Johan Petro

Johan Petro and the Denver Nuggets opened their run at the 2010 Larry O’Brien NBA Championship trophy on Saturday with a 126-113 victory over the Utah Jazz.

The Nuggets took full advantage of the short-handed Jazz, outrebounding them by 11 and shooting 57 percent from the field. As the Nuggets pounded the paint, the Jazz lost one of their only big men when center Mehmet Okur went down with an Achilles injury.

Okur will miss the rest of the series with the injury and his loss has helped shine a light on the depth that Denver has built with Johan and Chris Anderson behind Nene and Kenyon Martin, as Anthony Cotton of the Denver Post writes:

“On any NBA bench, one can find rotation guys (think J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen), substitutes (Johan Petro) — and the situation the Utah Jazz finds itself in entering Game 2 of its opening-round playoff series versus the Nuggets.

Already down one starter in forward Andrei Kirilenko, the team was rocked Sunday with the news that starting center Mehmet Okur would be lost for the rest of the playoffs with a torn Achilles tendon.

That means the Jazz will basically have to play Carlos Boozer, Paul Millsap and perhaps Kyle Korver for 48 minutes or plumb depths more in keeping with deep-sea excavations when the series resumes tonight at the Pepsi Center.”

With Martin’s return to the lineup, Johan saw his minutes decrease in Saturday’s Game 1 victory, but he did contribute one rebound in less than two minutes. Most importantly, No. 27 is there when the Nuggets need him.

All business: Johan and selected teammates back on April 2 (Getty Images).

With 16 starts under his belt in Martin’s absence, JP averaged 12.1 minutes per game this season. Comparatively, Utah’s new starter, Kyrylo Fesenko, averaged only 8.3 minutes per game this season and only started five times.

Tim Alvine of Bleacher Report foreshadowed the difference in depth in his preview of the series:

“Nene Hilaro and Kenyon Martin chip in for 25+ per night while helping Denver remain dominant on the boards. It doesn’t stop there either. Add Aaron Afflalo, Ty Lawson, Chris “the Birdman” Anderson, and even Johan Petro has come out of nowhere while Martin was nursing injuries.”

Alvine picked Denver to pull it out in a seven-game thriller.

GAME TWO LETDOWN
The likelihood that the series would go deep increased on Monday night when the Jazz evened it at a game apiece with a 114-111 win in Game 2

In just over five minutes of action, No. 27 made his presence felt, scoring four points and blocking a shot by Kosta Koufos.

Johan entered the game with 3:23 to go in the first quarter and the Nuggets trailing by two. Johan took the floor with Paul Milsap at the free throw line and after Milsap hit a free throw to make it 24-21, Chauncey Billups was fouled on a three-point attempt with a chance to knot the game. Billups sank all three of his attempts at the charity stripe to tie the score at 24.

The teams traded misses over the next minute, but when Utah forward Carlos Boozer turned it over, Johan made Denver’s subsequent possession count with a jump hook off the feed from Billups that gave the Nuggets a 26-24 lead.

Utah proceeded on a 7-2 run to takeback the lead, 31-28, but JP stemmed the tide with a cut to the basket for a layup with 12.7 seconds left in the quarter to make it 31-30. Utah, however, quickly answered with a dunk by Fesenko to push their lead back to three at the end of the quarter.

Johan didn’t see the court again until the waning minutes of the third quarter and he registered his block 48 seconds into the fourth quarter when he stuffed Koufos on a turnaround jumper.

Utah built a 14-point lead in the third quarter, but Denver surged back to take the lead late and led 106-105 with 2:33 to go. But a three by Kyle Korver with 1:26 to go made it 108-106 Utah and the Jazz held on for a win. After the game, Johan remarked on his team’s performance, as quoted by the Associated Press:

“We had some bad calls down the stretch but you have to figure out a way to fight through that, play through that,” Nuggets center Johan Petro said. “We missed some easy shots, some lay-ups and we kind of felt it at the end. But we know what we have to do. We’ll get one over there. It’s playoff basketball.”

NEXT UP
The Nuggets head West to Salt Lake City Utah for Game 3 of their first round playoff series with the Jazz on Friday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Mountain Time and the game can be seen on ESPN2.

RELATED STORIES
NBA Playoffs Preview and Prediction: Denver Nuggets vs. Utah Jazz (Bleacher Report, April 15, 2010)
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Key injury hobbles Utah (The Denver Post, April 19, 2010)
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Shorthanded Jazz beat Nuggets, tie series at 1 (Associate Press, April 20, 2010)
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