This Nuggets team needed some good news. After a final play in San Antonio that was disappointing (though yielded a good shot) and the news that starting point guard Ty Lawson tor his Plantar Facia, the Nuggets … the city and all Nuggets fans around the globe needed something to cheer for.
In walked the Brooklyn Nets and their oddly overconfident fans. In walked Evan Fournier to slam the door shoot on a team that had won 4 of it’s last 5 games on their current road trip. Fournier, aka Fours, aka French Mamba stepped in relief of Andre Miller and played point/shooting guard for the second unit (along with Corey Brewer). French Mamba finished with 19 points and was aggressive and played without fear the whole game. This game would have been much closer if it wasn’t for those points and his aggressiveness.
This one is for you French Mamba!
Additionally the Nets seemed surprised the Nuggets were good. They were sort of lazy through the first half, and never seemed to be really “in” to it besides Reggie Evans who had 16 points and 16 rebounds. Deron Williams looked half assed, and flopped his way to a couple of cheap fouls (God, I had forgotten he did that. Infuriating when he was at Utah) and finished with 19 points. The rest of the Nets didn’t seem in to it and the Nuggets lead never got lower than 12 points after the first half.
Danilo Gallinari and Andre Iguodala both looked much better this game without scoring in bunches. Gallo had 11 points 6 assists and 5 rebounds, while Iguodala had 9 points and 8 assists. Both really made the offense of the Nuggets flow much better than it has, and took a significant amount of pressure off of Evan Fournier in terms of ball handling. Wilson Chandler chipped in 16 points as well.
Andre Miller looked slightly more committed to defense tonight. He had 12 points and 3 assists and generally left the distribution of the offense to Gallinari and Iguodala. Dre doesn't have to be the worlds greatest defender…he just has to pay attention. Which he doesn't always do. He has the skill to at least contest, and tonight he looked a bit more attentive in general and luckily didn't have to play much of the second half.
Two fly’s in the ointment were Kenneth Faried and JaVale McGee. Both looked horrible for stretches at a time. The Joker really got into Faried’s head and the Manimal was out of it all night, even chucked a ball at the ref and didn’t get called for a T. It seems like Faried gets ticked when people are physical with him, and he needs to get better at maintaining his composure. Meanwhile McGee was awful for about a 5 minute stretch in the third quarter. While he finished with 8 points, he was sloppy, turned the ball over, and had those severe “JaVale-esque” lapses of good judgment that we hate to see. After last game is was a big disappointment. Need him to be consistent, not spectacular.
Nuggets of Wisdom
The Nuggets needed this. There was a lot of negative vibes swirling around the team yesterday and today. They managed to keep the lilly-livered bandwagon jumpers on for another game. They are now 50-24 with 8 games left. The Spurs helped out the Nuggets by beating the Clippers (although the Rockets lost to the Grizzlies) and now the Nuggets are back in the third seed in the West.
Additionally the Nuggets don't play again until next Wednesday in Utah. A good time to rest those who are injured and sore and hopefully the Clippers and the Grizzlies will lose some more games along the way. Overall a great team win tonight headed up by our own Evan Fournier. If we get more games like this from the French Mamba … watch out NBA
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