More photos » Bill Haber - AP

9 months ago: Many fans left the basketball game between the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Hornets early as the Nuggets defeated the Hornets 121-63 in the first-round playoff NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Monday, April 27, 2009. The Nuggets have taken a 3-1 lead in the best of seven games series. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

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Denver MANY POINTS | New Orleans NOT MANY POINTS

"The best part about that game was when it ended."

Overheard that on the way out of the arena. Perfect descriptor of the most stunning and embarrassing loss I've ever witnessed.

Last year when we lost in the playoffs, we did it with dignity. We believed in ourselves and we were willing to put up a fight to the bitter end. Man, those days seem so far away.

Tonight, we sucked and the Nuggets didn't. End of story. In fact, they were arguably twice as good as we were, and there are actually numbers to back that (beyond the score). Credit the Nuggets for a damn good performance. This was one for the history books.

I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to read a recap and have to relive this atrocious experience, but if you do there's a semblance of a recap after the jump.

Ok, let's dig in here a little. The Nuggets very nearly doubled our score at 121 to 63. Three teams this year failed to win 20 games all season and not one of them suffered a loss by a margin this wide. And it's not even all that close. A Clippers 39 point loss to the Lake Show was the worst I could dig up.

Seriously, it looked like a video game on the court tonight. Denver made us look amateurish at best. In fact, I don't even want to describe how awful it was. Instead, let's look at some numbers in which the Nuggets severely outperformed us:

• FG%: 56.6 to 31.5
• 3P%: 50 to 13.3
  
• REB: 41 to 32
• AST: 29 (twenty-nine!) to 10 (ten!)
• TO: 11 to 26 (twenty-six!)
• AST/TO: 2.64 to 0.38 (let that sink in... we had almost 3 times as many TOs as ASTs)
  
• PTS OFF TO: 41 to 12

No one on the Nuggets had a particularly bad night (as if you didn't already know that from the numbers above), but no one put up really stellar numbers either (how could they, no one really played much more than 30 minutes). Melo did pull a nice 26, 7, 6 and Chauncy added a 17, 3, 8... actually, those are pretty stellar considering both guys played way less than they normally do.

The Hornets? No one played well. Posey showed the most fight and deserves some amount of applause (especially after being injured in the last game), but it wasn't particularly inspiring among the other lackluster performances by his teammates. Honestly, I think this stat line really sums up the evening the best:

• CP: 4 points, 2 for 7 shooting, 6 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 6 turnovers in 36 minutes. Has to be the single worst performance of his career.

Damn.I wish I had more insight to offer you guys, but frankly my brain is severely overloaded and still somewhat incapable of processing what just happened. I know we still have another game to play, but I think it's time we congratulate Denver, wish them luck, and start looking to the offseason.

I can tell you one thing: I don't envy Jeff Bower in the coming months.

Composed to: "The Bottle Let Me Down" (needed a soundtrack while I cry in my beer)

The Opponents Take: Pickaxe and Roll