Portland, Ore. – The Nuggets’ new-look defense was put to the test with 3:50 left in a tight contest.
Down 84-80, they needed stops, and soon.
They didn’t get them.
Portland made plays when it needed them most and gutted out a 100-91 win Wednesday night at the Rose Garden. For the Nuggets, their mistakes and misfortune continued to grow, as the offense struggled, too. On this night mistakes earned Denver a fourth consecutive loss, with another game against these Trail Blazers on tap Friday at the Pepsi Center.
So many aspects of this game were different from when the teams met here Jan. 14. Then, Steve Blake was the star. Wednesday, Blake was nearly invisible. Then, the Nuggets held Portland star forward Zach Randolph to four points on 1-of-12 shooting. Wednesday, Randolph exploded for 26 points and 17 rebounds.
Then, scoring wasn’t a problem. Wednesday, it was.
And that was perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the loss. Of everything the Nuggets have done wrong recently, offense had never been on the list of things to fix. But with 22 points after the first quarter, 42 at halftime and 66 at the end of three quarters, the pace was completely out of whack from what the Nuggets are usually looking for.
“Sometimes when you’re short- handed, guys try to do too much,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “We didn’t play within the team enough. Thirteen assists? I don’t think you win many basketball games (with that). We took way too many forced shots. It didn’t look like we had a lot of guidance at times.”
It was clear the Nuggets missed the production of guard Allen Iverson, who sat out the game with a sprained ankle.
“It is surprising, because we’ve been playing good offense,” Blake said. “Of course we miss Allen. He’s a big part of our offense. Hopefully he comes back and we step it up on both ends of the floor on the same night.”
Denver’s struggles on offense overshadowed a solid, inspired defensive effort – until the fourth quarter, at least.
Portland found baskets hard to come by in a contest filled with fouls (49 combined) and turnovers (37 for the two teams).
“Defensively I thought we played our hearts out,” Karl said. “I thought we battled hard. They got some openings in the fourth quarter, but in general I thought we made improvement in the defensive end of the court, which is one of the goals going in.”
The Trail Blazers, who scored 40 points in the first half, went for 34 in the fourth. Brandon Roy scored 15 of his 25 points in the final period. Randolph had six of his team-high 26 points in the period.
“Those guys made shots,” center Marcus Camby said. “Randolph hit a lot of jump shots. We messed up on a couple of defensive assignments, but he and Roy played great.”
The Nuggets were led by Carmelo Anthony’s 33 points. Camby had 17 points and eight rebounds, and Nene finished with 14 points. They were the only three players to reach double figures on a horrific offensive night.
“We didn’t have a lot of fast breaks,” Karl said. “We didn’t attack the basket like I thought we should have. We just didn’t have any rhythm offensively.”
Staff writer Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
