The Nuggets wore the franchise’s retro uniforms Wednesday night.
They should burn them today.
The Nuggets came out in orange warm-ups and white unis from the old ABA Denver Rockets days. They departed looking like smashed pumpkins and are 1-4 in those Halloween costumes.
In a toxic waste dump kind of game, the Nuggets were at home; they scored fewer than 100 points; the retroactive, uh, retropassive Nuggets acted on defense like the Seattle Super(?)sonics were radioactive; they kept their passes to teammates to a bare minimum; they shot 3-pointers as if their fingers were covered in hot-wing sauce; they never expressed passion or pleasure; they let a team going nowhere get somewhere; and they couldn’t make a play at the end of the fourth quarter. It was a lethal combination, and too typical.
All the goodwill, togetherness and happy thoughts the Nuggets developed on the recent trip to the far East of the NBA went right into the sewer upon their return to Denver.
The Nuggets go back out on the road, west this time, for three games. Good. Get that stuff out of town.
“We didn’t have it tonight,” Carmelo Anthony said.
Runs in the Kroenke family this week. The Avalanche didn’t have it the night before.
“You can’t have games like that, especially on your home court,” Anthony went on.
Well, the Nuggets have had games like that on their home court all season. If they do make the playoffs – and it isn’t a sure thing – the Nuggets would be better off playing all their games in Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas or Tokyo. There is no advantage to being here – given a 19-18 record. They’ve won only three fewer games on the road.
There’s no figuring this bunch. They learned how to play defense recently. They had amnesia Wednesday night. They didn’t play a lick. Just when they had learned how to play team offense, they forgot who was on their side last night.
And after Anthony had reworked his game to participate on defense, to give up the ball to others and to rebound, an imposter showed up last night. Anthony had retro numbers – 28 points, two assists, two rebounds, five turnovers. And the man he was responsible for guarding, Rashard Lewis, finished with 33 points and 10 rebounds.
To be sure, coach George Karl shouldn’t be putting Anthony on the opponents’ best scorer. The coach needs to hide the mellow defender against some weaker linker, like Damien Wilkins.
As Karl admitted, Lewis was hot early and often.
Allen Iverson seemed disinterested throughout the uneventful evening – he spent a few minutes in the fourth quarter on the bench staring at the floor – and ended up with a silent 14 points.
J.R. Smith came off the bench to contribute … Actually, he shouldn’t have come off the bench. Smith couldn’t make a 3-pointer in the pregame shootaround, and that should have been an indicator. He was 2-of-9. Smith realized on the road that he must play defense and distribute to earn playing time. He did. He returned to his old self against Seattle.
On the last play, who shot? J.R. Who else?
With the Nuggets trailing by three, the inbound pass was delivered to Smith beyond the arc, and he took a dribble farther away and threw up a Three Dog Night (awful shot). But, then, the Nuggets were sad from beyond 25 feet (4-of-18) while the Sonics were a crisp 8-of-16. But, then, the Sonics shot 90 percent from the field in the first eight minutes and wound up at 54.8 percent, while the Nuggets looked like they never before had seen this building.
What is with the Nuggets? Who knows? The Suns (the Nuggets’ next and maybe playoff foe) may be scared, but they could be laughing.
The Nuggets are 1-23 when scoring fewer than 100 points, and they lost for the ninth time by four or fewer points.
“Fatigue was definitely a part of tonight’s game,” Karl said. Fatigue illness.
We are tired of the Nuggets giving shoddy performances at home, and we are sick of those uniforms anywhere in public. No more of either.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
