Coach George Karl’s star player, forward Carmelo Anthony, had failed to contribute more than five rebounds for a 17th straight game and had all but surrendered to ace defender Ron Artest in an embarrassing 100-82 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night.
Karl’s point guard, Andre Miller, played like he had never seen a Mike Bibby head fake before.
Karl has a gimpy-kneed power forward, Kenyon Martin, who hasn’t played much in the last few games of the regular season, but wants big minutes when the Nuggets go into the playoffs this weekend.
Karl has two key backups – point guard Earl Boykins (hand) and forward Eduardo Najera (foot) – he can’t seem to get out of the training room.
And even center Marcus Camby, probably the most even-tempered player on the team, can’t stop complaining about playing either too little or too much.
It was enough to make Karl vent some anger Sunday.
“It’s hard to evaluate the lack of commitment in so many areas of basketball,” Karl said. “There’s a part of me that’s tremendously angry, and there’s a little part of me that probably understands that it’s been a hard season, a difficult season, a difficult mental season. And when you’re not mentally committed and you’re playing teams that have to win … this is kind of what happens.”
With all the injuries, suspensions, trades and other complications the Nuggets have had to fight through over the course of the season, “I’ve tried to be understanding,” Karl said. “But probably the simplest (explanation) is, we didn’t show up.”
Karl’s anger first surfaced early in the fourth quarter of Saturday night’s game when he benched Anthony and Miller.
“They didn’t deserve to be out there in the fourth quarter,” Karl said. “I was playing the guys I thought deserved to play. If they want to talk about it, we’ll talk about it. If they want to take responsibility and go on, that’s fine with me.”
Neither Anthony nor Miller talked about it Saturday night, but Sunday was different.
“No,” said Miller, he didn’t have a problem with being benched.
“I knew what was going on,” Miller said. “I don’t have any arguments or frustrations concerning minutes or how I was played. The way the game was going, it was pretty much over. That’s how some games are.”
Any frustration, Miller said, was rightfully with Karl.
“I think as a coach, he’s frustrated as far as what’s going on with the team,” Miller said. “We as players have got to be able to accept that and correct it … win these next two games.”
The way the Nuggets have been blown out in their past two games “is definitely not the way to go into the playoffs,” Miller said. “But we’ve got two games to do something about it.”
Camby agreed.
“I think a lot of teams just want to get the regular season over with and get on to the real season,” Camby said. “It’s nothing to be overly concerned about. I understand George’s position being the coach, but we are all ready to get the playoffs started.”
So poor was Anthony’s performance Saturday night that Artest even offered him some postgame tips on how to improve.
“Anybody that knows basketball, knows that Melo’s got to develop the other aspects of his game,” Karl said. “He’s had (17) consecutive games where he hasn’t had more than five rebounds. He can’t do that when we go to the playoffs, especially if we play a Clippers team, another good rebounding team.
“I thought one of the worst parts of our game (against Sacramento) was our rebounding by our two and three men. Melo, Buck (Greg Buckner) and D.J. (DerMarr Johnson) all take possessions off and cheat out and expect our big guys to get the ball.”
Karl said he liked what Artest had to say.
“I feel like if he’s got something, he should just bring it to me instead of going to you guys (the media),” Anthony said. “I don’t really know what happened. I don’t really know what he means by ‘sending a message.’ We’re trying to win games right now. Everybody needs to throw their egos out the door, just come together and win some games.
“I think I’m the most unselfish basketball player in the NBA.”
For their punishment, Karl scratched Sunday’s practice period and made the players watch the tape of the Sacramento game.
“I told them I had to watch it last night, so you have to watch it today,” Karl said. “My No. 1 trait this season is I think I’ve been more understanding than angry, but it might be time to get angry.”
Yet, as angry as he was, said Karl, he is not overly concerned about the playoffs.
“As I’ve said all year long, we’re OK,” Karl said. “We’re in a good place. We’re not playing great, but we’re in a good place. Whether we win two or lose two (at home against Houston tonight and at Seattle on Wednesday) we’re still in a good place. We have a matchup (against the Clippers or the Memphis Grizzlies) that we can win.
“There’s three teams here, and one of us is going to grow up. That’s exciting. We’re one of three teams that have a chance to grow up in the playoffs and after being here for, what, 12 or 14 months, I’m pretty excited about that.”
Staff writer Adam Thompson contributed to this report.
Staff writer Joseph Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-5458 or jsanchez@denverpost.com.
