HOUSTON — The Nuggets’ locker room wasn’t as gloomy as one might think after losing to the Houston Rockets. Denver balanced a heartbreaking road loss with the reality of winning three of four games on an important March road trip.
Players sat in folding chairs with smiles. Some cracked jokes. They adjusted iPods to get just the right song playing.
It wasn’t a completely happy locker room after a 125-123 defeat Monday night, but shoulders shrugged and the loss seemed a distant memory just 20 minutes after Aaron Brooks’ game-winning shot for Houston made it a reality.
Defense was a hot topic in the locker room after the loss.
At halftime, players and coaches talked — yelled? — about getting better in transition defense. After the game, media asked if any defense was played what-soever. Two hundred forty-eight combined points suggest the answer was no for both teams.
But it was the Nuggets’ inability to stop Brooks from dribbling to a spot, raising up and hitting a 19-foot jumper with 2.9 seconds left that sealed their first loss since March 1. It snapped the Nuggets’ six-game win streak.
On the other hand, the Rockets denied the ball well enough to create a broken play for Denver’s Carmelo Anthony to try to save the day with a buzzer-beater of his own. His baseline 3-pointer flew long as time expired.
“It was a crazy game,” Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups said. “It seemed like whoever had the ball last was going to win. Our shot just didn’t go down.”
But so many others did.
The game was an ode to 1980s basketball, when offense was en vogue and defense showed up when teams felt like it. Anthony scored 45 points — 35 after starting the game 3-for-10. He went 15-for-25 the rest of the way and also had 10 rebounds, one of three Nuggets to record a double-double. Six of the nine Nuggets who played scored in double figures.
Meanwhile, Houston shot 57 percent from the field, including 43 percent from the 3-point line, and 80 percent from the free-throw line. Nuggets acting coach Adrian Dantley previewed the game by saying Denver needed to hold down Houston’s “Big Three” of Brooks, Kevin Martin and Luis Scola.
Mission not accomplished. Those three combined for 83 points, 19 rebounds and 13 assists.
“We tried not to let the Houston guards penetrate, but they played well,” Dantley said. “We didn’t want to give their guards so many points in the paint.”
Defense had taken a back seat to a high-octane Denver attack during the win streak, but that caught up to the Nuggets early against the Rockets and never let up all night. Houston started 6-of-7 from the field and never looked back.
It was the sixth time in their last eight games that the Nuggets scored 110 points or more. Three of those were 120 or more.
“We have to play better defense to give us a chance to win,” said Nuggets guard Arron Afflalo.
Offense got the Nuggets back into a game they threatened to be blown out of. The Rockets led by as many as 16 points in the first half. But the Nuggets stormed back and led by 11 in the fourth quarter when defense failed them again and allowed Houston to rally and win.
“Of course we wanted to go 4-0, but it was a great road trip for us,” Anthony said. “We took a big leap forward in winning games on the road.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Nuggets Recap
What you might have missed
Joey Graham picked up three fouls early in the second quarter. . . . Chris Andersen left the game with trainer Jim Gillen with 16 seconds left in the third quarter to get a look at a sprained left ankle. He returned to the contest. . . . Johan Petro’s 11 points and 10 rebounds gave him the 10th double-double of his career.
Final thought
This one hurt big, but the road trip still met expectations.
Up next
Tonight vs. Washington, 7 p.m. Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
Washington at Denver
7 p.m. tonight, ALT, 101.9 KKHI FM
Spotlight on Earl Boykins: The NBA nomad guard is on his ninth team, and third since parting ways with the Nuggets in 2007. He is averaging 18.2 minutes and 7.4 points a game coming off the bench for the Wizards. At 5-feet-5, Boykins is the second-shortest player in NBA history.
