The Washington Wizards took another step towards the Mendoza Line last night with an emphatic 120-91 win over the visiting Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets entered the Verizon Center with an impressive 12-7 record and a viable MVP candidate in Baltimore product Carmelo Anthony. They left the court looking like a team that was in the middle of a five game road trip, wondering who would be shipped out of town in a possible deal for Allen Iverson.
The first period started slowly and turned into a duel between Anthony and Agent Hibatchi. Anthony, second in the league in scoring, carried the Nuggets on 7-9 shooting for 14 points. Not to be outdone, Gilbert shot 3-5 from downtown en route to 16 points of his own. Denver’s offense was less than aesthetically pleasing. It basically consisted of Marcus Camby taking jump shots from just above the free throw line or clear outs enabling Anthony to use his lethal step back jumper. The Wiz, meanwhile, were bobbing and weaving, spreading the ball around and building up a 15 point lead en route to 39 points in the quarter.
You’d think at this point Denver would try and push the tempo to get back in the game, right? For a time they did, using a few back door lobs to great effect and pulling to within six by the time the Smile Cam made its appearance. However, Caron Butler, primarily matched up with Anthony on the defensive end, matched Gilbert’s 7 points in the quarter and the Wiz went into halftime with a 12 point lead. Butler’s 15 points at the half were three more than everyone in Denver’s starting lineup not named Carmelo.
Anthony cooled down in the third, shooting 3-9, but went 4-5 from the line to tally another 10 points in the period. But by this point in the evening, it was clear the rest of his team was ready to hit the showers. The Wiz took a 15 point lead into the fourth quarter and when Antawn Jamison sank a three at the start of the final period, you could see the Nuggets wave the white flag. They quit running their offense and it became every man for himself on the stat sheet. ‘Melo was visibly frustrated by being frozen out of the offensive flow and at one point he resorted to grabbing the inbounds and just taking on the Wizards by himself. The Wiz broke 100 with over six minutes remaining and soon it was time for a James Lang sighting.
Photo by Kyle Gustafson. More photos here.
