Nuggets Close out Hornets

Last night the Nuggets closed out their series with the Hornets. This was their first, first round victory since 1994 when they were an eigth seed beating Seattle who was the number one seed. The Nuggets did this in convincing fashion, like they have the rest of the series, 107-86. Even though Denver lost a game, they outscored New Orleans by an average of 24 points a game. Carmelo led the Nuggets to the win with 34 points and was helped out by J.R. Smith who had 20, 15 of which came in the second half, and 13 points and 11 assists by the Denver native Chauncy Billups. A big part of the win Wednesday night was poor shooting by the Hornets. From beyond the arc they went 3-20 which is 15% and 29-76 overall which is 38%. Although the final score was a blowout it was actually a pretty good game up until the end of the game. Going into halftime the score was 49-49 and then tied at 62 later in the third quarter. The Nuggets however eventually went on a 24-4 run to break away and never looked back. Denver will now be facing the Mavericks in the next round who beat also beat the Spurs in 5 games. The Nuggets swept the Mavericks 4-0 in their season series this year.