Boston – The sum of No. 23 plus No. 6 equaled another loss Sunday for the Nuggets.
Two late Paul Pierce fadeaway jumpers gave the Boston Celtics a 106-101 decision over Denver at the TD Banknorth Garden, continuing the Nuggets’ inexplicable trend of losing with Marcus Camby (No. 23) and Kenyon Martin (No. 6) in the lineup together.
Boston halted Denver’s four-game winning streak despite the return of the two injured big men. The Nuggets fell to 35-29 overall but 9-18 in games when Martin and Camby both play.
“If I could answer that, I would. I would fix it,” said Martin, who admitted to feeling rusty after missing four games with tendinitis in his left knee. He finished with five points and five rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench.
Denver scored just 15 points in the fourth quarter.
Pierce won the game with his two jumpers, each with Ruben Patterson in his face, in the final minute. The second shot banked in.
The unapologetic all-star said, “When you’ve got it going, you’ve got it going.”
Patterson could only reply: “What can I say? I had a hand in his face.” Martin said: “The first shot was a great shot. The second shot seemed like it was luck to me.”
Nuggets coach George Karl would not blame his team’s defense, even if Pierce was 15-for-23 on the way to 36 points and the Celtics shot 51.2 percent overall. Instead, Karl pointed to seven fourth-quarter turnovers, trouble against Boston’s zone and players settling too often for 3-pointers.
“We were rusty. The combination we had in the game probably was not the most together. Marcus and Kenyon have been out and Ruben’s new,” Karl said. He described Martin as “sluggish,” though he said it was a team loss.
Camby added: “We didn’t close out quarters well. We were able to build big leads and when we subbed, we went to the bench, guys didn’t have the defensive effort that we needed. It can’t be about scoring all the time. You’ve got to defend.”
Martin blamed himself for a turnover with 1:10 left that set up Pierce’s first jumper. After pulling down a defensive rebound, he muffed his outlet pass and Ryan Gomes stole the ball.
Denver’s late collapse wasted a strong game by Carmelo Anthony, who hit his first 11 shots on the way to 36 points, though he was 3-for-9 in the second half as Boston’s double teams caught up to him.
“With the way Carmelo was rolling, it seemed like he was going to have a career night,” Pierce said. “But we buckled down, got the stops we needed.”
The Nuggets didn’t on Pierce, who scored eight of his team’s final 10 points, including a tomahawk dunk over Martin.
The bar will be lowered for Denver tonight against New York, the team with the NBA’s worst record. Then again, the Nuggets will be playing their fourth game in five nights.
And if both of their starting forwards play, the numbers say there’s no accounting for what might happen.
Staff writer Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or at athompson@denverpost.com.
