SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One night after seeing Cleveland's King James, the Nuggets saw Kings rookie Tyreke Evans who, well, looked like the King.
All season, Nuggets coach George Karl has praised Evans, and Saturday was the first time Karl saw him in person. If it were any other night, Karl would have loved the show. Instead, Karl glumly walked to the locker room a loser, 102-100, because the likely rookie of the year hit an unflappable fadeaway jumper with 0.7 seconds left. Evans shot 10-for-15 from the field for 27 points, and he drove the baseline like a fullback, fearlessly popping jumpers in Nuggets' faces and, of course, hitting the game-winner.
"He made a pretty good move," said Karl, whose team had a chance after Evans' basket but J.R. Smith's contested launch didn't come close.
"Kenyon (Martin) got a pretty good hand on (Evans' shot). The only question I had was do you double him (earlier). I can't fault the play. Kenyon's probably our best individual defender."
The Nuggets tallied only 12 assists — an unacceptable number, considering point guard Chauncey Billups was back in the lineup (to be fair, Sacramento had 12 as well).
"It's not something that concerns me — I know we're not being selfish," Billups said.
In an airtight fourth quarter, the Nuggets found themselves trailing by three with 15 seconds left, but Karl calmly drew up a perfect and pretty simple play — Billups would inbounds from the left sideline to Nene, who would hand it off to Billups near the top of the key. The play worked, all right. Billups sank a fadeaway 3, over Evans, to set up the final basket.
The Nuggets marked Evans with the tenacious Martin, who was forced into the lane by the rookie. Evans then pulled up and hit the fadeaway that they'll talk about all season long in Sacramento, where the upstart Kings (15-21) have defeated the Nuggets (23-14) for the second time this season.
Potential
all-star starter Carmelo Anthony returned to Sacramento, the site of his last game played. But Melo missed his fifth straight game since banging knees with Sacramento's Donte Greene on Dec. 28. Anthony (bruised right knee) will likely return Monday against Minnesota. Same for rookie guard Ty Lawson (sprained left ankle), who missed his second straight game. "It's going to be Monday — it's gotten a lot better the last couple of games," Lawson said. On Friday night in the win over Cleveland, Karl complimented the unpredictable Smith for his "huge" performances down the stretch. Indeed, Smith hit a big 3 and played some defense. But that overshadowed the fact he was 3-for-10 from the field. On Saturday, Smith was similarly inconsistent with his shooting, finishing 8-for-21 from the field, including 2-for-8 from 3-point range. Smith missed two straight free throws in the fourth quarter and made arguably the most infamous play of the season in the third, catching an air-balled jumper that grazed the net and stepping out of bounds to inbounds the ball, as if it were a made basket.
Nuggets Recap
What you might have missed
Forward Joey Graham played aggressive offense to start the game. In fact, he was the first Nugget to score in double figures. But he got in foul trouble and finished with 11.
Final thought
Twelve assists and 14 missed 3-pointers won't cut it on the road.
Up next
Vs. Minnesota, Monday, 7 p.m.
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