Chauncey Billups is often the closer, but his most reliable role — albeit not as “SportsCenter” sexy — is as the set-up man.
They say basketball games are won in the fourth quarter, but the Nuggets guard often wins them in the third quarter, statistically his best. Take Wednesday’s win against Orlando. Denver trailed by three points at the half, but by the end of the third Denver led by 13. In those 12 minutes, Billups scored 12 points, the same total he scored in the first half.
Billups averages 17.9 points per game, which ranks 34th in the NBA, but in the third quarter, Mr. Big Shot averages exactly seven points, which ranks seventh in third-quarter scoring.
“The first half, it’s not that I’m not shooting at all, but I’m looking to see how they’re playing certain plays and when I can break off the play and when not,” said Billups, who averaged 9.5 third-quarter points in the past four games since returning from injury. “And then at halftime, when I can watch back and watch a couple plays on film, I can be more aggressive and say, ‘This is what I’m going to get on this play, this is where my opportunity opens up.’ “
Generally, assistant coach John Welch will leave the bench with a minute or so left in the second quarter and scurry to the locker room. There, he and video assistants prepare snippets from the first half for the team.
“Coach shows what (the opponent) is giving up,” Billups’ backup, Ty Lawson, said, “and Chauncey does exactly what they’re giving him — either make a shot or get into the paint. He gets us started in the third quarter. If he doesn’t get started, it’s hard for us to get going.”
Lawson sounded confident after Friday’s practice that he will be able to play on his injured ankle, though nothing is definite. Lawson seemed ready to play on Wednesday, but didn’t.
Still scoring.
Kenyon Martin thrived offensively when Carmelo Anthony was injured, but coach George Karl believes the power forward can still be a “double-double guy. Sometimes that’s 19 points, other times that’s 11-12. And his rebounding has been huge.”
Consider this: In the past 10 games (only five in which Anthony was out), Martin had eight double-doubles. And in the two games he didn’t, he missed once by one rebound and the other time by two points. Martin averages 11.5 points and 8.8 rebounds this season, but in the past 10 games he’s averaged 15.4 and 11.8.
“A lot of his points are harmful points because they’re from offensive rebounds and layups,” Karl said. “There’s a power for us to score around the basket, which he’s added to. When we lost Melo’s paint touches, we haven’t dropped a lot because of Kenyon’s touches in the paint.”
