This was to be the night the Nuggets finally had to deal with Anthony Davis, the New Orleans star who has made a habit of ripping NBA teams to shreds.
The Nuggets escaped his wrath Nov. 17 in New Orleans. Davis left that game during the first quarter because of a shoulder injury, did not return, and the Nuggets won.
Sunday at the Pepsi Center, it didn’t appear they’d be so lucky.
A healthy Davis ripped off 19 points in the first quarter, doing basically whatever he wanted to.
And then … illness?
Sickness suddenly erased Davis from the second and third quarters. And without him, the Nuggets feasted.
But they couldn’t shake him entirely. Davis returned in the fourth quarter and picked up right where he left off. With Davis dominating on both ends of the court, the Pelicans pulled away from the Nuggets for a 130-125 victory.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone was none too happy about how things went down.
“Embarrassing, that’d be what I’d say. Embarrassing. I’d sum it up that way,” Malone said. “You give up 130 points. You give up four 30-plus point quarters, there’s no excuse. … We did not guard a soul for 48 minutes, and I’m embarrassed by that.”
It was a free-for-all kind of game. Will Barton was stellar, scoring a career-high 32 points with 10 rebounds and six assists, which not only kept the Nuggets in the game, it kept them in the lead for a while in the fourth. But Davis’ return restored order for the Pelicans. He came back with 8:20 left in the game.
And, after his return, he scored eight points, had four blocked shots and grabbed four rebounds.
Ballgame.
Davis finished with 27 points, six rebounds and four blocks in just 19 minutes of action.
“His length, his shot blocking,” Malone said. “We didn’t guard him when he came into the game and he’s a very good face-up jump shooter. Made some shots. It made them confident.”
Meanwhile, the Nuggets suffered more injuries. Their leading scorer, Danilo Gallinari, left the game during the third quarter with a sprained left ankle and did not return. He’s day to day, and afterward said “there is nothing major, nothing broken. I will recover as soon as possible.”
Earlier in the game Darrell Arthur left, felled by persistent soreness in his right knee. He did not return and is day to day too.
Barton and Randy Foye gave the Nuggets a chance. Foye had his best shooting night of the season, knocking down 5-of-7 3-pointers on his way to 17 points. Barton scored 18 points in the fourth quarter.
But the Nuggets’ lack of defense was too problematic.
“We had a pretty good flowing offense, but our defense was not there. Too many ups and downs in defense,” Gallinari said. “We can score those kinds of points, but we cannot allow other teams to come in our place and score that many points.”
