The Denver Nuggets had to function without Carmelo Anthony, Al Harrington, Nene & Kenyon Martin on Wednesday night in Minnesota. Versus a Timberwolves squad that has improved mightily behind the stout paint presence of Kevin Love, the Nuggets had their hands full.
The first half saw Chauncey Billups showing off his still impressive skill set. As the veteran point guard continues to heal from an early-season wrist injury, we have seen his dagger three-ball return to the floor.
Without Anthony in the lineup Denver has lacked timely scoring and offensive consistency. Billups made up for Melo in spades at the Target Center in Minneapolis, dropping a perfect 6 for 6 from beyond the arc. But despite a 12 of 13 showing from the free-throw line and 36 big points, Big Shot Billups could not get it done by himself.
George Karl is still working out ways to win without Carmelo by necessity, but Denver is also developing a keen athletic flavor in Melo's absence. The energy exhibited by the Nuggets' deep bench, and headlined by JR Smith, has proven to be capable of hanging with most teams' starting five.
Karl is starting to find ways to squeeze wins out of his scrappy secondary players.
But fresh off back-to-back wins, the Timberwolves matched Denver's intensity throughout. A high-scoring first half featured Denver running the floor and Minnesota working to their superior size through Kevin Love and Michael Beasley.
The Nuggets answered with Chris "Birdman" Andersen's length and athleticism, but were forced to stick with speed over size on the offensive perimeter. The overwhelmingly small and lightweight lineup of Birdman plus Billups, Ty Lawson, Arron Afflalo, JR Smith & Renaldo Balkman developed into a lethal offensive attack throughout the second half.
A slow start to the third quarter for both teams eventually broke to an expanding Minnesota Timberwolves lead.
Lacking standard scoring options like Anthony, Nene & Harrington, and with Chauncey taking a breather, Renaldo Balkman & Ty Lawson simply willed the Nuggets to 12 unanswered points starting at 10:03 of the fourth quarter. Aggressive defense by Balkman was followed by an aggressive rush of Denver guards up the court. Renaldo combined with Ty for 10 of 12 points in a run that brought Denver back from down 83-88 and left them up 95-88.
Arron Afflalo pitched in the other two points on that run, and continued his consistent offensive production. Arron scored 10 points on 5 of 6 shooting to start the second half before missing a dribble-drive 13-footer at the 6:00 mark of the fourth quarter.
A back-and-forth scorefest broke out in the final frame as both the Timberwolves and Nuggets started moving the ball furiously, hitting open jumpers at a high percentage. Denver could not keep up with Minnesota's great team offense; working open threes off the pick and roll. But Billups uncorked a series of seriously deep threes of his own (26, 25, 26 ft) to maintain a slim Nuggets lead.
Inside five minutes, the Nuggets finally generated some defensive stops to go with its rolling offense. A one-possession game devolved into a firm Denver advantage as the Nuggets managed to hit their free throws when it mattered most. Billups plus Birdman went 7 of 8 from the charity stripe in the final 1:01 to seal a 119-113 road victory.
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