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Harris-Led Nuggets Fall Short In Boston

By Mike Wilson

BOSTON, MA - DECEMBER 13: Trey Lyles
BOSTON, MA - DECEMBER 13: Trey Lyles /
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There are mixed feelings tonight following the Nuggets loss to the NBA’s best defensive team, the Boston Celtics, with a final score of 124-118.

Although the Nuggets were dealt their fourth loss on this torturous six game road trip, tonight,  perhaps, was the most encouraging game they have played this year.  This was truly a confidence booster for the potential young Denver team and it’s future this season (as well as beyond).

What really stood out tonight was a stunning 64 points from the back court.  Gary Harris put up a career high 36 points coupled with an explosion from Jamal Murray with 28 points.  The young talent on this roster is truly starting to blossom and what makes it even more exciting is that we are seeing more start to blossom than was anticipated such as Lyles and Beasley.

To quickly recap tonight, the Nuggets came right out of the gate hot with production from Lyleswho got the start due to some of the injuries on the team.  Lyles started the game with this nasty slamma-jama you see above, followed up by two three pointers.  I would be very curious to know if Utah Jazz fans are dreading trading their former first round Kentucky pick away after only his second season to the Nuggets.

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In addition to missing their superstars of Millsap and Jokic, the Nuggets were without standout Will Barton and overall had a diminished bench due to injury.  Even without Barton’s hot hand, the Nuggets started the game 6/6 and had high energy, which we are not used to seeing out of this team in the first quarter.  Gary Harris was into double digit scoring with five minutes left in the first quarter which would give you the feeling that he was going to have himself a night.

Faried had an equally strong, high energy first half.  Kenneth had 5 rebounds in the first 5 minutes of the game and finished with 10 for the night.  When the second unit came in, as has been the trend this season, the Nuggets energy was sucked out of the building and lost what the starters built in the beginning of the game.  Denver went from a tie game to being down 10 points for most of the game until late in the third when they tied it up again.

One of the very positive takeaways from tonight was the amount of points that the Nuggets got in the paint.  The Altitude team, Nuggets twitter, and my dogs on the couch all noticed the Nuggets were just playing comfortably and having fun- having fun, but also flying around at 110mph to the point where you imagine that if this team played like this all the time, would be top 5 team in the league.  On both sides of the ball.

Overall, the Nuggets were just not used the Celtics incessant defensive mindset.  They took no plays off.  Not one.  Coach Brad Stevens is doing great things with that roster.  Newly acquired Kyrie Irving is having a MVP caliber season that makes it seem like Boston will be a force in the East for years to come.  I mean, good for Boston, right?  They need the help with some wins out there with their team sports.  That being said, the Nuggets took this game down to the final stretch, while missing 3 of their most impactful players in Millsap, Jokic, and Barton.

Big tip of the cap to Garris on a career high evening.  His previous high was 28 points, which seems very low.  I personally would have expected that number to be higher when they announced it.  There were so many great plays out of Gary tonight but this one takes the cake.

The Nuggets come back home to Denver Friday to host the New Orleans Pelicans.  The Nuggets currently have one of the best home records in the NBA and are taking the Pepsi Center back to the glory days of 2004-2011.  It is a very exciting time to be a Nuggets fan right now.  Very exciting..

-Miked Up

Twitter: @mwilsonco

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