To those who showed up at the Pepsi Center to watch, the team on the court Wednesday night didn’t match the one they’ve seen on television.
The television Nuggets of a recent five-game road trip had life, swagger – and defense. The three-dimensional Nuggets didn’t have energy or swagger or much of anything resembling the “good” basketball they said they left the road playing. And they paid for it with a loss to one of the Western Conference’s worst teams, record-wise.
What Seattle did have was Rashard Lewis and a deft team touch from the field – enough to beat the Nuggets, 100-97, on the second night of back-to-back games for the Sonics.
“We didn’t have it tonight,” Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony said. “There were times when we showed some fight and went out there with a lot of energy, then there were times when we didn’t have any energy. You can’t have games like that, especially not on your own court against a hungry team like Seattle. Despite their losing record, they are still going to come in here and try to fight and win the game.”
With the Nuggets down 99-97, Anthony passed on a chance to win the game by himself, dishing the ball under duress to Linas Kleiza, who missed a 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds left. Lewis then made 1-of-2 free throws with 2.1 seconds left, and the Nuggets’ J.R. Smith missed a 3-point attempt to tie at the buzzer.
The loss was the Nuggets’ third in their last four games and dropped their record to .500 (35-35) the same night Utah wrapped up the Northwest Division with a win over Minnesota. The Nuggets must stave off challengers to the seventh playoff position, and lead the L.A. Clippers by just 1 1/2 games.
Anthony led the Nuggets with 28 points; Nene added 17 points and 13 rebounds. The Sonics, who beat Minnesota in the first of their back-to-backs, were led by a game-high 33 points and 10 rebounds from Lewis. Seattle shot 54.8 percent from the field, which made up for turning the ball over 23 times, leading to 35 Denver points.
“I thought the personality of tonight’s team was soft defense, not passing, and turnovers,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “Fatigue was definitely part of tonight’s game.”
Denver is 5-16 in games decided by 10 points or fewer.
“There’s no excuse,” Kleiza said. “We kind of came out flat, we didn’t have that energy that we need to have, and they just took advantage of it.”
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
