Smith’s turnover crushes Nuggets
Web Posted: 04/29/2007 12:42 AM CDT
Mike Monroe
Express-News
DENVER — They had called Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against the Spurs a must-win game, so the Denver Nuggets were in total spin control after the Spurs defeated them 96-91 on their Pepsi Center court Saturday night.
“I know I said tonight was a ‘must-win,’” said Nuggets All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony, who had also termed the game the most important of his pro career, “but now Monday is a must-win for us.”
Monday’s game, also at the Pepsi Center, is vital to the Nuggets’ playoff hopes because their chance to win Saturday’s game and take a 2-1 series lead was thrown away with a careless in-bounds pass from backup guard J.R. Smith, the youngest player who suited up for either team Saturday. Robert Horry, that 36-year-old, 15-year veteran, picked it off and turned it into a 3-point basket.
Horry’s shot triggered a flurry of three 3-pointers in the final 1:38 that sent the Spurs into the fourth quarter with a 75-67 lead that was big enough to withstand a couple of Denver surges.
Anthony, who scored 28 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, did not try to spare Smith’s feelings when asked where Saturday’s game slipped away.
“Truthfully,” he said, “that turnover where Robert Horry stole the ball and hit the three. We had to fight after that. That was the turning point.”
How could Smith have committed a pass that seemed to have no intended target?
“I passed the ball; he intercepted,” Smith said, a look on his face as if he had just bitten into a rotten apple. “Shoot, that’s easy enough.”
What won’t be easy, for Smith or his teammates, will be forgetting the effect his mistake had on Saturday’s outcome and, perhaps the series.
Anthony said it is imperative that they try.
“We try not to let games linger around,” Anthony said. “Tomorrow is a new day. I haven’t talked to him (about that) yet, but I’m going to remind him.”
Nuggets coach George Karl called Saturday’s loss one on which his team could build, but he also had to distance himself from his declarations that Game 3 had special psychological implications for his young team.
“There’s no must-win way of winning a playoff series,” Karl said. “Someone once said a series gets real hot when each team wins on their home court. If we win Monday, that is what the bottom line will be, that the series has gotten real hot.”
Anthony found encouragement in his teammates’ outlook after the loss. It was, he said, in contrast to the feeling when the Spurs won Game 3 of the first-round series between the teams in 2005.
“In 2005, guys had their heads down, towels over their heads,” Anthony said. “Nobody had their head down tonight … We’ve got to come in here and take care of business (Monday).”
If they don’t and go down 3-1?
Then Wednesday’s Game 5, at the AT&T Center, really will be a must-win for Denver.