Barton, Nurkic lead Nuggets past Pistons
By Evan Wheeler
The Nuggets entered the All-Star break on a high note, defeating the Pistons 103-92 on a night where one of Denver’s finest was honored. Former Nuggets guard and Colorado basketball legend Chauncey Billups had his jersey retired in the rafters of The Palace of Auburn Hills on Wednesday night.
Billups won a championship for the Piston’s franchise back in 2004, while earning Finals MVP honors and leading Detroit to six straight Eastern Conference Championship appearances.
Denver is now 22-32 on the season and earned their 11th road win of the year, already tieing their total number of wins away from the Pepsi Center last season.
The game was close for much of the first half, but Denver was able to pull away in the second outscoring Detroit 51-39. Will Barton and Jusuf Nurkic took over for Denver, helping them seal the win in the fourth quarter. Nurkic dominated All-Star center Andre Drummond for most of the second half, finishing with a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds to go along with 2 assists and a block. Barton was the Nuggets leading scorer for the game, finishing with 20 points and scoring 15 of them in the fourth quarter.
Denver had six players in double-figure scoring and five players with five or more rebounds against Detroit. The Nuggets dominated inside and in transition, outscoring the Pistons 62-46 in the paint and 17-8 in fast break points.
Denver also had 13 more free throw attempts than Detroit thanks to Gallinari and Barton who combined to shoot 13-15 from the charity stripe. Emmanuel Mudiay played very well, playing aggressively on the offensive end and attacking the lane off of pick and rolls. He finished with 14 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and only 2 turnovers.
Players of The Game: Will Barton and Jusuf Nurkic – combined for 36 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks on 15-24 shooting from the field.
Up Next for Denver: The Nuggets head into the All-Star break where they will be represented well by rookies Emmanuel Mudiay and Nikola Jokic in the Rising Stars game, as well as Will Barton in the Slam Dunk contest. Denver will return to action next week, Friday February 19th at Sacramento against the struggling Kings.