Iverson-led Nuggets Dominate the Celtics

There was speculation earlier as to how long it would take Allen Iverson to settle in with his new team, the Denver Nuggets. In the end, all it took was two games, as the Nuggets, under the leadership of Iverson, tamed the Boston Celtics 116-105 Tuesday night. This was Iverson’s second double-double and first win after the Denver Nuggets picked him up on December 19, 2006, for Andre Miller, Joe Smith, and two first-round picks in 2007.

Iverson scored 28 points and provided 13 assists in his team’s win over the Celtics. Reggie Evans, the Nuggets forward, came off the bench and had 14 points and 14 rebounds. For the Celtics, Tony Allen scored 18 points, Al Jefferson had 16 points and 15 rebounds, the highest rebounds in a game in his career, and Gerald Green had 18 points.

The Nuggets players were all praise for their new captain’s collaborative approach to the game. In the words of Evans, the entire team was comfortable with Iverson, and appreciated his game. Iverson himself was modest about his approach to his new teammates.

His approach was basically to get the entire team involved, though he had clearance from the coach, George Karl, to go more for shots and less for passes. “I just wanted to make it … easier for everybody,” he said. And that is exactly what he did. His teammates too were quite taken in with his approach. “That is why he’s a great teammate. His leadership is helping us a lot,” said Eduardo Najera, who himself finished with 16 points and 11 boards.

However, it was the tandem pairing of Iverson and Earl Boykins that ran circles around the Celtics. Earl finished with 28 points as well. The pairing carried a lot of responsibility, with Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith slated to miss quite a few games (Carmelo 15 and Smith 10) for the Nuggets, for their part in a brawl with New York Knicks players on December 16, 2006.

This was coach George Karl’s 799th career win as coach. He has a chance at moving that number one notch to 800 on Thursday against a team he coached earlier, the Seattle Supersonics. There was more irony in the match itself. Celtics had also made a bid to acquire the services of Iverson, but ended up not getting him on board. On Tuesday night, they had to face the consequence of that decision.

For Boston Celtics, Paul Pierce missed his second consecutive game due to a foot injury, while Wally Szczerbiak missed the game due to a sprain in the right ankle. To further add to their woes, Delonte West, who started the second half in place of Sebastian Telfair, had to come off when he rolled off Nuggets’ Boykins and fell on his back. Celtics coach Doc Rivers summed up their performance quite accurately, “I thought the effort was great, the execution was poor. Our defense was disappointing.”

He couldn’t have worded it better.