Very little was free for the Nuggets from the free-throw line Wednesday night.
The Nuggets missed 17 free throws in a 116-110 loss to the Washington Wizards at the Pepsi Center. Denver entered the game 11th in the NBA in free-throw percentage, shooting 75.3 percent. But on this night, the Nuggets shot a season-low 55.3 percent (21-of-38).
“Horrible. Horrible,” Nuggets forward Eduardo Najera said. “You can’t win a ballgame when you miss 17 free throws. We have pretty good free-throw shooters. … We let the little things bother us. A missed shot, maybe a missed layup, a missed coverage on defense. That carries over to the free-throw line. Then we miss free throws, and we’re just down on ourselves. Then, we are just drained.”
Denver’s season has been draining, too.
The Nuggets (12-14) dropped two games below .500 for the first time since being 3-5 and have dropped a season-high four straight games. The Wizards (10-14), meanwhile, ended a three-game losing streak and a six-game road skid. Washington guard Gilbert Arenas had a game-high 36 points with 11 assists.
“I don’t think we ever missed that many (free throws) before,” said Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, who scored a team-high 29 points and made 10-of-13 free throws. “It’s tough. We lose four in a row, give up 116 points on our home court, that’s just tough.
“We’ve got to figure out something, what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it and do it fast.”
Said Nuggets coach George Karl: “I’m tired of excuses. I think it’s about playing with your heart and playing with intensity. Playing with a commitment that if we lose we can be proud of. I don’t know that we can be proud of the commitment we had tonight.”
Denver’s starting big men Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin returned from injury. Camby had 23 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high six steals (all in the first half) while Martin had 11 points and eight rebounds.
“I thought Marcus early in the game was rusty,” Karl said. “But as the game went on I thought he started to play very well. I think Kenyon, to me, his conditioning is something I worry about.
“He plays three or four minutes and then he kind of doesn’t get ahead of the ball good enough. If we want to play fast and if we want to play aggressive, I think I need him running a little bit more, as I need everybody running a little bit more.”
Despite a sluggish start, Denver led 54-52 at halftime. Washington finished the third quarter leading 84-77 after shooting 57 percent in the period while Denver shot 35 percent.
The Nuggets recovered briefly as DerMarr Johnson’s steal and dunk gave them an 87-86 lead with 9:44 left. But a three-point play by Antawn Jamison pushed Washington ahead 103-97 with 3:48 left. Washington had a comfortable 10-point lead with 1:30 left.
“It was a good win for us,” Arenas said. “Teams go through that sometimes where they are not going to be good at the free-throw line. They miss some easy shots in the game. Then they look back and say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get our free-throw percentage back up.”‘
Staff writer Marc J. Spears can be reached at 303-820-5449 or mspears@denverpost.com.
