Game Rewind: Denver Nuggets Danilo Gallinari goes bonkers versus New Orleans Pelicans

 

The Denver Nuggets first 30 point scorer of the season is Danilo Gallinari. He poured in a season-high 32 points for the Nuggets on 12-19 shooing (including 5-8 from downtown and 3-4 from the foul line), eight rebounds and added a career-high-tying eight assists in 37 minutes.

As you can see from the above shot chart for Gallo against the Pelicans, he was doing some dirty work inside and from the top of the key (out beyond the 3-point line). In all he combined to go 11-14 at the rim and at the top of the key, good for 78.5 percent shooting on the night.

While his overall performance was impressive, his third quarter was outstanding. In the third, Gallo went 6-6 from the floor and that included 2-2 from long range and 1-1 at the foul line.

Green equals good in third for Gallo and he was perfect against the Pelicans in that quarter; which saw Denver outscore NOLA 32-22 to put some breathing room between them and a team that was missing Anthony Davis. Head coach Michael Malone used Gallinari as a small ball center in the third for a good chunk of the 10:19 minutes he played. Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry had little choice but to go small and Gallo made them pay.

A look at some of Gallo’s finer moments from the night.

First Quarter Gallo: 

Three Ball:

Gallo was involved early and on this play at the 8:41 mark of the first quarter, with the Pelicans up 6-5, Gallo brings the ball up the floor and Davis (who can guard just about anyone in the league) gives The Rooster too much space. Gallinari recognizes that Davis is searching for his man, and begins to pull up for the 3-point shot shortly after crossing half court.

This is the beauty of using the 6-foot-10 inch Gallinari as a ball-handler and playmaker. He draws mismatches and can go to work from anywhere on the floor.

Creating space and letting it rip: 

Above we see Gallo simply take advantage of the Pelicans over-helping on defense. With 25.1 seconds to play in the first quarter, Gallinari and Kostas Papanikolaou both converge on Randy Foye‘s defender to set up a screen on either side of the ball-handler. Papanikolaou rolls to the rim after Foye uses his screen — drawing the attention of Gallo’s defender (Ryan Anderson) — allowing Gallo to float out beyond the 3-point line to open space. Anderson recovers to contest the shot, but Gallo is already halfway through his shooting motion and nails an easy three to give Denver a 31-21 lead.

Good play design from Malone to give the ball-handler (Foye) a couple options on the screens, and to read what happens after the defense reacts to the Nuggets’ movement.

Third Quarter: 

This Rooster can fly: 

Let’s fast forward to the 8:44 mark of the third where Gallo went bonkers.

Even though the Pelicans were missing Davis, they stayed in the game. Here we see the Nuggets on a fastbreak and watch as Gallo calls for the alley-oop from phenomenal rookie Emmanuel Mudiay. Danilo is calling for the oop on the wing just outside the 3-point line, Mudiay sees it and tosses a moon-ball to the Italian Stallion. Gallo went up high and finished with a dunk – plus the foul. Gallo finished the play in style on the landing as he poses for a brief moment to bask in that play’s glory.

Mudiay and Gallinari are building chemistry and it showed on this play. The Nuggets don’t run a ton of 1-3 pick-and-roll (more on this later), so Mudiay’s assists to Gallinari don’t often come in the same ways as say J.J. Hickson and Kenneth Faried. It’s nice to see the two connect here as they continue to gel.

Gallo feeling it with the ball-fake pull up: 

The very next Nuggets possession after the Gallo alley-oop is Danilo nailing a three against Dante Cunningham at the 8:04 mark of the third.

At first look it appears to be a broken play that sees Gallo make a little something out of nothing. But if you look closer there is a designed play here. Kenneth Faried dribbles towards Gallinari, Gallo sets a screen for Gary Harris, Faried hands the ball off to Harris and then rolls softly to the rim — that draws Cunningham away from Gallo as he has to help on Alexis Ajinca‘s man to respect Faried’s roll — Harris heads into the heart of the defense and that makes Eric Gordon give chase to recover, and Harris finds a wide open Gallo. Cunningham closes hard on Gallo, Danilo uses a ball fake to get Cunningham off balance, moves to his right to get an uncontested look and buries the three.

Another beautiful play by Malone and executed on the fly well by Faried, Harris and of course Gallo.

Gallo doing work on the offensive glass: 

Moving ahead to the 6:12 mark of the third, with Denver up 67-62 we get a rare Mudiay and Gallo pick-and-roll situation. The play gets messy as Gallo sets a weak screen as he doesn’t get up into Jrue Holiday and Mudiay didn’t take Holiday into the screen (credit Holiday’s defense). The play falls apart and Mudiay loses control of the ball. Gallo resets the play, this time setting up to Holiday’s left, but Mudiay ignores the screen and chooses the wide open left side of the court to drive.

Instead of attempting to blow past Cunningham, Mudiay instead tries the stop-and-go, but Cunningham isn’t fooled. Mudiay settles for his favorite fadeaway jumper and misses. Gallinari charges inside to fight for an offensive rebound. Holiday fails to box out Gallo (Gallo fights off the attempt), he gets inside and disrupts Anderson’s rebound attempt as they both bat the ball off the glass. Gallo gets a hold of the loose ball, goes back up quickly and lays it in.

These are the kinds of plays that happen in small ball lineups and Gallo feasts with no true center on the floor here. That big frame is valuable on the outside and here on the inside, too.

Gallo goes to the post: 

Last, but certainly not least is my favorite play from Gallinari against the Pelicans.

Randy Foye feeds Gallo the ball in the post… well, near the post. Cunningham does a great job pushing Gallo out of where he wanted to set up and Foye bounces the ball in to Gallo out near the 3-point line along the baseline. Foye clears out and Gordon has to stay with him as he heads through the paint – eliminating the chances of a double-team on Danilo.

Gallo uses four dribbles and a very low squatting position to fight back into the left side of the paint, picks up steam into the teeth of the defense, picks up the dribble and goes with a hard fake over his left shoulder, brings the ball back down into his left hand, comes under Cunningham and lays the ball in left handed.

That’s a big time post move from a guy not known for playing down low. Gallo has been working on his post game for years and it’s paying off for him. I’ve tried that same move (in an empty gym) about a hundred times and can’t really get it down. I’m in awe of post play most of the time and this was definitely one of those cases.

Gallinari scored his 32 points in a variety of ways and that’s his game rewind against the Pelicans.

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Special thanks to BSN Denver’s An Nguyen for the above videos.