It was the Danilo Gallinari show last night, as he poured in a career high 39 points to help Denver pound the Mavericks 106-85 in Dallas. Gallo was phenomenal all game, scoring five points in five seconds to end the first half and draining seven of his eleven three point attempts. He has shot 48% from beyond the arc over the last five games and it seems Gallo has potentially gotten his touch back from the perimeter. Kenneth Faried and Andre Iguodala both were also sensational against Dallas, Faried recorded his 13th double-double of the season(11 Pts, 19 Reb) and out-rebounded the entire Mavericks team single handedly in the 1st quarter. Iguodala on the other hand was able to shrug off his recent shooting slump from the three point line as he scored 20 points and went four of six from downtown. He was huge for the Nuggets in the third quarter, hitting all four of his three’s during the third and helping Denver ultimately pull away. The Nuggets defense was also very good as they held the Mavericks to just 85 points and 37% shooting from the field. Denver controlled the paint(outscored Dallas 52-34), the glass(out-rebounded Dallas 60-43), scored 20 points in transition and moved the ball well on offense, finishing with 25 assists. With this win, the mile high crew are now 7-4 against current Western Conference playoff teams which is a nice stat for what’s been a disappointing year so far for Denver.
The only real problems the Nuggets had in this game were taking care of the ball(committed 19 turnover’s) and free throw shooting(shot 57% from the charity strike…ugh). Denver will now move on to play the Memphis Grizzlies tonight in Memphis, Tipoff is slated for 6:00 PM mountain time. The Nuggets will look to come away with their third straight victory over the Grizzlies tonight.