Denver Nuggets win close one vs Portland Trailblazers 111-109

The Denver Nuggets barely sneaked ahead of the Portland Trailblazers today by two points. The final score: 111-109.

For the Nuggets, Ty Lawson led the way with 30 points on 12 of 22 shooting with 6 assists. “I tried to get everyone involved, but as the game was coming down and we needed big shots. I just tried to take it to the hole,” Lawson said. “Today, I was knocking `em down.“

Andre Iguodala chipped in with 29 points on 11 of 20 shooting, he almost had a triple double as he finished with 7 rebounds and 8 assists. Kosta Koufos finished with 11 points and 8 boards. The Manimal, Kenneth Faried added 10 points with 8 boards. Andre Miller was the man of the moment with his 5 points and 10 assists. Two of those points came on a layup with 24.9 seconds left which gave the Nuggets the lead for good. “It was kind of funny, we were running a play and he (Lawson) swung it and we got a lousy shot,” Karl said. “So I just said to him, `We’re not gonna run any more plays. You’ve got one option, go into the paint and find it. Find the shot, not someone else.”‘

For the Blazers, rookie Damien Lillard led the way with 26 points and 4 assists. LaMarcus Aldridge chipped in with 22 points on 11 of 24 shooting and had 5 boards. J.J. Hickson added 18 points and 14 rebounds. Wes Matthews had 16 points on 4 of 12 shooting. Nicholas Batum added 10 points with 6 rebounds and 9 assists.

“It was our third good game in a row, we’ve just come up short in two out of the three,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “I liked the way we competed in the second half. They’re a talented team and they caused a lot of problems for us on the defensive end by what they do, but we stayed with it.” It’s little consolation to know that you put up a fight. It’s the final score which matters. With each loss the Blazers are slipping closer to falling out of the postseason. With this win the Nuggets improved to 36-22 and the Blazers fell to 26-30.

“It’s tough to come up short at the end of a game that we really needed to win,” Lillard said. Had the Blazers shot better or defended harder, they may have helped themselves. The Nuggets shot 51.7% from the field to 44.7% of the Blazers. This game was a lot closer than it should have been. The Nuggets shot 18 of 31 from the free throw line. Those shots are called free for a reason. You don’t spurn them.

With McGee in the house though, few shots come free. Check out the squint by McGee after the monster block.

With this win the Nuggets ended their six-game losing streak at the Rose Garden. “This arena is so tough to play in,” Lawson said. “They (the Blazers) have so much energy and knock down big 3s. There’s a lot of heartbreakers that went down in this building.” Rose Garden arena is a difficult place to play in, but the Nuggets are one to talk. The mile high city of Denver has for the longest time been one of the most difficult places to go and get a win at.

The most number of losses any team in the top eight in the West has suffered away from home is 19 and the Nuggets are one of them. No team in the top eight in the Eastern Conference has lost 19 away from home. Its testament to the home record of 24-3 of the Nuggets that they are still fifth in the West.

The Nuggets have celebrated today, but the bigger celebration must have been in Los Angles though. The LA Lakers must have poured out the bubbly today. It was a day of losses for the West. The Warriors, Mavericks, Jazz and Blazers all suffered losses today. Now both the Jazz and Rockets are at 31 wins each and the Lakers are closing in with 28 wins.

Here are the highlights from this game: