Orlando, Fla. – Saturday was a bad night for the Nuggets to be short in every sense of the word in their 94-83 loss to Orlando at the TD Waterhouse Centre.
With their team already missing injured Kenyon Martin and Nene, Nuggets big men Francisco Elson and Eduardo Najera each collected their fourth fouls in the opening seconds of the second half. That forced Denver to go small and go cautious, no easy proposition against a team led by burly forward Dwight Howard.
The Nuggets (11-10) trailed 48-46 at the half but got slammed in the second half to help the Magic snap a five- game losing streak. Orlando outrebounded Denver 28-14 and held it to 36.4 percent shooting in the second half.
“I think that it got us out of rhythm,” Najera said of the foul trouble. “I definitely was less aggressive. I definitely can’t push and grab and do what I do best. I’m sure Francisco couldn’t do the same thing, either.”
Carmelo Anthony added, “They was the more aggressive team tonight. Every time a shot went up, they pounded the boards, something that we didn’t do.”
The Magic (8-11) also posted 18 offensive rebounds leading to 16 second-chance points. Aside from Marcus Camby’s 12 rebounds, no Nugget had more than four.
“Coach wanted to go to a zone a lot, and any time you go to a zone you’re vulnerable on the offensive glass,” Camby said.
Denver coach George Karl pointed more to his offense, which produced an 11-point third quarter. “We just didn’t have enough gas in the tank,” he said. “We did some good things but didn’t rebound the ball well enough to make the comeback. Foul trouble maybe caused us to have an irregular rotation and rhythm, but I still thought we had an opportunity to win the game if we’d played better in the second half.
“They were just crowding the ball, and we wouldn’t make the extra pass. I was hoping we would make two extra passes, but we kept forcing it into the teeth of their defense. We made very poor offensive decisions most of the third quarter.”
The coach called Howard “a load.” The forward, two days past his 20th birthday, owned the inside, finishing with 17 points and 14 rebounds for Orlando. DeShawn Stevenson scored 18 after hitting eight of his first 10 shots. Anthony provided Denver’s only consistent offensive threat, finishing with a game-high 23 points. Voshon Lenard added 14 in his first game since Nov. 30.
History says something bad usually happens to Denver in Florida. The Nuggets have won in both Florida arenas only once, in 1989-90, when the first-year Magic and second-year Heat were in their expansion infancy. They have lost 13 straight in Orlando dating to 1992.
They were hoping for better one night after an encouraging upset in Miami.
“You can blame it on the back-to-back,” Najera said. “You can blame it on fatigue. Really, it’s just us. We’ve got to be more consistent.”
Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or athompson@denverpost.com.
