Et tu, Nene?
It was the Ides of March, 1978, when Nuggets star Bobby Jones set a team record for most baskets without a miss. Almost 31 years later, Nene equaled that effort, making all 12 shots Sunday night in Denver’s 117-97 victory, an important one against division rival Utah at the Pepsi Center.
After the game, the big man flashed his big grin, proclaiming his utter surprise that he had pitched a perfect game.
“I try to set screens, get good position to help the team — and finish hard,” said Nene, who scored 28 points, tying a career-high from 2006-07. “We played hard from beginning to end — a beautiful victory.”
Indeed, it was. Denver (29-15) lost a game to Utah this season, so now the teams are tied in the season series heading into potential crucial meetings at the Jazz on March 6 and back at the Pepsi Center on April 2.
Today, the Nuggets are 4 1/2 games ahead of Utah (25-20) and 2 1/2 ahead of Portland (26-17) in the Northwest Division.
Yes, the Jazz has fallen behind, but everyone knows what it’s capable of when healthy. Fortunately for Denver, it was not Sunday. Carlos Boozer, the imposing post, is out until late February after knee surgery. In the season opener, which Utah won thanks to a bruising Boozer, Nene had just 11 points and four rebounds. In Sunday’s game, Nene had five offensive rebounds alone, nine total.
He hit the game’s first shot — a 15-foot jumper, followed by a 20-footer for his second shot. From then, it was a flurry of finger rolls and a couple of monster mashes, with two 7-foot hooks mixed in for fun.
“I think the efficiency of his touches are pretty good — both on the post-ups and running (in transition). And we find him, getting him in the (pick-and-)roll game,” Denver coach George Karl said. “I thought J.R. (Smith) found him a couple times. It seemed like they had a little bit of a connection.”
Indeed, five of Smith’s six assists were to Nene, and the passes were good bets to make the stat sheet — Nene leads the NBA in field-goal percentage, which is now up to 61.3, thanks to his dazzling dozen.
Smith, as always, launched a bunch of jumpers, and on this night, a lot of them went in. Smith finished 8-for-14 for 22 points, 16 in the first half.
It was the Nuggets’ outside shooting that buried the Jazz. After three quarters, they were 8-for-20 from 3-point range and led 91-77.
But don’t discount Denver’s defense. The Nuggets played tough after spending much of the week working on different defensive schemes.
Karl said Denver “fixed some holes” and did a good job in the final three quarters of keeping the Jazz from getting easy layups. The Jazz shot just 40.5 percent from the field and made only three 3s.
Understand that the Jazz, not only banged up, was beat up the previous night at home by LeBron James and Cleveland. But as Utah guard Deron Williams said: “There are no excuses in basketball. Every team has to play back-to-backs.”
Said Utah coach Jerry Sloan, who had defeated the Nuggets in 10 of the past 13 meetings, “They did a great job at knocking us down.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
Nuggets Recap
What you might have missed
The victory was George Karl’s 200th as Nuggets coach, making him one of three coaches in franchise history with at least that many wins, joining fellow North Carolina Tar Heels Doug Moe (432) and Larry Brown (251).
Final thought
The victory was a great statement — Denver can win by finding different contributors and by balancing outside and inside ball movement. Denver has often struggled against Utah, so it was nice to see the Nuggets rise to the challenge.
Up next
Tuesday at Memphis, 6 p.m.
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
