EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Nets point guard Devin Harris stood in front of Denver’s bench, and the only Nuggets within arm’s reach were wearing warm-ups.
Harris paused as if it was a free throw — in a sense it was — and calmly hit the open 3-pointer, giving his Nets a little breathing room with a 27-point third-quarter lead Saturday.
By the end of the third, the Nuggets trailed 92-55 — alas, not a typo — and they lost 114-70, their worst loss since April 16, 1997.
“We had no energy. Flat. Everybody. It wasn’t just one or two people,” said Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin, whose team hadn’t lost by more than 18 this season. “It makes for a game like that.”
In the second game of a road back-to-back, the Nuggets played like they had Miami on their minds. Now they’re in South Beach, wondering just what the heck went wrong in North Jersey.
“Sometimes you’re one step slow — tonight we might have been two steps slow,” said Nuggets coach George Karl, whose team plays the Heat on Tuesday. “Reaction time. Long rebounds. Hustle points. It was the first time all year that we haven’t had the energy to fight back.”
The Nuggets (34-17) are still in first place. There is still confidence in the locker room. This wasn’t a season-changer, the players insist. As Chauncey Billups said, “To be honest with you, of course I wanted to win, but I’m not disappointed. I’ve been in the league a long time, and you’re going to have three or four of these nights a year, on both sides. It’s over with. Wash it off with the shower.”
Still, they really stunk.
Only one Denver player scored in double figures (Carmelo Anthony, 15 points), and Karl rested his starters in the fourth quarter for the second straight night, though the fourth-quarter bench play wasn’t as peachy as in Friday’s win at Washington.
After three quarters Saturday, Denver had shot just 38.9 percent from the field. In those quarters, Denver tallied totals of 19, 20 and 16 points. (Not to be outdone, the reserves scored just 15 in the fourth). And Karl, Anthony and Billups earned technical fouls.
Give New Jersey credit. As the Nets’ Ryan Anderson (13 points) said, “When guys are diving on the floor, getting deflections and blocking shots, everybody feeds off that.”
But the Nuggets, Karl and some players suggested, were fatigued following a train ride from D.C. that arrived around “four-something,” Martin said. Yes, the Nuggets have won games fatigued. But Saturday, they were just slow-footed and sloppy.
At halftime, when Denver trailed by 20, it had already allowed New Jersey (24-27) to shoot 21 free throws, making 18. When the night was over, the Nets attempted 41, making 32, tying a Nuggets’ opponent season-high. Harris, who scored a game-high 28 points, made 14 of his 17 attempts — at the line, that is.
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
What you might have missed
This was the second- biggest victory in Nets history (124-79 against the Washington Bullets on Jan. 9, 1993). . . . Denver has now lost twice to a team with a sub-.500 record, and this was the first with Chauncey Billups in uniform. The other was the Nov. 5 loss to Golden State, when Denver played without Billups or Allen Iverson, as they waited for the trade to be approved. . . . The Nuggets made 14 free throws. So did the Nets’ Devin Harris. “There was an imbalance to the whistle,” Denver coach George Karl said, “but that wasn’t why we got our butts kicked.” . . . The Nuggets are 2-1 on this road trip heading into the meaty part of the eight-game excursion — at Miami on Tuesday and at Orlando on Wednesday.
Final thought
Only three times have the Nuggets played worse — in franchise history.
Up next
Tuesday at Miami, 5:30 p.m.
