Staff writer Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or at athompson@denverpost.com.
