Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Post Notes: Nuggets 97, Trail Blazers 89

It should come as no surprise that most of the notes of interest from last night's game tend to be Denver-friendly. Hopefully we can change that tonight. That's right: We will play tonight.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

• Nene recorded his second-straight double-double (seventh of the season, 46th of his career) with 19 points and 11 rebounds against the Blazers tonight. The Nuggets are now 5-2 on the year when Nene records a double-double.

• Chauncey Billups tallied his fifth double-double of the season (fifth with Denver, 81st of his career) with 19 points and 10 assists. The Nuggets improve to 6-1 when a player dishes out 10+ assists, while they are 6-0 when Billups does so.

• Linas Kleiza scored 17 points off the bench for Denver tonight, marking his fourth-straight game scoring 10 or more points.

• J.R. Smith started his first game of the season tonight, scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds in tonight’s win. Tonight marked his first start since 1/31/07, while it was his 25th start in a Nuggets uniform.

• Chris Andersen blocked a season-high six shots vs. Portland tonight (previous five vs. Houston on 11/30/08). This is the fifth time this season that he has blocked four or more shots.

• LaMarcus Aldridge led the Blazers with 20 points during tonight’s loss. This is his seventh time so far this season leading his team in scoring, while it is his ninth time scoring 20 or more points.

• Brandon Roy managed only eight points for Portland tonight. Entering tonight’s game, Roy had scored 29 or more points in his previous five outings, while averaging 36.4 ppg in the process.

TEAM NOTES


• With tonight’s win, the Nuggets improve to 18-10 on the season, including 10-4 at the Pepsi Center. Denver’s 18-10 record is tied for the second-best record thru 28 games in team history (also began at least 18-10 five other times, most recently in 1989-90).

• With tonight’s win, the Nuggets once again avoided losing consecutive home games. Denver has not lost consecutive games at the Pepsi Center since the 2006-07 season (2/5 and 2/7/07).

• The Nuggets scored 97 points in tonight’s win, which is their fifth win on the year when to scoring under 100 points (5-7). Denver was just 3-16 when scoring under 100 points last season and only 3-23 during the 2006-07 season.

• Portland scored 89 points in tonight’s loss and are now 6-8 this season when failing to score 100 points, not to mention just 1-5 when being held below 90 points. Denver, on the other hand, is now 11-1 when holding teams to less than 100 and a perfect 8-0 when holding the opposition to 90 or less.

• With tonight’s win, the Nuggets improved to 10-1 against the Blazers at the Pepsi Center since 2003-04, as well as 17-4 overall these last five-plus seasons.

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