Game 32: Denver Nuggets 118 – Minnesota Timberwolves 107

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

For those of you hoping to see a longwinded and boring post on the game against the Timberwolves I am sorry to disappoint you.  Here is a brief, though equally boring, post to cover the highpoints. 

Any concerns about the Nuggets taking the Timberwolves too lightly were erased in the first couple of minutes of a game.  The Nuggets jumped out to a 12-0 lead that Minnesota was never fully able to overcome.   

Denver took advantage of the Timberwolves atrocious transition defense, as evidenced by the fact they are last in the league in fast break points allowed, as they scored layup after layup in the first half. 

The Nuggets played a little less consistently on offense in the second half, but once again AI was tremendous in the second stanza racking up 19 points.  Only a career night from Rashad McCants allowed the T-Wolves to stay close.   

All I wanted to see was the Nuggets play the game with purpose and win.  Dave from my office expected them to lose by 8 due to the letdown factor and they avoided that fate.  The Wolves did manage to cut the Nugget lead down to six in the last couple minutes, but Denver was never in any danger of losing this game.   

So my assessment is mission accomplished. 

Sure beating the worst team in the league is not quite mission impossible, but mission accomplished nonetheless. 

Other Observations From Game 32:

 - Once again, shot and boring.  Does anyone else find it odd that after playing well against Golden State J.R. Smith has not gotten off the bench for two straight games? 

 - OK, one more.  How fair is it to have Kuba Diawara record three straight DNP-CDs and then have George Karl throw him out on the court to try to slow down the red hot McCants?  Hey Kuba, here’s a bucket, try to clean up that Niagara Falls thing. 

 - I know you are always supposed to leave them wanting more, but that is making the assumption that you guys wanted any of this in the first place, which is dangerous.  I gotta toss out one more observation.  Finally Karl realized that Chucky Atkins needs to sit down until he is totally healthy.  If he is totally healthy right now, he just needs to sit down period.  Atkins was the only Nugget with a minus for a plus/minus in the game.  Of course it could have been worse.  He could have been Sebastian Telfair who had a -25 in less than 21 minutes!  How is that even possible? 

Check out TWolves Blog for some insight from the deep dark hole that is the Minnesota sports scene.

Game 31: Denver Nuggets 80 – San Antonio Spurs 77

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

Down by four points with just 1:42 left in the game Nuggets fans were left wondering how on earth they let this one get away.  Through the first quarter and a half the Nuggets look as dominant as three legged man at a butt kicking contest, but they had apparently lost another tight game to the hated Spurs.   

Then Anthony Carter made a three to cut the Spurs lead to one, he then was credited with a steal from Duncan and made an assist to Kenyon Martin for what would prove to be the game winning shot. 

The Nuggets finished the game on am Anthony Carter fueled 7-0 run against the NBA champions to salvage a game that was practically a must win.  The Spurs were playing without Manu Ginobili, who based on his PER is the sixth most efficient player in the league, and the Nuggets were at home after three days of rest.  It can be misleading to draw conclusions from one game, but had they lost this one it would have been difficult to take the Nuggets seriously at this point in the season.   

The game did not have to be that close.  Almost five minutes into the second quarter the Nuggets were cruising with a 33-17 lead.  In less than five minutes the game was tied.  The question is how could things go from so good to so bad so quickly in the second quarter?  Look no further than the Nuggets’ offense and the Spurs defense. 

When the Nuggets went on their run to extend the lead to 16 they were getting layups and making free throws.  With that in mind look at the Nuggets’ possessions during the Spurs 19-3 run that saw them tie the score at 36. 

Turnover, turnover, Nene misses long jumper, Melo makes 1 of 2 free throws, blocked shot and a missed jumper by Melo, Kleiza misses a long three, Atkins misses a three, turnover, Kenyon misses a dunk, Kenyon misses a runner, Iverson makes a shot jumper and Iverson misses a jumper.   

During that sequence the Nuggets had two free throws and only two shots at the rim, one of which was blocked and the other missed.   

For the rest of the game the Nuggets played mostly one on one on offense and they struggled to score.  You have to give the Spurs credit, no matter who is on the floor they play great team defense.   

It is confounding to me why the Nuggets work so hard individually on offense instead of sharing the load.  Look at the personnel they have.  Carmelo is a very good passer, AI is a very good passer, Martin and Camby are good passers.  Nene is a good passer for a center.  Atkins and Carter are good passers.  If they will just work together on offense instead of trying to do things on their own they will be much more efficient and dangerous. 

