The Denver Nuggets (4-4) defeated the Milwaukee Bucks (4-5) 103-102 thanks to a second-half surge on Wednesday.
Kenneth Faried hit the game-winner on Wednesday thanks to an air-ball from Danilo Gallinari. He snatched the rebound with five-seconds left and simply laid it in with no defenders around him to cap off the win. It wasn’t the prettiest game-winner, but the Nuggets will take it. The Bucks were playing the second half of a back-to-back and that was clearly evident with their third quarter. The Nuggets outscored the Bucks 34-16 in the third quarter and that was the difference in the game. Both teams combined to shoot over 50 percent from the field and committed just 30 combined turnovers in what was a higher-scoring game than anticipated.
Milwaukee shot an incredible 70 percent from the field in the first half, but were let down in the second half by some poor shooting and lazy defense. They shot just 36 percent in the second half and allowed way too many easy baskets in the third quarter. Playing the second half of a back-to-back in Denver is always a tough task, and that was clear on Wednesday with the tired legs the Bucks appeared to have. Milwaukee was led by Greg Monroe who recorded a double-double, contributing 18 points and 10 rebounds in the defeat. The Bucks also got some nice bench performances in the loss, as Greivis Vasquez tallied 15 points and nine assists, while Jerryd Bayless totaled 22 points and four assists. Bayless also poured in 15 points in the fourth quarter and he was the key to a near comeback for Milwaukee. They'll look to get back to .500 on Saturday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Nuggets had quite the volatile game on Wednesday, as they scored 34 points in the third quarter, while nearly blowing it in the fourth, with a 16-point quarter. The hero was Kenneth Faried, who hit the game-winner to cap off a 19 point-nine rebound performance. Rookie Emmanuel Muiday set a career-high in assists with 11 dimes and also scored 16 points in the victory. The Nuggets best player on this evening was Danilo Gallinari though, as he tallied 25 points and seven rebounds. This type of performance is the Nuggets in a nutshell, as they can look very good at times and utterly terrible at other times. This will be a volatile team all season long and it's tough to know what you're going to get on any given night. Denver will look to keep up the momentum when they host the Houston Rockets on Friday, who they beat in the opener by a 20-point margin in Houston.
