LOS ANGELES — The fourth quarter.
It’s the 12 minutes of the game when execution needs to be at its peak. When focus must be at its sharpest.
The Nuggets are desperately looking for those.
Because, execution in fourth quarters has become one of the biggest sore spots on the team right now. It was again in a 102-98 loss to the L.A. Clippers on Monday night at the Staples Center.
Their seventh straight defeat was nailed shut when Clippers guard Jamal Crawford simply took over and lifted his team to victory. He scored 21 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth, pushing the Clippers past the Nuggets, who by all rights played one of their better games of the season.
“He was huge,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said. “His scoring is unbelievable. It can come in a second.”
In a blink of an eye, Crawford, who had done nothing for three quarters, heated up. And just like that, the Nuggets, who had held him to two points on 1-of-6 shooting in the first three quarters, were helpless to stop him.
“In the fourth quarter I thought we fell asleep a few times when he was off the ball, and he was able to get some clean looks coming off of picks shooting the ball,” Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said.
Nuggets guard Arron Afflalo said “I let him get away on one or two.”
It ruined an otherwise solid game.
Nuggets Mailbag:
For a most of Monday night, the Nuggets played with precision, determination and an amount of energy that belied the fact they had just played a game the night before.
But the one essential aspect of winning that has been missing for the last couple of weeks again ran and hid from the Nuggets: the ability to make plays at the critical moments.
“We have to develop some killer instinct,” Shaw said.
This will be placed in the Nuggets’ ever-growing pile of stinging defeats. It is a pile that has near misses spread throughout. It is a pile that has “only if” losses that have haunted the team all season long and make up a good number of the 27 defeats the Nuggets have accumulated this season.
The Nuggets have lost eight games by five points or less this season.
The game had many nail-biting moments. The Nuggets never faded out, forcing the Clippers to make big plays — and some lucky ones to get the win.
The most fortunate?
Forward Matt Barnes’ layup with 1:24 to play. That ended a play that started with an outlet pass that was too long to Jamal Crawford, who saved it from going out of bounds when he reached out and tossed it behind his back to no one in particular. Barnes was there to corral the pass and lay it in, giving the Clippers a two-point lead.
The crowd sprang to life.
The Nuggets had to answer.
But Wilson Chandler’s jump shot missed with 1:05 left.
The Nuggets, however, did have a chance to tie, with the ball down three points with nine seconds left. The Clippers opted to foul rather than let the Nuggets get off a 3-point attempt. Darrell Arthur made two free throws with 6.7 seconds left. The Nuggets fouled Crawford. He made 1-of-2, but the Clippers got the offensive rebound and Crawford was fouled again with 1.7 left.
Two makes, and the game was over.
“They made good basketball plays and we didn’t,” Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler said. “They made the hustle plays, the game-winning plays, and we didn’t.”
The Nuggets were led by Ty Lawson’s 19 points and 11 assists. Chandler had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Arron Afflalo finished with 18 points and six assists.
