Nuggets Take Down Lebron James While Lamenting The One That Got Away

Nugget haters are mounting their excuses right now trying to explain the reason that the hapless Nug's found a way to beat the Heat.

Don't worry.  I'll do it for you.  After all, the Nuggets were not the first but the second of the teams who beat the Miami Heat back to back on their home court.  In other words, the Heat had already lost at home and have lost several games recently.  If you are religious you understand the divine intent of King David, you also understand his victory over Goliath.  If you are not you might think that a scared kid got lucky with a rock and a slingshot. Nugget haters can easily subscribe to this miracle story as plausible cause.

Do the Nuggets have their backup team starting the game?
(.......excluding Ty Lawson of course)

I would make a few more excuses for the Nugget victory, but in reality there are none.  The Nuggets lost the start of the game and just about lost the end of it as well.  Correction, the Nuggets starters lost the start of the game against Miami and the bench had to save the day.

Is Evan Fournier a future all-star?

While JJ Hickson, Aaron Brooks, Quincy Miller, Dorrell
Arthur and Evan Fournier comprise the backup bunch,  
Fournier lead the way among the bench players and showed a reason for us all to send thank you cards to Masi Ujiri in Toronto who we credit with the foresight to draft Fournier.  As we look forward to the draft and hope for a play maker who can be an all-star caliber closer, Fournier could be the best gift from France since the statue of Liberty or Tony Parker, and will press Danilo Gallinari next season for the #1 Euro Nugget. 

 Brooks added 5 dimes versus Miami

Starters and finishers are hardly the same in basketball. This truth  relegates Timofey Mozgov to obscurity down the stretch of most games.  Against Miami, every other starter except Ty Lawson shared minutes with backups who performed better.

As it turns out, the key to this game would be free throws.  No matter how many statistics you dominate against a team like Miami, and the Nuggets dominated a few, you had better beat them well enough to avoid their closing ability.  The Nuggets did not do this at all and were forced to maintain a lead that they enjoyed through the greater portion of the game.

Now haters!  Listen up!  This is where you have to determine if the coach and team that you are criticizing is truly worthy of the critique you level.  Since the Nuggets get 3 new players from the cupboard next year, a coach with more skills in the kitchen, and his own seasoning (to add to the recipe), what we see now is merely a test kitchen if you will.

Have we seen enough of the Wilson Chandler experiment?
Is it time to let Quincy Miller start?

On this road trip, the Nuggets have learned that  there are simply no moral victories.  The loss to New Orleans was a painful Christmas gift that we either gave early this year or late from last year.

Either way it was a gift.

Winning back to back games on the road, including one over the defending champs is cool, but does it vindicate the losses and the voices of the haters? 
Fournier said it best.  

"This is no vindication. This is one win."

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