Nuggets at Suns

[FArting]

Playing some of their best basketball of the season, the Denver Nuggets open their final road trip of the season looking to increase their Northwest Division lead and climb up the tightly bunched Western Conference standings.
The Nuggets, though, arrive at US Airways Center on Monday night to face a surging Phoenix Suns team that's won eight straight home games in the series.

Denver (45-25) owns a one-game lead over Portland in the division and will be going for its season-best sixth consecutive victory. J.R. Smith has been a major contributor during the streak, scoring 21.6 points per game -- 7.2 more than his season average -- and shooting 47.4 percent from 3-point range.Smith scored a season-high 40 points and made three 3s in the Nuggets' 116-105 win over Washington on Friday -- the ninth time in 10 games he's hit at least two 3-pointers.In Denver's two matchups with Phoenix this season, Smith is averaging 21.0 points on 40.0 percent shooting (8-of-20) from beyond the arc.

"He had a game, didn't he?" Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony said Friday.Anthony scored 20 points versus the Wizards but shot 6-of-16 from the field -- the third time in four games he's made 37.5 percent or worse.Anthony scored 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting in Denver's 108-101 loss in Phoenix on Dec. 20. He missed the Nuggets' 119-113 overtime win over the visiting Suns on Jan. 15 with a broken bone in his right hand.In Denver's last victory in Phoenix -- 111-96 on April 7, 2004 -- Anthony had 36 points and 11 rebounds.

Nuggets forward Nene is averaging 18.5 points and 14.5 rebounds versus Phoenix this season. The Suns will also have to find a way to neutralize the low-post play of Chris Andersen, who's averaging 6.8 points, 8.1 boards and 3.1 blocks in his last 13 games.After snapping a six-game road losing streak with Wednesday's 111-109 victory over Memphis, the Nuggets are confident they can make a push for the No. 2 seed in the West.

"If we go out and win two out of three, which I think we're capable of, it puts us in a position to have an incredible season," Denver coach George Karl said.Phoenix (38-31) was expecting an incredible season, but a failed experiment with Terry Porter as head coach, a season-ending injury to Amare Stoudemire and six straight losses earlier this month have the Suns in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.Phoenix, though, defeated Washington 128-96 on Saturday and has won a season-best four in a row to keep pressure on Dallas, which holds a 3 1/2-game lead for the final playoff spot.

"It was a good win," Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry said, "and obviously we have to win all of our games to try and keep pace."Shaquille O'Neal had 13 points against the Wizards and moved ahead of Moses Malone for fifth place all-time with 27,411 points."Mathematically, I've missed three years' worth of games and I missed 5,000 free throws," said O'Neal, who's 4,008 points behind Wilt Chamberlain for fourth place. "If I was there, I'd probably be No. 2 or No. 3 right now."O'Neal sat out the Jan. 15 loss to Denver in a night off, but averaged 16.3 points and 13.0 rebounds in his previous four games against the Nuggets.Steve Nash has 13 double-doubles in his last 17 games versus Denver, averaging 18.5 points with 11.1 assists during that stretch.

http://espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=290323021

 

[lou_skywalker]

huge game, time to show their will to make the playoffs.
GO SUNS!!!

 

[nashman]

They definately need this game make Dallas start to worry they have choked in the past lets make it happen again!

 

[Ninjafish]

This is a scary game. I almost wish it was tomorrow so I could be sure to have hope for the playoffs for one more day.

 

[Andrew]

The Nuggets will be a tough team to face, hopefully we can get our 5th straight win, but we need to come out with our A game.

 

[Andrew]

hot start, 10 point lead.

 

[cly2tw]

So far, Nash has great energy put on defense. Barnes' lop to Lou was too risky.He needs to calm down. That lop to JRich was great. Great risk ratio, compared to the Lou lop with two Denver players close to basket watching the pass.

They were trying to use Nash catch and shooting on several occasion. I like that. He has such a sweet shot.

 

[shazaam6]

Exciting game

 

[Andrew]

Some questionable calls already...

 

[O]

Louuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

 

[shazaam6]

Wow our bench!!!!!!!!!!

 

[cly2tw]

Swift is doing something bad on defense, fouling Anderson for +1s twice already. But Dragic, Lou, Tucker, Dud are all very calm and doing great things for us. Great to see Gentry trust this all subs lineup!

 

[cly2tw]

actually, I'm quite impressed with Tucker's improvement on defense, moving his feet to bother Smith. JRich has been moving a lot better than earlier on defense too. great to see.

Barnes has problem of concentration on defense like Amare, so often losing the sight of his man. KMart were scoring in close range with Barnes far away

 

[Andrew]

refs are trying realy hard to keep the nugs in the game

 

[cly2tw]

what was Nash trying there! one on 4? that's how I hate him. just maintain the damn lead with some solid plays, could we?

 

[Andrew]

I can't even see some of these fouls lol

 

[Chaplin]

what was Nash trying there! one on 4? that's how I hate him. just maintain the damn lead with some solid plays, could we?

That's it. TRADE AMARE!

 

[Proteus]

Oh geez. Another freaking collapse. Suns up 63-60 after the 2nd quarter.

 

[cly2tw]

defense!
JRich with a stupid play again: if you double Melo in the paint, make sure to cover the path to the hoop! GDI!
Against a good team, we see why Barnes is a journey man. He makes too many bad decisions on both sides, that will be punished.

 

[Andrew]

piss poor officiated, the refs kept the Nuggs in and know they are gonna pull away because they know they got the refs in their hands

 

[cly2tw]

That's it. TRADE AMARE!

 

[Proteus]

We gotta stop turning the ball over (12 turnovers already), guard the 3 point line (4/8 3 pointers), and keep the Nuggets off the free throw line (16/20 free throws made).

 

[Chaplin]

Oh geez. Another freaking collapse. Suns up 63-60 after the 2nd quarter.

Come on, that last shot was a prayer, had nothing to do with the Suns.

 

[Andrew]

We gotta stop turning the ball over (12 turnovers already), guard the 3 point line (4/8 3 pointers), and keep the Nuggets off the free throw line (16/20 free throws made).

The last one isn't possible, because we can't play ANY defense without a foul...

 

[cly2tw]

It seems that Gentry is trying to use Nash more like Sloan used Stockton. For the first time, Nash was trying to get a foul call on screening for our bigman and got it on Nene. But, he was trying his DA gig again when Shaq sat with 1 on 4 nonsense first and then fastbreaking into an TO to give up 4 pts in 10 sec.

We were so energetic with the bench. But Barnes' Amare-like defense led them back in game this time. And, without touches on offense, JRich seems to play stupid on defense again to allow Melo split his double team, irratating teammate Du at that who though he'd cover properly!