OAKLAND, Calif. — The crowd chants “Defense! Defense!” sometimes at Oracle Arena. And every time it happens, there’s an April Fools feel to it.
The fact of the matter is, at an average of 105 points allowed, defense is not just optional for Golden State, it’s nonexistent. But none of that matters when the opponent is willing to take a perfectly nice NBA game and turn it into a hybrid scrimmage-And1 contest.
Hello, Nuggets.
The Nuggets lost 116-114 on Wednesday night to the Warriors, their third loss in the last four games. They made certain the Warriors had more than enough points to get it done. Golden State had 34 after one quarter, 70 at halftime and 100 after three quarters.
“The first half was an offensive display, I thought, by both teams that gave the home team a little too much confidence,” Nuggets coach George Karl said.
The Warriors shot 51.1 percent from the field, 50 percent from 3-point range and had 38 fastbreak points. In other words, the Warriors scored in the half court. They scored full court. They scored in the pick-and-roll and in isolation. They read the porous Nuggets defense and reacted with an onslaught of baskets.
The Nuggets are off to a sluggish 2-3 start in February.
They did make this one close in the fourth, forcing Golden State to make plays. But it was the Nuggets who failed to make the right decisions down the stretch.
The end of the game was a head-scratcher. With eight seconds remaining — and two timeouts in hand — the Nuggets rushed the ball up the court, never got it into the hands of Carmelo Anthony, and only got a Nene long baseline shot at the buzzer. It missed, Melo was miffed, and the Nuggets walked off the court with a loss and a million questions as to why the end went down the way it did.
“We had numbers. I thought the best thing to try to do was score without their defense being set. Ty hasn’t been there before. I thought he had a great opportunity to attack the rim and kind of deferred to Nene and got a good shot, (but) we didn’t get a great shot,” Karl said. “I’ve always liked pushing that play. It didn’t work tonight.”
“That was the first time I went through that situation,” Lawson said. “Normally, somebody calls a timeout. But we had the momentum. We just didn’t convert at the end.”
Anthony finished with 29 points to lead the Nuggets. Nene was 6-for-6 from the field until the last shot, and added 17 points. Al Harrington, playing his most energized game in a while, added 18.
Stopping Monta Ellis was a problem for the Nuggets. The scattershot guard lit up the scoreboard for 37 points, and just about every starter enjoyed success on offense. Reggie Williams provided punch off the bench for Golden State with 18 points.
The Nuggets return to action tonight against Dallas.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Nuggets Recap
What you might have missed
Chauncey Billups strolled out of the locker room with 6:51 in the third and shook hands with Golden State’s Lou Amundson, a Monarch High product, on his way to the Nuggets’ bench. . . . With 18 points, Golden State’s Reggie Evans averages 17.0 against the Nuggets, the most for him against any team.
Final thought
Even a teensy bit of defense might have resulted in a Nuggets win.
Up next
Tonight vs. Dallas, 8:30 p.m. Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
Dallas at Denver
8:30 p.m. tonight, TNT, 950 AM
Spotlight on Tyson Chandler: If he was a tad more consistent, Tyson Chandler might find himself in the All-Star Game. The Mavericks center has experienced a rebirth of sorts in Dallas, where, for a change, the injuries have been held to a minimum and his play has risen to resemble some of his most effective seasons with the Hornets. A terror on the glass, Chandler is averaging 10.3 points and 9.6 rebounds this season.
