Nuggets 120, Jazz 109
Forget having a courtside seat for Kobe Bryant's 81-point game. Forget covering one 1,000-win coach in Jerry Sloan and another on his way in Phil Jackson. Years from now, what I'll most remember from being a beat writer is watching two career-high games from Linas Kleiza.
Kleiza hit five three-pointers on the way to scoring 29 points against the Lakers in a March 2007 victory. That was one of a string of performances that earned him the nickname "TV L" among the Nuggets for the way Kleiza came to life for games on TNT, ESPN and ABC.
Well, there was no national TV Thursday and Kleiza still embarrassed the Jazz. He had 20 points in the second quarter, 27 by halftime, 36 through three quarters and a career-high 41 for the night. He's a relatively unknown third-year forward but can kill you if he gets hot.
"We felt like he was cherry-picking," Jazz forward Paul Millsap said. "We're not sure what he was doing, but we've got to work on our transition defense."
The Jazz didn't know Kleiza beyond their scouting report, with the exception of Deron Williams, who played against Kleiza both with USA Basketball ("He had like 40 and 17 against us") and when Kleiza played at Missouri in college.
Did Millsap ever imagine Kleiza would be the player to go off Thursday? "Never thought that at all," he said. "We thought it was going to be one of the Big Two. We played a solid game on them. He goes off tonight, so it's tough."
Allen Iverson finished with 28 points, Carmelo Anthony had 23 points and Marcus Camby picked a tough night to have one of the most incredible box score lines I've ever seen: 8 points, 24 rebounds, 11 blocks.
Camby alone blocked Paul Millsap four times and Carlos Boozer four times. The Nuggets tried to get Camby the late triple-double but Camby missed a layup, 21-footer and three-pointer in the last 2 1-2 minutes.
* * *
It was the worst loss imaginable for the Jazz. Jerry Sloan framed the game in terms of basics like determination and the Jazz wound up giving up 38 fast-break points and were beaten again and again down court, especially by Kleiza.
Sloan called it the "perfect game" by the Nuggets and had a prickly answer when I asked how disappointing it was to talk about effort on the road and have a game where the Jazz got the ball ran back at them so much.
"You go ask those guys what their problem is they can't run back down the floor," Sloan said. "That's what I would do. If I wrote in the newspaper, I'd ask them that question. I can't answer it. I'd say, ‘Hey, why can't you guys run the floor?' They're getting paid.
"I mean, I asked them that and I didn't get much response. Maybe you'll get more response than I got."
More from Sloan: "We never could get ourselves together to believe that we could run an offense. We believed that whoever got it after the first pass takes a shot."
Still more: "They were better than we were. By far. I'm glad they didn't have all their players. We'd have probably lost by 40 if they had all their players."
The Nuggets basically went seven players deep in the game. Kenyon Martin was out with a staph infection and Nene was out after having a testicular tumor removed. Kleiza was in the starting lineup only because Martin was unavailable.
* * *
The Jazz were so determined to change their karma on the road that they chose to wear their alternate baby blue uniforms. Instead of having an early and late bus from the team hotel, Sloan also opted for one bus to take his team to the arena.
* * *
From the beginning, you could almost tell the Jazz were going to struggle defensively. Ronnie Brewer picked up two fouls in not even five minutes and Sloan opted to bring in Kyle Korver to match up against his old Philadelphia teammate Allen Iverson.
Whether it was driving for layups or drawing three-shot fouls, Iverson got going early. That carried over to the second quarter, when Iverson set up Kleiza for two three-pointers. Kleiza was on fire the rest of the game after that.
The Jazz switched matchups all game. Paul Millsap and Mehmet Okur both took turns on Kleiza. The Jazz stuck Andrei Kirilenko on Kleiza to start the second half. They also turned to a zone defense at times to slow the Nuggets.
It didn't stop the Jazz from giving up 61 points in the first half and 98 through three quarters. The Jazz are now 0-8 on the road when they give up 110 points or more and 0-8 when they head into the fourth quarter trailing on the road.
* * *
With Ronnie Brewer benched in the fourth quarter, presumably for getting beat down court by Carmelo Anthony in the third, C.J. Miles and Ronnie Price both saw action for the first time in a while.
