Ty Lawson powers Denver Nuggets to a 116-97
win over the Phoenix Suns
George Karl witnessed his first victory in the desert valley for more than 13 years, as Denver Nuggets crushed Phoenix Suns 116-97 on Thursday night at US Airways Centre.
Ty Lawson scorched the Suns with a double-double on the night. He added 20 points, four rebounds, 11 assists and four steals while Nene Hilario added 22 points.
Nuggets’ Kenyon Martin put the first points on board 2-0 with his layup. Nuggets quickly shed their tardiness and outscored the Suns in an 18-8 run. Then, the Suns picked pace and reduced the lead to single digit making it 22-18.
However, the Nuggets again surged and led the Suns at the end of the first quarter 30-25.
The Nuggets capitalized on their momentum and stretched the lead up in the second section. The Suns were trailing 50-38 with 3:51 left in the second section. However they upped the ante at that point as Steve Nash scored four points
and Hakim Warrick made a three point play to drag back within 53-49. But, three turnovers in the final 6.1 seconds of the half, two by Warrick and one by Grant Hill allowed the Nuggets to nail a 6-0 run and take a 59-49 lead into the second half.
Leading the first two quarters the high spirited Nuggets came out in the third segment for the kill. The Nuggets outscored the Suns in a 16-5 run with awesome display of aggression and defence. The Nuggets went on finishing the
proceedings of the third segment with a heavy lead of 24 points making it 90-66.
With a heavy lead the Nuggets fell relaxed in the final frame and the defence which restricted the Suns to just 17 points in the third regulation gave away almost double points. This allowed the Suns to narrow down the gap. But
the Nuggets didn’t let their aggression go away, and wrapped up the opposition to register a historic win over the Suns by 19 points.
Small forward Wilson Chandler hit 16 points for the Nuggets, who made way to one of the biggest margin victory since a 112-88 prevail over Golden State Warriors.
Marcin Gortat made 14 points and grabbed 18 rebounds to count his 14th double-double off the bench, his colleague Jared Dudley had 13 points. The Suns’ starters shot just 37.7 percent from the court and on the whole finished at
41.1 percent.
After the game Gortat expressed his frustration:
"We didn't shrink the floor. We didn't play physically with them, and we made stupid turnovers ... You can't win a game like that in the NBA. They had a lot of energy, and we had no energy."
Tags: