Depth Kills If You Are The Nuggets

It seems that in every game a new player steps up for the Denver Nuggets.

And Friday night it was Kosta Koufos and Danilo Gallinari that helped the Nuggets pick up their fourth consecutive victory.

Koufos made all four of his shots and had three big blocked shots that helped the Nuggets rally in the second half. Denver scored the final eight points of the third quarter to get its first lead of the game at the start of the fourth quarter.

Gallinari has been on a scoring spree since missing a game-tying layup against the Los Angeles Lakers on New Years Eve. Since the New Years he has averaged 18 points on 25 of 51 shooting, scoring 20 or more points in three of the four games. And on Friday, Gallinari led all scorers with 23 and hit a season-best three treys as he still struggles to get his shot back.

•  Al Harrington and Andre Miller were once again big off the bench. Harrington finished the game with 14 points and six rebounds, while Miller totaled 14 points, five rebounds and six assists.
• Arron Afflalo is starting to turn the corner, but he, like the rest of the Nuggets, struggled from behind the arc. Afflalo missed all four of treys and Denver’s squad missed 16 of 21 shots from behind the arc.

The Nuggets struggled from behind the arc has been well-documented as the Hornets shut off all of the lanes to the basket and made Denver a jump-shooting team and the Nuggets will see similar defenses in the future unless they can prove they can hit from behind the arc.

Gallinari (.189), Rudy Fernandez (.267), Harrington (.300) and Afflalo (.182) each have been known as top 3-pointers shooters in years past, but have struggled with their jumper this season.