Back-to-backs are an easy excuse for a loss. They are rough with late-night flights, draining games the night before, and the request that players amp up the energy again sometimes less than 24 hours later in effort to win.
But the elite teams win anyway, particularly when the second game is against an inferior opponent. The Nuggets are on a shortlist of NBA Finals contenders. These games are musts. Friday night, the Nuggets treated the game that way in a hard-fought 107-102 victory over the Pistons.
A day earlier, the Nuggets had their legs run ragged in Oakland, scoring 127 points at Golden State. The toll was apparent in a slow start, but the team kept its wit and composure and walked away with an important victory with Utah still breathing down the Nuggets’ backs.
Chauncey Billups simply wouldn’t let the Nuggets fade. In a display that the Pistons have surely seen time and again when he wore the blue-and-red, Billups took over in the fourth. He scored 10 points in the period, including five in a 9-2 run that took a 93-93 game and turned it into a 102-95 Nuggets lead with 1:36 left. He finished with a team-high 25 points, while Carmelo Anthony add 24.
It took time for the Nuggets to get their legs under them — they started 3-for-10 from the field — but things started to come together in the second quarter.
Joey Graham was active in the halfcourt and running the court, scoring eight of 12 points in a run that erased a seven-point deficit at the end of the first quarter and gave the Nuggets a 34-33 lead. Graham scored 11 points in the second.
In the second half, every time the Nuggets started to separate, the Pistons came storming back. A modest 77-71 lead with 40.7 seconds left in the third was chopped to two by quarter’s end.
The fourth was equally as nail-biting. Leads were exchanged as both teams played with energy and a sense of urgency. Billups three-point play with 6:31 left gave the Nuggets a 91-86 lead, setting up the final frantic minutes.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
