Nuggets Grizzlies Review

Denver scored only 10 points in the third quarter and I thought they were done. Memphis was up by 7 at the end of the quarter and they were up by 10 at one point in that quarter. The 4th quarter was a different story, the Nuggets came out playing great and inspired defense. Kenneth Faried was all over the place until he picked up his 5th foul, but Koufos came in and they did not seem to miss a beat. They outscored Memphis 29-14 in the 4th quarter. They decided to play Nuggets basketball and run Memphis out of the arena. In the third, they conformed to Memphis's style of basketball and obviously it did not work out. Denver is now .5 games out of 3rd place in the west and own the tie breaker over Memphis and Los Angeles. 

Ty Lawson did not shoot well this game as he was 4-12 from the field and ended up with only 8 points.  However the matchup was a wash because Mike Conley only shot 4-13 from the field for 11 points. Lawson needs to pick up his play in future match ups, but this game did not seem to depend on him.

Iggy and Tony Allen both finished with 8 points. As I predicted this match up would be filled with defense and it was. Iggy ended up being a difference maker, finishing with 7 assists and 7 rebounds. He also had a steal to seal the game at the end. 

Gallo's stat line did not look great, he only had 15 points and not much of anything else. However he did hit a clutch three to help the Nuggets pull away and gain momentum in the 4th quarter. He also had a nice 2 point jumper help the Nuggets pull away at the end. Tayshaun Prince only had 11 points on 5-13 shooting. The fact that he did not shoot efficiently helped the Nuggets in a big way. Prince only added 4 rebounds which helped the Nuggets on the boards. 

Zach Randolph completely destroyed whoever he was matched up against. He had 18 points to go along with 18 rebounds 10 of which were on the offensive boards. He could not be stopped and it was obvious. He almost single handily won this game for Memphis because of his offensive rebounding. Kenneth Faried only had 8 points and 4 rebounds, but his energy to start the 4th quarter was invaluable to the eventual Nuggets run. He shut down Randolph and was getting great defensive position not allowing the ball to go into the post. The stats may not show it, but Faried might be the reason the Nuggets one that game.

As soon as I wrote that I remembered how great Kosta Koufos played today. He had 18 points and 17 rebounds. He was a rock for the Nuggets. He reminded me why he is starting center and not Javale McGee whom I will rant about later. Marc Gasol was held to 14 points and 7 boards which helped matters and did not seem to be much of a factor in the second half. Although Koufos started out on Randolph, his solid rotations helped slow Gasol too.

The Nuggets bench did not play particularly well. Brewer finished with 11 points and was an important part of keeping the Nuggets in the game and helping them catch up. Andre Miller played well, but slowed down in the second half and finished with 10 points and 3 assists. Javale McGee played terrible and reminded everyone why he is not the starter. He cannot rebound to save his life and does not seem to care about it. Until further notice im done with him. Memphis's bench was led by Jerryd Bayless with 10 points, but on a bad shooting night. Nobody seemed to play well on their bench.

This was a great game by the Nuggets. They ground out a win without scoring 90 points which is a milestone for them. They needed a game like this to show the rest of the conference they are a force to be reckoned with.