Paul Millsap stars as Utah Jazz overpower Denver Nuggets 106-96 - NBA Recap (Part 2)
Denver Nuggets entered this game oozing with confidence after routing the mighty Miami Heat on Friday night, and probably got overconfident tonight as their coach George Karl exclaimed.
"I would probably blame (the loss) on our NBA cool, we thought we were cool after kicking Miami's butt and we got embarrassed. The NBA game does that quite frequently. If you think you're better than you are or you think you're cooler than you are and you
don't think you've got to put in the hard work to win games, you get embarrassed - and we got embarrassed."
They struggled with the shooting somewhat and shot a meagre 42.7% from the floor and 66.7% from the charity stripe.
Danilo Gallinari and Nene bundled 18 each while Arron Afflalo had 16 points on 6 for 10 from the free throw line. Afflalo, like all other team mates was disappointed and added, Nuggets energy level in this game was considerably down.
“Our energy level at the beginning of the game, despite having a tie at halftime score, wasn't where it needed to be and as a result we lost."
Ty Lawson, who played the key role in the win against the Heat was not at his best and drained only 13 points along with 8 assists. Al Harrington came off the bench and chipped in with 10 points.
First half of the game was highly intense as neither team managed to dominate the opponent at any instance. Fittingly it ended with scores tied at 48 all.
Jazz started the second half with a 9-2 burst, capped by Jefferson’s jam to get in front 57-50, however it was immediately neutralized by an equal impressive 8-0 run by the Nuggets, that put them ahead by 1 point 58-57.
Jazz were up to the task and responded with a 13-6 run, capped by Raja Bell’s 3 in the ensuing passage to get in a commanding position, ahead by 70-64 and managed to maintain the lead by the end of the third frame.
Nuggets did make a comeback in the earlier phase of the deciding quarter, however in the end it came down to a game deciding 10-0 run by Millsap after scores were 81-79, that pushed the game miles away from the Nuggets.
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