BOSTON — In basketball, four-letter words fly through the air like alley-oops, but no word is more obscene than the one Carmelo Anthony used Wednesday night to describe the Nuggets:
Soft.
“Right now, we’re just playing soft, I guess, just soft basketball,” Melo said after Denver’s 113-99 loss to the Boston Celtics, the Nuggets’ third straight defeat. “We’re not known for being like that.”
With Kenyon Martin injured and coach George Karl back in Denver, fighting demons worse than the Mavericks and Jazz, the Nuggets are slowly unraveling at the worst possible time. Yes, Wednesday’s game was the second of an East Coast back-to-back set, but clumped with the lethargic losses to the Bucks and Knicks, that’s a terrible trio — heading into three roads games against Toronto, Orlando and Dallas.
“It’s most certainly tough playing without your head coach, without your leader and the guy with the biggest presence and voice on the team,” Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups said. “At the same time, this is the cards we’ve been dealt. Nobody special’s going to be walking through the door. We’ve just got to man-up and get ourselves through it.”
There was some good news Wednesday about Karl, who is undergoing intense treatment for throat and neck cancer. Karl’s life partner, Kim Van Deraa, blogged at that the coach “is feeling much better — they ended up doing three separate procedures to help dissolve the clots in his leg. Before his procedure yesterday morning, he was trying to scam information out of the doctor’s colleagues so he could use the information on them at some point down the road — that is how I know he was getting back to himself!! He was also being very goofy (in a good way) which is a good sign. . . . They need to keep him one more night to make sure his blood levels are sufficient before releasing him. We are looking forward to going home!!!”
As for Karl’s Nuggets (47-25), they’re now tied with Utah for third in the West, each half a game behind Dallas. And the surging Suns are in fifth, just 1 1/2games behind Denver and Utah.
Yes, Martin has created a low-post void, but the Celtics entered Wednesday dead last in the NBA in offensive rebounds (8.5 per game). Boston had 17 against the Nuggets, along with 58 points in the paint.
“They had way too many paint points, again, like every team against us,” Billups said. “It’s becoming like a trademark, and that’s something that scares me. If you let anybody shoot that many times in the paint, they’re going to shoot a great percentage.”
In the third quarter, Nene picked up his first foul less than two minutes in and the Nuggets nearly flat-lined — Boston led 81-60 at one point. But the Nuggets climbed back and when J.R. Smith sank an off-balance buzzer- beater, Denver trailed by just seven entering the fourth quarter. But Boston (46-25) pulled away with ease.
Smith bounced back from an awful night with an awesome one. He hit 8-of-14 shots and scored 21 points off the bench. Anthony scored a team-high 32 points.
But perhaps acting Nuggets head coach Adrian Dantley described the night best.
“They outhustled us,” he said of the Celtics.
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
Nuggets Recap
What you might have missed
The Nuggets raised their assist number to 21 — after two games of 13 and 15 — but they also had 17 turnovers (they average 14.3). . . . Adrian Dantley is 5-4 this season as the Nuggets’ acting head coach. . . . The Nuggets’ biggest lead Wednesday was one point.
Final thought
Back-to-back games, yes, but a frustrating effort from the low post.
Up next
Friday at Toronto, 5 p.m.
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
