After the Nuggets’ victory Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center, the faithful fans reached over the railing to congratulate the hero, who stormed right passed them, scowling, oblivious to bliss.
“I was angry,” Chauncey Billups said. “I’m happy that we won, but I’m just disappointed with how we won.”
In their 110-109 nail-biter over the Atlanta Hawks, the Nuggets led by eight points with 90 seconds left. Then the Hawks’ Joe Johnson hit a deep 3-pointer. Lead down to five. Denver made two turnovers, Atlanta responded with four points. One. With six seconds left in the game, and the shot clock about to buzz, Billups missed a jumper. At the other end, Flip Murray missed a 14-footer at the final buzzer and 18,418 sighed, pointing their nailless fingers into the air.
“(My disappointment) is just really the sign of a good team,” said Billups, who scored a season-high 33 points. “A lot of teams would have been jumping up in the air and going crazy with this win. But we had this game under control the whole night, but when they got aggressive (late), we got passive. That’s not going to beat the good teams, the top three or four teams in the conference.”
And wouldn’t you know, the top team in the Western Conference is Denver’s next opponent. Wednesday’s win broke the Nuggets’ three-game losing streak, infusing some confidence into the squad before Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“The fourth quarter was not pretty, but it’s a win,” Denver coach George Karl said. “And tomorrow morning when we wake up, it’ll feel like a win. The energy and juice at practice tomorrow, the film study, will all be more positive. We needed to get the win.”
In Monday’s blowout loss to Boston, Billups scored a season-low three points. Heading into Wednesday, he spoke often with teammate Carmelo Anthony about wanting “the guys to feed off my energy out there, and to get some morale going.”
Billups was on a mission all night, Anthony said, tallying assists and swiping passes and attacking the basket like a fullback. Billups followed his season low with his season high, in addition to a team-high seven assists and 17-for-19 shooting at the free-throw line. In the locker room afterward, Billups said, “I can’t believe I missed those two,” and said so with a straight face.
Denver (38-20) trailed 51-45 with four minutes left in the first half. But the Nuggets went on a 15-2 run to end the first half and went on a 9-0 run to start the second half. It seemed like there would be a Sonny Weems sighting in the fourth quarter, but the Hawks (32-25), playing without starters Mike Bibby and Josh Smith, suddenly ascended. Denver committed 10 turnovers in the fourth quarter.
“It was one of those games,” Karl said, “because of the losing streak, and our bodies banged up, you don’t have that solid confidence, I think it took some courage to fight through and win the game.”
As for Anthony, he shot 10-for-16 from the field, an efficient effort for 23 points. One could sense he was feeling it, because he was unafraid to shoot a long two-point shot over Atlanta defenders such as 6-foot-9 Marvin Williams and splash the shot, ho-hum.
But in the end, all of the jumpers from Anthony and the heroics from Billups were almost irrelevant, if Murray’s shot had been 2 inches longer.
Asked if he could believe Denver won the game, Anthony said: “No. But after losing three games, we’ll take it.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
Nuggets Recap
What you might have missed
Nuggets guard J.R. Smith scored 10 points in the fourth quarter (14 total). The rest of the Nuggets scored eight in the fourth quarter. . . . Denver is 18-2 when scoring 110 points or more. . . . Atlanta’s Marvin Williams scored a season-high 31 points. . . . Denver’s Chris Andersen played just 21 minutes but grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds.
Final thought
If NBA games were 49 minutes long, the Nuggets would have lost. But they left the Pepsi Center with a win — and some confidence heading into a big home game Friday night.
Up next
Friday vs. Los Angeles Lakers, 7 p.m.
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
