Memphis 108, Denver 96

Tweet

DENVER (AP) -- Memphis coach Mike Fratello raised his fists high in the air and let out a little yell at the end of the game. He couldn't keep it in, not after the Grizzlies broke a 17-game losing streak in Denver with a 108-96 victory over the Nuggets on Tuesday night. The Grizzlies also snapped a seven-game road losing streak this season. "We haven't had a whole lot of success in this town before," Fratello said. "Our team had a very good feeling about this one." And Denver coach George Karl had a bad premonition. Karl was fretting about the game all day, saying there were a lot of "psychological distractions" in playing a team that has struggled in Denver and was without one of its main offensive threats in Pau Gasol, who's recovering from surgery on his left foot. His gut feeling was right. "We settled for jump shots a lot," Karl said. "If we play like that against Memphis, they are going to beat us. They are a better jump-shooting team." The Grizzlies were the only NBA team without a win at the Pepsi Center until Tuesday night. Memphis hadn't won in Denver since Nov. 18, 1997, when the Nuggets played at McNichols Arena. The Grizzlies were also located in Vancouver back then. "I think I was 5," Hakim Warrick said when asked his age the last time Memphis won in Denver. "I'd heard about Denver beating us all the time when I got to town on Sunday. I'd heard enough of that talk." So Warrick did something about it, scoring 25 points. He almost kept up with his former Syracuse teammate, Carmelo Anthony, who scored 37 points. Anthony, who was recently named the Western Conference Player of the Week, has now scored 30 or more points in 10 of his last 11 games. "He reminded me we hadn't won here," Warrick said. "He told me." AP - Nov 28, 11:53 pm EST More Photos That's funny, since Anthony played ignorant on the streak. "I never knew that," he said of Memphis' shortcomings in Denver. "It was their night. It wasn't our night." The Grizzlies led by one entering the fourth quarter, but opened a 104-92 lead with 2:46 remaining on Lawrence Roberts' layup. Roberts had eight of his career-high 16 points in the fourth quarter. Denver went 5:21 between field goals early in the final quarter. "We just didn't play Nugget basketball," Karl said. "We didn't create any running game, and against a team that executes pretty well, we let them execute." The Grizzlies had a season-high 30 assists. Mike Miller had a career-high 14 assists and added 13 points. "We shared the basketball," Fratello said. "Forty-five baskets and 30 assists. That's tremendous." The loss breaks Denver's five-game winning streak. The Nuggets had scored more than 100 points in every game in the five-game stretch. In the first quarter, Denver dictated the tempo and jumped out to an 11-point lead. But the Nuggets took their foot off the gas pedal. "We got complacent with our lead," Anthony said. "We stopped attacking. We didn't have (intensity) tonight. I (saw) it during warmups. We were just out there." Andre Miller had a season-high 13 assists for the Nuggets and Marcus Camby had 14 points and 10 rebounds, his ninth double-double of the season. "We can't take teams for granted," Miller said. "This was one of these nights where we did take a team for granted."