Melo's Jumper Is Missing: Kings 94 Nuggets 87

Like someone looking for a lost child, Carmelo Anthony has seemingly become more and more frustrated in the last week or so about the fact his famous jump shot is missing. He is not getting easy scores like he did most of his career up until his 36 day suspension. Tonight, he went all out to find the missing skill. Even the Rocky Mountain Rescue Team bloodhounds were released to try to find it, but nothing was found.

True, Artest had a little something to do with it but he was certainly not the main reason for the large number of Melo misses. With only one layup and one dunk in this game, 22 of the 24 shots Melo took were jumpers, and only 5 connected, whereas he and Nuggets fans could have expected at least 9 or 10 to drop based on his previous play through December 16, 2006.

Overall, Melo was only 7/24 from the field, and with Iverson out, the Nuggets were unable to make up for the big shortage of Melo scoring, despite solid contributions from Nene, Steve Blake, and J.R. Smith. It was simply mathematically impossible to win this game with Melo held to 20 and no A.I..

So the Nuggets lost a very winnable game to the Kings, 94-87, to drop to 23-22 and now they are just barely hanging on to the last playoff berth in the West. Meanwhile, to add insult to injury, the team that is well ahead in the division that the Nuggets won last year, the Utah Jazz, beat the high flying Suns in their building, underscoring how far behind the Nuggets are in this years Western Conference. The Nuggets could not beat the Suns in Phoenix right now if it was 5 on 4. The team that many thought would roar like a lion is squeaking like a mouse.

And even if Melo had hit 4 or 5 more shots, though, the Nuggets might have lost anyway, either in regulation or in overtime. Both the Kings and the Nuggets were a very low 38% from the field. The Kings had no one off the bench going on a rampage like so many Nuggets opponents have had recently. Indeed, they had no surprises for the Nuggets to deal with at all, and they presented no major obstacles in the paint, and in general were very beatable and ready to be beaten. They were led by, predictably, SF Ron Artest and SG Kevin Martin. About all they had to do to beat the Nuggets was to protect the ball, which they did with a vengeance, finishing with just 9 turnovers.

The one thing you have to say in the Nugget's defense is that they were playing on the road with no rest, which whoever made the schedule has them doing alot. Meanwhile, the Kings were playing at home after two nights off.

The Nuggets, who came into this game tied with the Knicks, Magic, and Pacers for the most turnovers per game, almost certainly took over the lead in sloppiness with their 21 turnovers in this one. Melo had 6 turnovers, Camby had an extremely unusual 5, and Nene had 4 to lead the Nuggets in this negative category.

And check this, Allen Iverson and Ron Artest are two of the best pickpockets in the League. But with A.I. still out with an ankle sprain, Artest and the Kings picked the Nugget's pockets all game long: they had a huge 14 steals versus just 2 for the Nuggets. Artest had 4 steals, Martin and Bibby had 3 steals each, and 4 other Kings had one each for the incredible total of 14 steals. That, my friends, is having everything in all your pockets stolen.

There was one thing this game had that very few games have: alot of blocks. Marcus Camby, who probably surpassed Jermaine O'Neill as the number one blocker in the NBA with his 7 blocks, led the Nuggets who had a total of 10 blocks. But the Kings, who are just about the worst blocking team in the League, had 2 more than their typical number of blocks: they had 5 blocks.

So a quick way to sum up this fiasco is to think of it this way: Melo missed a ton of jumpers and the Nuggets had a ton of turnovers, while the Kings just laid back and let the Nuggets shoot themselves in the foot in these ways all night long and coasted to an easy but not a very well earned win.

This loss was like two losses in one; you had the actual loss and then the way it was lost. The loss featured an ugly lack of execution and the no show of the Melo shot. Even the Kings fans were curious about just where in the world Melo's shot has gone off to. The Nuggets are in real trouble until and unless these two problems are solved or at least mostly solved. Even with Iverson back in, the Nuggets in this condition still can not possibly beat the Spurs, Jazz or Rockets in a 7 game series, let alone the Lakers, Suns, or Mavs. You are looking at being almost swept in the playoffs, in fact.

The irony is that one problem that appeared to be big has been turning around during the last two games, namely, the severe shortage of performance outside of A.I., Melo, Camby, and J.R.. In the last two games, Nene and Blake have come on strong, and almost everyone else from the bench has contributed something, which is alot better than the almost nothing they were contributing.

But for the Nuggets, as soon as one problem is reduced, another one or two problems sprout up big and ugly. So is there time to get these things under control? Yes, there is about 4 weeks to be exact, as long as the Nuggets don't lose every single game during the 4 weeks.

Diawara played 12 minutes, missed one 3-pointer, and had 1 rebound. Linas Kleiza played 18 minutes and was 3/6, 2/4 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 10 points, and he had 2 rebounds. Najera played 19 minutes and was 3/6 for 6 points and he added 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and a steal.

DerMarr Johnson played 21 minutes and was 1/4, 1/3 on 3's, and 1/2 from the line for 4 points and he had 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 assists, and a steal.

Nene played 29 minutes and was 5/12 and 3/7 from the line for 13 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 1 block, and 2 assists.

Blake played 29 minutes and was 5/9 and 3/5 from 3-point land for 13 points, and he had 7 assists and 4 rebounds.

J.R. Smith played 25 minutes and was 4/10, 3/8 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 13 points, and he had 3 assists and 3 rebounds. Back to back 3-pointers from Blake and Smith in the final minute of the game pulled the Nuggets to within 3, but Artest then calmly sunk a jumper to ice the easy win for the Kings.

Marcus Camby played for 34 minutes and was 3/9 for 6 points. Aside from the huge 15 rebounds and the more huge 7 blocks, he also had 4 assists.

Melo was only 7/25, 1/4 on 3's, and 5/6 from the line for 20 points and he had 7 rebounds and 2 assists. If someone stole Melo's jump shot (I'm thinking Nate Robinson or Isaiah Thomas as the most likely thieves), would you please return it to the Nuggets as soon as possible? You can return it anonymously, and no questions will be asked. Thanks in advance.

The next game will be Monday, Feb. 5 in Denver against the Suns at 7 pm mountain time.