SALT LAKE CITY — During Saturday’s Nuggets-Jazz game, Kenyon Martin suffered a mild concussion.
The rest of the Nuggets had no excuse.
Denver played discombobulated defense against — Allen Iverson’s words — the best half-court offense in the NBA. The result was an obliteration: Utah 132, Denver 105.
“When we don’t match the level of intensity, we struggle — especially defensively,” said Nuggets coach George Karl, whose team was playing the second game of a back-to-back, as was Utah. “We had a game going where we were going to score enough points to win, but we never got any confidence on the defensive end.”
Saturday was as deflating as Friday was uplifting. The Nuggets (37-25) defeated the defending champion Spurs at the Pepsi Center, but 24 hours later they canceled it out, losing an important game, which was essentially over by halftime.
Utah entered the night with a three-game lead over Denver in the Northwest Division. The Jazz (42-22) gained a whole game on Denver, and the teams play each other just once more — here in Utah, where the Jazz has the NBA’s best home record (28-3). Moreover, Denver fell two games behind Golden State in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
“It’s frustrating, disappointing, whatever word you can think of,” said Martin, who played just nine minutes and will be reevaluated today. “The way the West is, you can’t afford a showing like this. But it happened.”
Here’s how it happened: Denver played indecisive defense. It knew that Utah’s Deron Williams is a dynamic point guard, and he can get to the basket Stockton-fast. But if you double-team Williams, then that leaves a gunslinger open. Denver couldn’t seem to make up its mind, and on one play, Williams would slice the lane for a layup, and the next play, he tallied one of his game-high 16 assists.
With the power forward Martin out of the lineup for the final three quarters, Karl said Denver was “overly protecting the rim with our lack of size.”
The result (hide your eyes if you’d like) was 11 Utah 3-pointers on 15 attempts. That’s 73.3 percent, which was not only higher than Utah’s overall field-goal percentage (60.2) but Utah’s free-throw percentage, too (70.0).
The Jazz shooters were open often. Mehmet Okur, for instance, had time to wave to his mom before popping a 3-pointer. He made all six 3-point attempts in the first three quarters, missing a meaningless 3 in the fourth quarter to taint his otherwise perfect night. Okur, the roving center, finished 9-of-11 from the field for a team-high 27 points. Frontcourt mate Carlos Boozer scored 23 on 10-of-15 shooting.
Let’s review. The Jazz starting frontcourt combined for 50 points on 73 percent shooting.
The Nuggets had little offensive rhythm, and they trailed by eight after the first quarter, 23 at the half and 33 after three.
“It’s important for us to take the positive things we did in here tonight — what little positive things there were — to San Antonio (on Monday),” said Iverson, who scored a game-high 28. “The important thing is to stay together and concentrate.”
Nuggets Recap
What you might have missed
The Nuggets have now lost the second game of a back-to-back for the sixth straight time. And they have lost those games by an average of 15.1 points. J.R. Smith continued to play well, scoring 16 off the bench on 7-of-12 shooting. Utah made eight 3-pointers in the first half against Denver, which tied a Jazz franchise record. Utah center Mehmet Okur made four 3-pointers in the second quarter.
Final thought
Utah is a tough place to play for any team — especially if said team plays light switch defense.
Up next
At San Antonio, Monday, 6:30 p.m.
