Dallas – Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony woke up in his W Hotel bed feeling like Saturday night “was going to be one of them nights.”
Maybe the Nuggets should have heeded Anthony’s prediction and stayed in their “Heavenly Beds” instead of crossing the street to the American Airlines Center.
Denver scored a season-low in points and several other categories in a 105-90 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. The previous low for the Nuggets, who entered the game averaging 109.9 points, was 95 against the Los Angeles Clippers in the season opener Nov. 2. Denver also had season lows with a .384 shooting percentage (33-of-86) and 15 assists.
“Bad defense. Bad offense. Bad everything,” said Nuggets guard Andre Miller, who had two assists.
Anthony scored 18 points. He entered the game averaging an NBA-best 31.7 points, but missed 18-of-26 shots and shot only two free throws in nearly 35 minutes. Anthony’s season low of 15 points was in the season opener, when he was ejected in the third quarter.
“(The Mavericks) made it tough on me tonight,” Anthony said. “Shots I normally make I didn’t make. It’s nothing to put my head down about.”
The Nuggets (11-7) have lost two of their past three games and play their next four games on the road. Dallas (14-6) has won six of the past seven against Denver here.
Just a night earlier, the Nuggets beat the visiting NBA champion Miami Heat 123-107. Denver didn’t arrive in Dallas until about 3 a.m. Central time. Coach George Karl and some Nuggets viewed fatigue as an issue against the Mavericks.
“I wasn’t tired,” said Denver guard J.R. Smith, who had 18 points. “But overall as a team, everybody was tired.”
Dallas guard Greg Buckner, an ex-Nugget, said: “Their game didn’t start until 8:30 last night and then they lost an hour flying back to Dallas. You have to take advantage of those opportunities and we did that.”
The Nuggets were down 41-25 at the end of the first quarter after allowing the Mavericks to shoot 68 percent. Anthony made 2-of-7 shots and had four points and two fouls in the first quarter. Dallas’ total in the first quarter was a season high, while Denver had zero fast-break points.
The Nuggets were outscored 21-16 in the second quarter after missing 15-of-21 shots and were down 62-41 at halftime. Anthony missed 4-of-5 shots in the second quarter and had six points at halftime.
“Dallas is good,” Nuggets forward-center Nene said. “They were scoring on us in the first half. A team like Dallas, you have to come for real.”
The Nuggets outscored Dallas 29-21 in the third quarter, but were still down 83-70. And for an encore in the fourth quarter, Denver shot 27.8 percent (5-of-18), missed all four 3-point attempts and had one assist.
“We didn’t pass the ball,” Karl said. “We didn’t trust the pass enough. We forced way too many shots.”
Staff writer Marc J. Spears can be reached at 303-954-1098 or mspears@denverpost.com.
