Before the lost weekend in Salt Lake City, Adrian Dantley was asked how he’d know if his team was ready to play in its NBA playoff series on the road.
The Nuggets’ interim coach mentioned things such as energy and passing the basketball, but he never spoke of sustaining those qualities over 48 minutes, or of not giving up on those tactics, even when they appeared to be working.
That oversight isn’t really why Denver finds itself on the brink of elimination in the opening-round, best-of-seven series, but does at least partially explain why the Nuggets appear lost heading into Game 5 on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center.
The Nuggets opened Game 3 and Game 4 of the series like they meant business, leading by 11 points early in Game 3 and by eight points early in Game 4. But it seemed it was at that point when Denver became satisfied, as if showing it could play that way was good enough. That proved a prelude to what guard J.R. Smith tweeted Monday as “selfish” performances.
After a brief film session Monday afternoon, veteran guard Chauncey Billups argued that any change in the Nuggets’ style wasn’t a matter of being selfish, but rather, the nature of playoff basketball.
“We do some of the things that we’ve talked about it the locker room, but over the course of a game, teams make adjustments — they try to stop some of the things that we’re doing, just like we try to stop some of the things that they do,” Billups said. “We have a style that we like to play, running up and down, and they’re a half-court basketball team.
“The half-court team is winning right now; you can look at any series and whoever’s winning the series, you can safely say that that team is imposing its will on the other.”
There are at least a couple of factors to the Nuggets’ lack of a transition game. The one Billups points to is the large number of fouls called in this series, an average of more than 55 per game.
“(Utah) is in the bonus so early,” he said. “Every time the whistle blows, they’re on the free-throw line, and you can’t run from the free-throw line. It’s tough to run when you’re taking it out of the net every time.”
And the Nuggets have gotten used to taking it out of the net. Utah is shooting nearly 52 percent from the field in the series, with only two players who are drawing regular minutes under 50 percent — C.J. Miles and Wesley Matthews.
A high percentage of those baskets are inside the paint; the Jazz finishing with 44 and 54 points, respectively, in the last two games. That speaks to the Nuggets’ glaring lack of an inside presence, and what little Denver is getting out of Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen down low. Both men are trying to play through injuries; Martin has the knee issue that kept him out of 18 of the Nuggets’ last 21 regular-season contests, and Andersen has been bothered by assorted in-juries all season.
“I’m doing all I can do, giving all I can, my knee hurts and my (left) hand is all jacked up,” Andersen said Monday. “I’m trying to make my presence felt and use the fouls that I have, but it’s frustrating.”
Without being able to get easy points on the break, the Nuggets have been forced to grind it out in half-court sets, which is not their strength. Utah, however, delights in its half-court, pick-and-roll game.
Denver had just 25 assists in the past two games, compared with Utah’s 51. On Monday however, Billups argued that trying to compare Utah’s numbers with Denver’s was like looking at apples and oranges.
“We’re not a high-volume assist team like Utah is,” Billups said. “They’re going to have 25, 30 assists most nights because of the system they have in place. Our plays are more isolations, and you can’t get a lot of assists like that.
“I don’t think we’re being selfish. I just don’t think it’s a high-assist system.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