I thought it was interesting after the game when AI said that the team is more than just he and Melo.  He pointed out that there are other good players on the team who can make shots, especially big shots.  It would be refreshing to see that attitude carried forward in the first 46 minutes and not just in the last one or two. 

I believe Iverson trusts his teammates, but I do not think he is used to playing with such good passers.  He does not have to dribble the ball for ten seconds to get a good shot and there are times where the Nuggets do play with great precision on offense.  They are just few and far between.  

Ultimately, this was a good game for the Nuggets.  They did what they had to do, played very good defense, especially in the first quarter and second half, and they beat the hated Spurs.  They bounce back and play Minnesota at on the road tonight.  I think most any Nugget fan has to fear a let down here.  This will be a good test of the team’s mental strength to see if they can get up to play the worst team in the league after defeating a rival the night before.  It is a test the Nuggets have failed many times before, but it is also a test they are very capable of passing. 

Other Observations From Game 31:

 - Martin is still not fully healthy.  It is clear that he is no where near as explosive as he was before he hurt his hamstring. 

 - How did Duncan only get credited with four turnovers?  Watching the game I expected him to have seven or eight.  He treated the ball like it was a worm.  He needed it to fish, but he did not really want to touch it. 

 - We have documented how much better of a shooter Anthony Carter is from 20 feet than 23’ 9” to unanimous consent.  Well, do not look now, but he is actually shooting 38% on the season from downtown.  Had he not hit that three with the Nuggets down four at the end of the game they do not win.  I am not saying he needs to shoot more threes, but for now, I am OK with him taking good threes.  At this point he is taking less than one three pointer every two games.  As long as he is judicious with when he takes it I am willing to let him shoot one every now and then.  Of course, even with his recent “hot streak,” he is still only a 14% marksman for his career from distance.  Anyone else out there fell like they could accomplish that feat? 

 - Another intriguing thing about Carter is he has proven to be able to hit big shots.  He won the double OT game against Houston and last night hit the big shot for the Nuggets again.  The question used to be who would take the big shots down the stretch Melo or AI.  The answer appears to be none of the above. 

 - Doesn’t it look like Martin and Nene love to play against Duncan, especially K-Mart?  When the Nuggets traded for Kenyon I was worried about his ability to guard the big power forwards in the west, Duncan being at the top of that list.  He has shown to be one of the best defenders that Duncan faces.  Kenyon loves to fight for position and hound Duncan all over the floor.  Kenyon is listed as two inches and 20 pounds lighter than Timmy, but he uses his strength and quickness to drive Duncan crazy.  Throw in Martin’s ability to knock the ball out of Duncan’s hands whenever he tries to turn and shoot and I bet Tim does not look forward to playing the Nuggets. 

 - I think it is interesting the way the Spurs use Bowen on defense.  I think Melo figured him out almost two years ago and the Spurs know it.  At this point guys like Finley and Ime Udoka guard Melo just as well as Bowen can.  Because of that, they put Bowen on AI and hope his extra height can bother Iverson.  They know that he will have plenty of help when AI drives and maybe Bruce can rough him up a little easier than he can Melo.  Last night it did not work.  Iverson shot 10-18 and kept the Nuggets in the game in the third quarter scoring nine of the team’s 18 points.  

 - Nene looked much better last night than he did against the Warriors on Sunday.  I am going to chalk that performance up to rust and hope he continues to get better and better as the season goes along. 

 - How badly did the Nuggets want to win this game?  I saw George Karl actually out of his seat in the fourth quarter. 

Check out Pounding the Rock for some insight into the game from the Spurs’ point of view.

Game 26: Denver Nuggets 96 – Portland Trailblazers 99

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

It is a shame that I failed to put together a post on last nights’ game until now.  Last night I was as proud of the effort the Nuggets put forth as I have been in a long time.   

I have said that injuries should not be used as an excuse to lose games, but the Nuggets rolled into Portland and had to start a player they had waived just a day before.  That is typically not a precursor to success.  With Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, Nene and that Steven Hunter dude (I have heard plays for the Nuggets, but I am not really sure he exists he might as well be Kramer’s friend Bob Sacamano or Seinfeld’s Cousin Jeffrey) all out with various maladies the Nuggets locked horns with a team that had demolish them on the boards just a week or so prior.   

