George Karl occasionally mentions the basketball gods — no doubt donning orange-rimmed halos and flowing robes designed by Nike — who blessed the Nuggets coach with outstanding bench players.
According to Karl, he has a “top-five bench in the league,” and surely it’s no coincidence that the Nuggets’ record is second-best in the mighty Western Conference. Just like the Celtics last season, the Nuggets hope their versatile and voracious bench will have them thanking the basketball heavens for a long playoff run.
Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni knows of the awesome powers a deep bench can provide. His Phoenix teams, which annually played in May, featured sixth-man award-winner Leandro Barbosa. And before D’Antoni was baptized by basketball deity, he knew of benches that could be seemingly sacrilegious — his 1998-99 Nuggets pine was bolstered by the likes of Cory Alexander, Eric Washington and Carl Herrera.
Which is why D’Antoni said of this year’s Nuggets: “You know all the weapons that are dangerous, like Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups and all that, but probably one of the most important aspects is the bench.”
Indeed, his Knicks recently became another victim of Denver’s resolute reserves.
That night at Pepsi Center, J.R. Smith made four 3-pointers and had the highest plus-minus rating of any player on the court. Point guard Anthony Carter played just 23 minutes and tallied eight assists. Forward Linas Kleiza shot 6-for-10 from the field in 16 minutes. And Chris Andersen, Denver’s big “Bird,” blocked two shots in 17 minutes — not bad, until one considers that in the next nine nights, he’d have games with seven and eight blocks.
“The four of us in the rotation, we bring a whole different demeanor to the game,” said Carter, who was the starting point guard last season but moved to the bench when Billups arrived in November. “The starters come out, run the plays and do all their good things, and then we come in and do all the dirty work — the cleanup crew.
“We come out and play hard and just have fun, and I think that’s what the fans like to see — five guys out there in the second unit, running, getting the crowd into it, with J.R. clapping and ‘Bird’ doing his thing (with his arms flapped like wings). I love playing with the bench.”
A closer look at the Fab Four:
J.R. Swish
Entering the weekend, Denver ranked fourth league-wide in bench scoring with 33.6 points per game, less than a point behind Golden State and Portland, with Dallas leading at 38.2.
The Nuggets’ numbers are plump, in part, because of the brazen, blistering shooting of Smith. The dude lights it up. He’s averaging a career-high 15.0 points per game, including 131 3-pointers as a reserve. Only four NBA reserves have made more.
“He is a guy that can come in, and if he heats up, he’s one of the best players in the NBA,” Jazz guard Deron Williams said after Smith smoked Utah with eight 3s this month. “He has unlimited range. He got them going. He got their confidence up.”
Smith, who has made 168 3-pointers this season, can drive coaches crazy with erratic shooting and defensive lapses, but he can also drive to the basket like a NASCAR champ in traffic, or pull up so fast on a break he could send a text before shooting a jumper.
Sure, the guy would like to start, and Karl has put him in that role on occasion, but Smith simply dominates second units off the bench, and he spreads out an opponent’s defense in the fourth quarter, which is much to the Nuggets’ advantage.
“He is the perfect guy coming off the bench — somebody that is that explosive and putting numbers on the board,” Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. “He can break the game wide-open.”
Shot-blocking wings
Denver’s defensive complement to Smith’s offense is Andersen, the center with a penchant for shot blocks and faux-hawks. When the Nuggets signed Andersen last summer, they knew they’d get a guy with a chip on his shoulder (he was suspended by the NBA two years for drug use). Little did they know he would shoulder the load Denver lost when Marcus Camby was traded to the Clippers during the offseason.
Andersen is second in the league with 2.4 blocks per game, an incredible accomplishment considering he averages just 20.5 minutes per game. And, his teammates feed off “Birdman” and his enthusiasm.
“When Chris comes in the game, we’re much better defensively,” Karl said. “I’ve actually kind of pondered starting Chris, but we don’t because we want him off the bench — the energizer and the rock of the second team.”
A.C. — defensive ace
Karl’s first NBA head coaching job was in 1984, and of all the players Karl has coached, none are better at late-game perimeter pressure than Carter. Even though he’s just 6-feet-2, he routinely gets his hand in a shooter’s startled face. Sometimes in the fourth quarter, Karl will make substitutions after each possession, putting Carter in on defense, Smith in on offense.
Carter can provide some offense — he has a knack for knocking down midrange jumpers, especially in catch-and-shoot situations. But most important, he cherishes assists. In 23.0 minutes per game, he averages 4.7 assists, the most of any NBA player who averages less than 24 minutes.
“There was that stretch of games that A.C. missed (with an injury) and we were kind of lost,” Karl said. “We weren’t getting anything out of the bench and we were kind of cussing everybody — ‘What the (expletive) is going on?’ It was basically because we missed A.C.’s leadership and his ability to motivate.”
One frightening facet of Carter’s game is his inopportune turnovers. He averages nearly two per game and 4.1 per 48 minutes, ninth-highest in the NBA. But he is also ninth in the NBA with 2.6 steals per 48 minutes, which can cancel out some offensive sloppiness.
Lithuanian lightning
Many expected this to be a breakout season for Kleiza. But his frustration after October contract extension talks fell through has rattled him much of the season, Karl has said on occasion. Kleiza averages 9.8 points in this, his fourth year, after averaging 11.1 a year ago.
It’s been a peaks-and-valley season, with his latest stretch a high point. In the past seven games, he’s averaged 12.4 points, including 22 points against Golden State on March 28, his biggest output since Jan. 20.
“Regrouping his confidence is good,” Karl said. “There will be a role for L.K. in any playoff series that we have.”
Kleiza’s defensive inconsistency is the aspect Karl is most wary about. Offensively, no other Nugget runs the floor better than L.K. And once on offense, the 6-8 forward can score from the arc if his shot has the proper arc, or he can bulldoze into the paint.
Kleiza’s versatility, it seems, is a microcosm of the Nuggets’ entire bench, which as D’Antoni said, “can change a game real quick.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
