"With the wrath of a sellout crowd breathing down his neck, Ty Lawson transported himself to a moment of tranquility, the summer basketball courts back in D.C. A few years ago, Lawson had played some games with Jameer Nelson, and Lawson remembered that Nelson loved to do a quick stutter prior to a pull-up 3. "I thought he was going to go to it," Lawson said Friday. "And he did." Lawson was so close to Nelson that "I don't even know if he saw the rim," but the Magic's Nelson hit Friday night's game-winning 3, defeating the Nuggets 85-82. "I was right there — he shot that thing high," said Lawson of the top-of-the-key 3. "But that's the NBA — shots like that happen." And losses like that happen too — and the closer they are, the more they sting. But after the game, Nuggets coach George Karl was still complimentary of his defensive-minded Nuggets, who have been on the road since Sunday and shot poorly Friday. The game came down to a final shot, and "the big thing for me is," Karl said, "is if you can win a game playing poorly, that's a sign of being a very, good team — more so than winning a game by playing well." They still lost. But at least they didn't lose Raymond Felton for long. The guard suffered a scary fall on his left ankle, but it proved to just be a sprain, and he's day to day. The Nuggets (41-28) are now 4 1/2 games back of No. 4 Oklahoma City — Denver hopes to catch the Thunder and nab homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs (the two teams play twice in April). And in Friday's loss, they took several shoddy shots. In fact, Denver shot just 35.9 percent, its worst shooting percentage of the season (the previous low was 37.5 percent at the Clippers on Jan. 5). "We had no one shooting the ball," Karl said. "But our hearts and our guts were good." Denver stayed in the game thanks to its defense. The Magic (44-26) shot 37.3 percent from the field. The Nuggets held Dwight Howard to just five field goals (and 16 points). And even though Orlando was without the injured J.J. Redick and Gilbert Arenas, the Magic players who did play shot just 36 percent from 3-point range (though one of the made 3s was sort of big). For Denver, the last time fans saw Danilo Gallinari, he was striding down the court in Portland, en route to a 30-point night. On Friday, after fracturing his left big toe that night against the Blazers, Gallo was back to galloping." Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_17648246
