MVN - Most Valuable Network

One Hundred Sixty-Eight Points.

Here at Solid Gold (Slogan: Where the posts come as frequently as games in which Nuggets play hard), it’s worth noting when the Nuggets do something utterly amazing.

Yeah, I think scoring 168 points in a game qualifies.

This Nuggets team may not make the playoffs (in fact, I think they won’t), but nobody’s ever questioned this team’s ability to put the ball in the basket, and tonight against the pitiful Sonics, they did so for the fourth-highest regulation point total in NBA history.

It figures – I finally find something positive that I actually want to write about, and I don’t have the words. This utterly unbelievable boxscore has reduced me to sputtering and pointing with a dropped jaw at numbers like 10 (assists(!) by Marcus Camby), 60.4 (percent shooting from the field), 44 (team assists), 8 (Nuggets in double figures), 49 (fast-break points, an NBA record), and, of course, the big fat 168 sitting at the top of the boxscore.

Yes, the Sonics are terrible and quite likely could not stop an intramural team at a Division III school from scoring 100 points in a regulation NBA game. I realize that. But 168 points is 168 points. It’s not like the Nuggets are running the old Paul Westhead offense or anything (though could you imagine that offense with the guys the Nugs have now instead of the guys Westhead had when he coached the team?) – they’re built to score, but no team anywhere is supposed to score like this.

There aren’t too many teams in the NBA that could score 168 points in 48 minutes. The Knicks couldn’t do it if you locked them in Madison Square Garden by themselves for that long. Tonight, in one historical fell swoop, these Nuggets showed just how potent their offense can be and just how fun they are to watch.

And yet… I have this sinking feeling they’ll ride this wave of three straight home wins into a 2-3 road trip, further sabotaging their chances of making the playoffs in the West. Yes, even after a game like this, I’m not a believer in the Nugs. I still don’t think they have the consistency needed to make up the 1.5 game deficit they currently face over the final 16 games. But I’d love to be wrong.

Nugs Show Toughness With Win Over Celtics

There are nine playoff caliber teams in the Western Conference this season. The Denver Nuggets currently reside at the back end of that list, holding on to one of the final two spots in a tie with Houston and one game ahead of Golden State. The hard truth is that the Nuggets will once again be in a position where they’ll have to scrap in the season’s second half to earn one of the final playoff spots. That adds importance to each of the final 30 games on Denver’s schedule. The Nugs need to beat everyone they should beat and steal a couple from teams they shouldn’t to secure their fifth consecutive playoff season.

The latter half of that equation manifested on Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center, when the Nuggets held off the East-leading Boston Celtics 124-118. Now, granted, Kevin Garnett wasn’t 100%, and as such, neither were the Celts. With that being said… that’s still a Boston team that thumped the Nugs in Boston back in November, and the Nugs absolutely had to turn the tables with the bottom half of the West heating up.

The win puts Denver at 13 games over .500 – a season-best. It came thanks to big time efforts from what has become a Big Four of sorts. Carmelo Anthony (29 and 7 boards) put together the sort of balanced effort that is becoming more and more of a routine, and Allen Iverson (28 and 9 dimes) did what he’s been doing since he put on the powder blues. Marcus Camby (11-13-9 blocks) damn near put up a triple-double, and Kenyon Martin added 19 and 6 rebounds.

Not since the remarkable 32-8 closing kick under George Karl in the 04-05 season have the Nuggets sustained the level of high-caliber play, confidence, and swagger that they’ve shown this season. A healthy K-Mart has been a big part of that – hell, the man has always oozed swagger, but it’s tough for that to make an impact when you’re chilling on the bench with injuries. Martin’s still way overpaid and still not the best role model on the roster, but in spite of myself, I still love what he’s capable of bringing when he’s healthy and motivated. He can score inside and finish on the break, sure, but it’s K-Mart’s defense that has been the biggest key. Camby’s a great interior defender, but Martin is the best one-on-one post defender that the Nugs have, and his presence gives the Nugs a fighting chance to slow down the Kevin Garnetts (and, more importantly in the West, the Gasols, Stoudamires, Boozers, and Duncans) of the world.

Denver’s preseason hopes for 60 wins will be dashed with just three more losses. But a 50 win campaign, aside from being just the fourth in team history and the first since 1987-88, would represent a nice accomplishment for this bunch. What’s more, it might be a requirement to be playing in the postseason. This win over Boston to start the second half puts the Nugs in the right direction, and if they can steal another home game against a tough Eastern foe (Detroit, on the 25th), they might be knocking at the door of 40 wins by the start of March.

As the West gets tougher and tougher, the Nugs will have to respond in kind. But considering that Denver has a healthy K-Mart, a full year of Iverson, and Melo’s emerging presence on the boards, it’s safe to say this is the toughest Nuggets team of the Melo Era.

