Pace Factor and the Kings Game
By Troy Fabrizio, NuggetsInsider.com Columnist
With all due respect to my Nuggets Insider colleague, Beno Udrich was not a problem last night. 
While he scored 24 points, it took him 23 shots to get those points. Fact is, with enough possessions, someone is going to score the points for any team. Beno put up better performances this year against the Spurs (27 points on 12 shot attempts), Pistons (23 points on 12 shot attempts) and Rockets (15 points on 7 shot attempts). It'll be a shock to everyone again, but the defense simply wasn't that bad last night. The Kings had 90 FG attempts last night. They shot 13 FT to add another 5 possessions. They turned the ball over 22 times. The Kings had 117 times last night. They put up 97 points. The best defense in the league allows 96.4 points per 100 possessions. Denver gave up 97 in 117. Playing at that pace with guys like Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony, that should be a blowout folks. The reason it wasn't was because of the Nuggets second half offensive performance. After a sensational first half where they scored 59 points, the Nuggets simply fell apart. They sleepwalked through a 42 point second half. The crisp passing, ball movement and hustle on the offensive end faded. It became a series of one on one moves and long jump shots. Up by two points with 28 seconds left, the Nuggets came up with a typical offensive possession. AI dribbled the ball and didn't look for anyone else. Two Kings doubled teamed him and no Nugget bothered to come to his aid. The result was a turnover and what should have led to the Kings tying the score up. (for some reason beyond my comprehension Ron Artest passed up a wide open layup and likely three point play to kick the ball out for an attempted three point shot) What did it all add up to? The Nuggets had the ball for 117 possessions last night. They scored 101 points. To put that into perspective, the worst offensive team in the league (the Chicago Bulls) average 93 points per 100 possessions. The Nuggets were at about the same clip last night. Against a team in the bottom third of the NBA in defense, the Nuggets produced like the worst offensive team in the league. That is usually going to result in defeat. It was the defense that saved our bacon last night. If it weren't for the 22 forced turnovers, the 13 blocked shots, only giving up 13 FT attempts and holding the Kings to two under 20 point quarters, your Denver Nuggets would have thrown up another L. A lot of my friends keep pointing to five minute defensive stretches where they point 
out how horrible the defense is. Guess what? Every team in this league gives up layups and dunks. The Spurs, the Pistons, the Rockets, the Celtics. Scan through Spurs box scores and you are going to see games where guys like Beno Udrich, Damon Stoudamire, Brendan Heywood and Luis Scola simply went off on them. The Spurs actually have a defensive FG% two points worse than the Nuggets. Why do they keep winning? They mix a solid defense with a consistent offense. When a team like the Wizards score close to 100 points on 50% shooting, the Spurs score 110 on 55% shooting. For all the talk of defense, the Spurs understand you have to score to win. They score over 110 points per 100 offensive possessions. That's the best rate in the NBA. Last night the Nuggets almost lost a game they shouldn't have. Your mind may tell you that the defense caused the downfall. That Beno Udrich scored 24 points and that the Nuggets gave up to many layups which caused the team to go down. Don't believe it. When the offense dies, this team dies. In the second half last night the Nuggets decided they didn't need to work hard on offense. That attitude nearly cost them the game.
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