Utah Jazz: Lack of offensive teamwork threatening Nuggets' season

SALT LAKE CITY — With 3:21 remaining in the second quarter on Sunday night at EnergySolutions Arena, Chris "Birdman" Andersen walked right past Denver Nuggets acting head coach Adrian Dantley, without acknowledgement, and headed to the end of the bench and sat down.

Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, who came out of the game at the same time as Andersen, walked over to him — and the two players had a heated exchange.

It was about that time that it seemed apparent that the 2009-10 Nuggets are broken beyond repair. Players seemed to be ignoring both the coaches and each other. By the end of the third quarter the Nuggets were behind by 18 points.

But a fourth quarter rally by the Nuggets — even though it eventually fell short in Utah's 117-106 victory — seemed to indicate that Denver has not given up.

"I was happy with our effort," said Dantley, "but we missed too many easy shots and in tight games you have to make free throws."

Utah now leads 3-1 and the Jazz have never lost a best-of-7 series in seven chances when leading by that margin. At the same time, Denver has never come back from a 1-3 deficit to win a series.

Anthony, as usual, led the Nuggets with 39 points and 11 rebounds. He made all of his four 3-point attempts and all nine of his free throws.

While Anthony's 39 points were impressive, the stat of Anthony's which stood out for Dantley was his star player's turnovers. Anthony had nine for the game, several coming on offensive fouls.

"Carmelo has to do a better job with his touches," said Dantley. "Nine turnovers is a lot of turnovers. You know when you play Utah they are going to flop, they are going to take charges. He's got to be aware of that. He's got to play a better game and not turn the ball over."

Anthony's miscues weren't the only problem for the Nuggets. He got very little help on the offensive end until the fourth quarter. Denver point guard Chauncey Billups, who has made a career of coming up big in the playoffs, had only 14 points before fouling out of Sunday's game with nearly four minutes remaining.

Dantley, the former Jazz star and a Hall of Fame scorer, was a great player. The jury is still out on his coaching ability, however. The Nuggets are now just 13-12 in the 25 games he's been the acting head coach in the place of veteran George Karl, who is currently out while being treated for neck and throat cancer.