Melo’s Career High Lifts Nuggets

Yesterday afternoon, before the Nuggets took on the Wizards, I caught a replay of the 2003 NCAA National Championship game on ESPN Classic. Surely you remember that Carmelo Anthony’s Syracuse Orangemen won that one. Watching Melo in that old game, it’s stunning to see just how NBA-ready he was as a freshman. The pull-up elbow jumper was there, the quick first step was there, and the aggressiveness on both ends of the court was there. After one particular jumper swished through the net, the camera focused on Melo jogging back down the court grinning as Billy Packer remarked, “He makes it look so easy.”

Only fitting, then, that in Melo’s second appearance of the day on the ESPN family of networks, he would continue to make it look easy. Anthony poured in a career high 49 points on 19-for-25 shooting in Denver’s 111-100 win over the overmatched Wizards at Pepsi Center.

Anthony scored 29 in the first half, carrying the Nugs into the locker room with a 56-47 advantage. A late three pointer pushed him past his previous career high of 45 points (which he got in a game that I was at, against Allen Iverson and the 76ers in December of 2005), and two free throws got him to 49. Melo’s teammates did what they could to get him to 50, but the Wizards double-teamed him in the final 90 seconds and denied Melo’s bit for the highest scoring night in the NBA this season. (That honor still belongs to Iverson, who poured in 51 against the Lakers in December.)

It’s been quite a year for Melo, who continues to improve all aspects of his game. He’s averaging 7.2 rebounds per game, which would be a career-high if he keeps it up. His assists are also up over three per game, as he’s become a much more unselfish player since Iverson’s arrival. He’ll start his first All-Star game in a week in New Orleans, and he’s got the Nuggets to 30 wins in the fewest games (49) since the 1984-85 season, when it took Doug Moe’s Nuggets 47 games to hit the 30 win mark.

We still don’t really know what these Nuggets would look like at full strength. Injuries to Nene and Chucky Atkins have denied the Nugs a chance to find that out for an extended stretch. But thanks to Melo’s scoring and rebounding, and a resurgence from Kenyon Martin, who’s playing his best basketball in a Nuggets uniform, the Nugs are in position to return to the playoffs for the fifth straight year and possibly win the Northwest Division in a tight three-way tussle with Utah and Portland. How the Nugs close in the final three games before the All-Star break – three road games at Cleveland, Miami, and Orlando – will be huge for building momentum for the stretch run.

Kleiza scores 41, Nugs beat Jazz (Nene update)

For the sake of my own dignity and credibility, I won’t revisit what I said when the Nuggets drafted Linas Kleiza from Missouri in the first round of the NBA Draft three years ago. Suffice it to say I wasn’t pleased. I may have said something about Kleiza’s skills not being NBA-caliber. But, like I said, no need revisiting it now.

It’s become apparent over the last season and a half that I was completely wrong about LK. Tonight against the Jazz, Kleiza put up a career high 41 points to go with nine rebounds in a 120-109 Nuggets win, and the transformation from the doughy banger that Kleiza was in college to the multi-faceted reserve ace he has become in the NBA is complete.

Kleiza was not the only story from Denver’s convincing win over a conference rival that appears at this point to be a clear third banana in the Northwest behind the Nugs and the surprising Trail Blazers. Marcus Camby’s 24 rebounds and 11 blocks were awe inspiring as well. But Linas Kleiza scoring 41 points deserves to be the lead, because I honestly figured he’d struggle to score that many points in his entire NBA career.

The rumor when the Nugs acquired the rights to Kleiza in a draft-day trade was that the team would send him to Europe for a year for seasoning, presumably to get stronger in the paint. Linas played the 4 at Missouri, but wasn’t nearly strong enough to play that position in the pros. I figured Kleiza’s softness would be further exposed in Europe if the Nuggets sent him there, and that we’d never see him stateside again.

But Kleiza stuck around. And there is no harder worker currently on the Nuggets roster. Kleiza is frequently the last player to leave the practice court, constantly working on his outside shooting. He has made his game more well-rounded, and his recent tendency to drive with the basketball instead of just loitering around the perimeter shows an increased confidence in his own offensive ability. Couple that with his work ethic on defense, and Kleiza has become the most valuable reserve on the Nuggets roster.

He may never score 41 in a game again, but the Lithuanian has become a legitimate NBA player, and he’s helped the Nuggets to eight games over .500 and a first-place tie in the Northwest. Now all the kid needs is a better nickname – no, Chris Marlowe, “The Lithuanian Liquidator” does not qualify. In fact, that’s the worst nickname ever. I’m partial to “Linas the Menace” myself.

(An update on Nene: the Nuggets Brazilian center had a tumor removed from his right testicle region this week. The Nugs are still awaiting tests to see if the mass is cancerous.)