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3-0, baby!

Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets continued their torrid start to the season tonight with a 133-123 win at home over the Memphis Grizzlies.

Anthony scored 42 points in an effort that gave flashbacks to last year’s playoffs. He hit 15 of 26 field goals, including a three, and converted eleven of his twelve attempts from the stripe. Totally effective and, as far as I could tell after missing most of the first half, totally in the flow of the game. 26 shots isn’t bad at all, especially when Anthony’s that on. Carmelo’s point totals just keep going up, too: 30 in the opener against Utah and 41 the next night in Portland before his answer to life tonight.

The Nuggets, of course, are 3-0 and looking great. Tonight was a relatively safe win; even though Memphis was competitive in the first half, I saw the scores were in the 60s and knew the pace favored Denver. The opening night win over the Jazz was also lovely, especially when Carmelo missed a three, then tipped away a weak outlet lob and slammed it for a three-point play. But the whole team is playing well. Chauncey Billups had 22 points and 12 assists tonight, and his backup, Ty Lawson, is awesome running the break. (Lawson pulled up for a fifteen-or-so footer on a 3-on-2 against Utah that looked out of place, except he drilled it. Sounds silly but it gave me even more confidence in Lawson; what rookie risks looking foolish on a breakaway unless he KNOWS it’s going in? And great point guards just know sometimes.) Chris Andersen had another awesome Birdman moment where he followed up an Arron Afflalo miss with a tip-in, even though he’d fallen down at the top of the key seconds before. (Sorry that the ad is twice as long as the highlight.) Can’t feel good to have basketball as your profession and still get outworked on plays like that whenever you face Andersen.

The Nuggets are going on a six-game road trip, so they’ll be tested soon enough, not that it means a ton either way this early in the year. Still, it’s exhilarating that the team has continued its standout play from last season.

Comments

John said…
The Nuggets are looking very impressive this season, and appear to have retooled well. I still don't get how Ty Lawson - a solid college point guard at a top program who was the X-factor in a national championship run - falls to #18 int he draft. But all the better for us.
9:43 AM
blaine said…
I agree with John on his Ty Lawson point. I thought he was the best point guard in the draft and I couldn't believe that the Nuggets were able to get him!

Melo has looked amazing so far. I wasn't able to watch the first game against the Jazz, but I did watch the subsequent two games and Melo looked unstoppable. What's most encouraging about Melo so far this season is that he's letting his shots come to him and isn't forcing the issue. If he is able to keep this up all season the Nuggets should be a very good play off team.

One thing I noticed in the last two games is that the Nuggets' interior D is much worse than last year. I know the season is young, but that was a problem for them last year too, so it could become a huge weakness for them as the season continues. Birdman is great at help D, but gets pushed around too much covering one-on-one.
10:48 AM
Mike said…
The best part about Lawson is he really is a pure point guard. In the early part of the decade passing points appeared to go extinct; while this is no longer the case, it's awesome to have a backup who can keep pushing the tempo. We missed that in the playoffs last year, though J.R. kept the engine running in other ways.

You're right about the D, Blaine. The Altitude men also made note of our poor transition defense. Because we've learned to run the break so well, I think the offense will be fine, and the defense will really determine how far we can go. Fortunately we will never ask Bird to take out Shaq in a big game. K-Mart on the other hand...man, I just don't feel comfortable having that guy out there.
8:54 AM
Anonymous said…
I think the Nuggets are on track to beat the Bronco's starting record at this point. And after 5 games Ty only has one turnover! I'm going to enjoy this year.

LT

Wana catch a game this season?
3:31 PM
Mike said…
Thought you'd never ask. Absolutely.
4:04 PM
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