The Denver Nuggets lost a barn burner to the New Orleans Pelicans tonight at Pepsi Center 130-125, but the loss of Danilo Gallinari is a much larger concern. Gallo sprained his left ankle, he’s already dealing with a bone bruise in his left knee, at the 8:12 mark in the third quarter and did not return to action. After Gallo’s departure the Pelicans turned a 80-77 deficit, into a 91-82 lead in roughly five minutes — they’d outscore Denver the rest of the way 53-45.
Below is video of Gallo’s injury, he did not step on Ryan Anderson‘s ankle as Altitude’s Scott Hastings points out in the video (it was a tricky angle that Hastings corrected himself on after the game), he just stepped backwards and his ankle turned. Reports had Gallo attempting to get his ankle re-taped so he could return to action, but he was unable to do so. We’ll see if Gallo will miss any additional time in the coming days.
#Nuggets Gallinari sprained his left ankle here. Already dealing w/ bone bruise on left knee. pic.twitter.com/cjPa2DtXW4
— Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsBSN) December 21, 2015
Will Barton set a new career high of 32 points, and kept the Nuggets afloat as he scored 21 of those points in the second half on 8-14 shooting (12-25 shooting on the night). But Denver couldn’t stop the bleeding on the defensive end and allowed too many easy buckets to a New Orleans team that only had Anthony Davis for just under 20 minutes — due to illness.
WHERE/WHEN
Pepsi Center – Denver, CO / Dec. 20th, 2015 / Game Number 27
STAR OF THE GAME
As noted above, it was Barton who kept the Nuggets afloat when Gallinari was injured. After going just – in the first half, Barton shot 57.1 percent in the second half for those big 21 of his 32 points. He also narrowly missed a triple double by adding 10 rebounds and a career high 6 assists.
If Barton’s tremendous off the bench play continues throughout the season, he will be a candidate for Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved Player of the Year, too.
This big three pointer from Barton gave Denver a 114-108 lead with 6:11 left to play in the game and gave him his 28th point — which set his career high (which he would later build on).
PLAY OF THE GAME
Kenneth Faried also had himself a fine offensive game. He scored 21 points on 8-14 shooting and added 13 rebounds — nine of which came on the offensive glass. His finest offensive board came on the following play where Barton had his layup attempt blocked, used some quick footwork to re-establish his eligibility to touch the ball again, missed the chippy (as Barton calls them), but Faried was there with the emphatic put-back dunk.
Fancy footwork from Will Barton to retrieve his miss, good follow by Kenneth Faried for put back dunk. #Nuggets pic.twitter.com/Nu1weoNYYF
— Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsBSN) December 21, 2015
TURNING POINT OF THE GAME
It was clearly Gallo’s injury. When he left he had 18 points on just 3-10 shooting, but he had been working to get to the foul line all night and was 11-12 on the freebies. Gallinari’s presence on the floor is significant for the Nuggets as a scorer and playmaker, and Denver’s offense looked completely out of whack as soon as he left – as evidenced by the Pelicans 14-2 run.
Also of note: Joffrey Lauvergne only played 12:33 tonight. He did not play in the fourth quarter, after logging 6:36 in the third quarter and recording a -11 in that span. The Pelicans outscored Denver 32-22 in the third quarter.
“The inability to guard the basketball, the inability to guard the basket, the amount of easy baskets that they scored…” said head coach Michael Malone post game. “I have been in the league for 15 years, I have not been a part of, probably, a worse defensive effort than I saw tonight.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Malone noted after the game that the box score may have been pretty for some guys, but that they gave up as much as they got — on the defensive end. Ouch.
Credit: NBA.com
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“Our defense was nonexistent tonight,” said Malone. “From everybody. From everybody. Per man. We’re going to have a long hard practice tomorrow and try to get it right.”
Malone didn’t do himself any favors by closing the game with Kenneth Faried at center and Mike Miller at power forward — and benching Lauvergne and Nikola Jokic. Without any legitimate big men in the game for the final six minutes, the Pelicans shot 6-9 from the floor, including 5-6 inside the paint, on their way to a 22-11 run to close out the game.
Pelicans shot chart from the final six minutes of tonight’s game via NBA.com.
LASTING IMPACT
After winning three in a row, the Nuggets have now lost two straight and drop to 11-16 on the season and into a three-way tie with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings for 10th place in the Western Conference.
WHAT’S NEXT
The Nuggets are back in action Tuesday night, Dec. 22nd, to take on Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers at Pepsi Center, tipoff is at 7:00 p.m. and The Can is sure to be full of … Lakers fans for Kobe’s farewell tour.
