MIAMI — When a team scores 88 points, there generally aren’t too many bright spots, and there weren’t Friday with Denver, except for Carmelo Anthony (per usual), Ty Lawson and Arron Afflalo.
Afflalo, the Nuggets’ reserve forward, scored 18 points in 29 minutes, playing stingy defense at times. Coach George Karl enjoys using Afflalo off the bench, because he looks at Afflalo as a hybrid of the skills Dahntay Jones and Linas Kleiza brought a year ago.
“The one thing we did say at the end of last year was we had too many one-dimensional players,” Karl said. “Too many guys who the other team knew were either an offensive player or defensive player. Arron gives us a lot more balance there. I’m not saying he’s as good as Dahntay defensively, but he’s pretty good defensively, and he’s definitely much better offensively.”
Afflalo’s best play was in the second quarter Friday, when Denver was actually still in the game against Miami. Afflalo swiped a pass, drove down the court, jumped into the air and made a midair adjustment around Michael Beasley for the layup.
No flash in pan.
Asked where he ranks Dwyane Wade among the best NBA players, Karl said of the Miami guard: “He’s one to five on any given day he’s playing. Some days, he’s the best, other days he’s four or five. He’s wonderful. I’ve always enjoyed watching guards play the game, but I think he might be one of my favorite players to watch on film. He has a spirit to him, a bounce to him and electricity to him that very few players have.”
Against Karl’s Nuggets, Wade played pretty well (22 points), and did most of his damage at the free-throw line, where he was 10-for-12.
They said it.
“I wouldn’t have a job if (Chauncey Billups) wasn’t in Denver. I would have been fired by January.” — Karl
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