The Jazz are expected to wait until the weekend to decide about returning rookie guard Morris Almond to the NBA Development League's Utah Flash. Almond can be sent down still twice more this season.
--Ross Siler
Kleiza hit five three-pointers on the way to scoring 29 points against the Lakers in a March 2007 victory. That was one of a string of performances that earned him the nickname "TV L" among the Nuggets for the way Kleiza came to life for games on TNT, ESPN and ABC.
Well, there was no national TV Thursday and Kleiza still embarrassed the Jazz. He had 20 points in the second quarter, 27 by halftime, 36 through three quarters and a career-high 41 for the night. He's a relatively unknown third-year forward but can kill you if he gets hot.
"We felt like he was cherry-picking," Jazz forward Paul Millsap said. "We're not sure what he was doing, but we've got to work on our transition defense."
The Jazz didn't know Kleiza beyond their scouting report, with the exception of Deron Williams, who played against Kleiza both with USA Basketball ("He had like 40 and 17 against us") and when Kleiza played at Missouri in college.
Did Millsap ever imagine Kleiza would be the player to go off Thursday? "Never thought that at all," he said. "We thought it was going to be one of the Big Two. We played a solid game on them. He goes off tonight, so it's tough."
Allen Iverson finished with 28 points, Carmelo Anthony had 23 points and Marcus Camby picked a tough night to have one of the most incredible box score lines I've ever seen: 8 points, 24 rebounds, 11 blocks.
Camby alone blocked Paul Millsap four times and Carlos Boozer four times. The Nuggets tried to get Camby the late triple-double but Camby missed a layup, 21-footer and three-pointer in the last 2 1-2 minutes.
* * *
It was the worst loss imaginable for the Jazz. Jerry Sloan framed the game in terms of basics like determination and the Jazz wound up giving up 38 fast-break points and were beaten again and again down court, especially by Kleiza.
Sloan called it the "perfect game" by the Nuggets and had a prickly answer when I asked how disappointing it was to talk about effort on the road and have a game where the Jazz got the ball ran back at them so much.
"You go ask those guys what their problem is they can't run back down the floor," Sloan said. "That's what I would do. If I wrote in the newspaper, I'd ask them that question. I can't answer it. I'd say, ‘Hey, why can't you guys run the floor?' They're getting paid.
"I mean, I asked them that and I didn't get much response. Maybe you'll get more response than I got."
More from Sloan: "We never could get ourselves together to believe that we could run an offense. We believed that whoever got it after the first pass takes a shot."
Still more: "They were better than we were. By far. I'm glad they didn't have all their players. We'd have probably lost by 40 if they had all their players."
The Nuggets basically went seven players deep in the game. Kenyon Martin was out with a staph infection and Nene was out after having a testicular tumor removed. Kleiza was in the starting lineup only because Martin was unavailable.
* * *
The Jazz were so determined to change their karma on the road that they chose to wear their alternate baby blue uniforms. Instead of having an early and late bus from the team hotel, Sloan also opted for one bus to take his team to the arena.
* * *
From the beginning, you could almost tell the Jazz were going to struggle defensively. Ronnie Brewer picked up two fouls in not even five minutes and Sloan opted to bring in Kyle Korver to match up against his old Philadelphia teammate Allen Iverson.
Whether it was driving for layups or drawing three-shot fouls, Iverson got going early. That carried over to the second quarter, when Iverson set up Kleiza for two three-pointers. Kleiza was on fire the rest of the game after that.
The Jazz switched matchups all game. Paul Millsap and Mehmet Okur both took turns on Kleiza. The Jazz stuck Andrei Kirilenko on Kleiza to start the second half. They also turned to a zone defense at times to slow the Nuggets.
It didn't stop the Jazz from giving up 61 points in the first half and 98 through three quarters. The Jazz are now 0-8 on the road when they give up 110 points or more and 0-8 when they head into the fourth quarter trailing on the road.
* * *
With Ronnie Brewer benched in the fourth quarter, presumably for getting beat down court by Carmelo Anthony in the third, C.J. Miles and Ronnie Price both saw action for the first time in a while.
The Jazz are expected to wait until the weekend to decide about returning rookie guard Morris Almond to the NBA Development League's Utah Flash. Almond can be sent down still twice more this season.
--Ross Siler
1:19 AM
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