Memphis, Tenn. – Having clinched everything there is to clinch, the Nuggets promise not to pull the plug on their play.
Resting players or taking games off is not the plan, says coach George Karl, even though the team’s focus clearly waned in the 133-118 loss to Memphis on Saturday night at FedExForum.
“I told my team we’re going to play these next games, through Monday, and then we might come up with a philosophy after that,” Karl said. “But we’re going to play to win games, we’re going to compete, our rotations aren’t going to change.
“After last year, when we clinched the division, we shut some guys down and we never got them back up. I don’t even know what I’ll do on Wednesday night (against San Antonio). I think we’ll play guys on Wednesday night. I don’t think we want to sit around and do nothing for a whole week. We’re in a good rhythm, playing with good confidence, why change it?”
The Grizzlies did their best to alter some of that in a dizzying fourth quarter in which they put up 38 points, held forward Carmelo Anthony to zero points, and hit Denver with a 33-14 run that was the knockout punch for the Nuggets’ eight-game winning streak.
“We played one end of the court,” Karl said. “We played no defense. We never had the attitude to win the game. … Memphis wanted to win the game more than we did.”
Backing up Karl’s point was the production of a trio of Grizzlies players – guards Tarence Kinsey (career-high tying 28 points) and Chucky Atkins (28 points, 12 assists), and forward Hakim Warrick (20 points, 11 rebounds). And forward Pau Gasol just missed a triple-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Doubly backing up Karl’s point was the fact Memphis outscored the Nuggets in the paint (64-60), outrebounded them (38-35), scored more fast-break points (30-21) and shot 57.8 percent from the field.
“It’s scary to play a team like that,” Nuggets center Marcus Camby said. “They got nothing to play for, so they’re playing loose.”
Still, the Nuggets had the game tied at 95 at the start of the fourth quarter.
“They played great at both ends of the floor,” Nuggets guard Allen Iverson said. “They took advantage of our mistakes.”
Anthony led the team with 28 points. Nene added 22 points and 10 rebounds. No one was ready to say the momentum gained during the win streak was completely halted, but all acknowledged losing hurt to some degree.
“It is an easy game to throw away, but at the same time you want to win,” Anthony said. “Coming in here we wanted to win, and we know we were supposed to win this game. But things happen. It was just one of them nights.”
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
