The Nuggets beat the Suns 126-120 tonight at the Pepsi Center. All I can say is, man, I have to get to a game soon. So many cool moments:
1. If you haven't watched the Nuggets much this year, you wouldn't know this, but Eduardo Najera has turned himself into a three-point threat. Seriously. Okay, his 36.7% rate from beyond the arc isn't great, especially considering he doesn't shoot a lot with a hand in his face, but he hit two int he early going. It's tough to believe.
2. Another "this guy knows he can score whenever he wants" comment, this time when the matchup was Gordon Giricek guarding Carmelo Anthony. What can you say, it's true.
3. Nene looking awfully good in his ten minutes, much of which he spent guarding Shaquille O'Neal one-on-one, and doing it well. It's not the '98 Shaq, but Nene had no problems holding his ground. He was also crafty, knowing when to give up space so Shaq would lean in too far and end up forcing an off-balance shot. (This is a move players have pulled on Shaq in certain spots for years; I'm still impressed.)
4. Raja Bell getting himself thrown out of the game in the third quarter. Twice in a row he fouled Carmelo while Melo was posting him up. After the first foul, he talked and talked and talked and talked aaaaaaaaaand talked, trying to goad Anthony into doing something stupid. Anthony and Bell got a double technical. Then Bell got called for the second foul, started laughing incredulously, and was thrown out of the game. I love it.
5. Then Carmelo knocked down the free throw.
6. And then Anthony Carter inbounded and alley-oop pass from the sideline to Kenyon Martin, who was running up the baseline on the far side of the rim and dunked it home. They made it look so easy. Later in the quarter, Carter passed off to and set a screen for Allen Iverson at the very top of the arc, and Iverson buried a long three.
7. But most of all, I just loved the Nuggets holding on and making enough free throws at the end to win it.
Comments
Nene looked awesome again last night. I really hope that he can get back to 100% before the playoffs, it would be great to have another low post scoring threat.
I thought the bench played really well last night. As you mentioned, Najera hit some timely 3s, but so did Kleiza. I was glad to see Kleiza contributing last night, he really hasn't been the same since his ankle injury a few weeks ago.
I'm the first person to say I was elated to see Bell get thrown out of the game, but I did think the refs were a little trigger-happy on the techs last night.
Is it just me, or have the Suns turned into the Spurs with all their arguing with the refs. Hey Nash, quit your freakin whining and just play the game!
The best part of last night is that Golden State lost, so as of right now, we're back in the playoffs.
I am glad we're back in the playoffs--despite the tone of my earlier comments, I really want to watch this team in the postseason.