The fans chant for defense, and sometimes they get it. But with these Nuggets, for a variety of reasons, much of the time they don’t.
And that can turn even an offensively challenged team such as the Memphis Grizzlies into something similar to the Phoenix Suns.
So the Grizzlies ran, jumped and shot their way to a 108-96 win Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center over the listless Nuggets, a victory that coach George Karl could see coming earlier in the day and one that Carmelo Anthony wasn’t surprised to see given, his team’s lackluster pregame warm-up.
“We basically didn’t play Nuggets basketball,” Karl said. “We didn’t play any ‘D.’ … Defensively, we didn’t ever get into trying to stop people. We just thought we could outscore people – and we weren’t running.”
Tuesday afternoon, Karl said he was worried about what might happen later that night. The Nuggets do not always play with energy at home, and the Grizzlies had not yet won on the road.
Memphis not only got its first victory away from home, it snapped Denver’s five-game winning streak and ended a 17-game losing streak to the Nuggets in Denver, dating to 1997. Memphis never had won a game at the Pepsi Center until Tuesday night.
Forward Hakim Warrick’s 25 points were a large reason for the win.
Warrick, a teammate of Anthony’s for their national championship run at Syracuse in 2003, said he “told (Anthony) that we are a lot better than our record showed. We’ve been in pretty much every game. We’ve played a tough schedule.”
Said Anthony: “He was a big part of their team. Down the stretch, they kept going to him. He was hot.”
For what it was worth, the Nuggets started fast, at one point holding a 23-12 lead before the Grizzlies reeled them in. Of its 106 points, Memphis scored 91 from the second quarter on.
“I think we got complacent with our lead,” Anthony said. “We settled down and stopped attacking and stopped running the way we were doing in the first quarter.”
Karl was less kind.
“It’s disappointing to me on the home court,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s been on this home court. It just bothers me that we’re not more focused and more demanding of our performance.”
The loss was the largest margin of defeat for the Nuggets this season. They were held to 16 points in the fourth quarter, shot just 59 percent from the free- throw line, and were held to fewer than 100 points for the third time this season.
In the process, the Nuggets wasted Anthony’s season high-tying 37 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. On the other hand, Karl suspected one of the many problems against Memphis was other Nuggets standing around and watching the NBA’s No. 2 scorer.
“We just relaxed,” Nuggets guard Andre Miller said. “You can’t relax in this league.”
Teammate J.R. Smith had another theory.
“There was a lot of snow, and a lot of people didn’t come out,” he said. “It was a slow day for everybody.”
Staff writer Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