If there was a recipe for disaster, that is probably it.   

The Nuggets hung tough on the glass thanks to another tremendous effort on the glass by Carmelo Anthony who was the leading rebounder in the game with 12.   

They played tremendous scrappy defense and if it was not for a hot streak where the Trailblazers scored 14 points in less than four minutes to start the fourth quarter the Nuggets would have won.   

But the Trailblazers have had ten straight games where they have produced a similar hot streak to pull out win after win.   

There were comments made after the game that the Nuggets found what it took to play all out for 48 minutes and if they can just carry that forward they will be very successful.  Well, this small lineup that brought that level of intensity had shown that they were capable of such an effort in the second week of the season and for some reason George Karl went away from that lineup.   

When you have a strong second five, but your starters are playing too many minutes, that is not good.  Everyone talks about how Iverson can play as many minutes as you can throw at him night after night because he keeps scoring, but the issue with him playing so many minutes is his defense.  Late in the game against Houston Luther Head drove by AI on a couple of occasions where AI could barely move.  The man needs some rest, whether he wants to admit it or not.   

Bobby Jones may never put up great stats and probably leads the league in charges per minute, but he makes things happen.  With Jones able to play the two for 15-20 minutes a game there is no reason AI should play more than 35 or at most 38 minutes a game.  That will preserve him and allow him to play those big minutes in the playoffs and it will let Jones gain some much needed experience.   

If Melo is going to work as hard on the glass as he had the past few games he is going to need more rest too.  Against Portland he missed two dunks he would usually smash and at the end of the game he was so spent that he had a turnaround blocked by Brandon Roy who is not the most dynamic athlete.  Obviously last night Melo and AI needed to play a ton to keep the Nuggets in the game, but I would love to see Karl reduce their minutes. 

Anyway, I am getting away from my primary point and that was to give the Nuggets a great deal of credit for playing hard, and for the most part smart.  They hung with the hottest team in the NBA on the road the night after a double overtime game without their entire roster of power forwards and centers.  They could not have done that without a supreme effort.   

Once again the question regarding this incredibly inconsistent team is can they reproduce the way they played against Portland in the next game or even ever again?

Check out Blazer’s Edge for some insight from the Portland side of things.

Game 23: Denver Nuggets 91 – San Antonio Spurs 102

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

How about that third quarter from the team rated SECOND in the NBA in defensive efficiency?   

The San Antonio Spurs scored 36 points in the third quarter.  They scored on 14 of their final 17 possessions of the quarter.  The Denver Nuggets defensive efficiency rating for the third quarter was 163.4!  It was so pathetic I cannot even come up with a decent joke.  I guess that makes me just as impotent as they were.  Somehow it seems fitting. 

The Nuggets actually played a good first quarter and first three minutes of the second quarter.  They made mistakes, but their effort was strong and their focus was there on both offense and defense. 

Unfortunately, it did not last for long. In the third quarter the Spurs showed the Nuggets that a team can score without having the best athletes or the best creators simply by moving, cutting and sharing the ball.  They also proved that fast break points are not required in San Antonio in order for the Spurs to light up the scoreboard.  San Antonio finished the game with only five fast break points.   

The Spurs again showed that they were a team who has an offensive system they trust in completely no matter which five players were on the court.  That is a lesson the Nuggets need to learn. 

The play that summed up the third quarter was when Jacque Vaughn drove the lane missed a layup and fell down.  He was in the lane on his can and still was able to get the rebound, from his can, and pass it off to an open teammate, from his can, for a score.  Camby and Melo were both “in the vicinity” but they both were too busy trying to make sure they were playing as soft as possible and refused to go after the ball.   

The difference in focus from the first to the third quarter was shocking.  The Nuggets did not even look like the same team.  The transformation actually occurred early in the second quarter as the Nuggets’ offense grew stagnant and they decided not to guard the three point line and by the end of the third quarer the walls of the Nuggets’ mud hut had collapsed under the percipitation from Monsoon Popovich. 

As I am sure you all know, the Nuggets played without Kenyon Martin who apparently elbowed Melvin Ely in the eye socket the other night.  How can we know for sure that Melvin’s eye socket was not already very badly damaged or structurally weak and Martin just got the blame for breaking it the rest of the way?   

However, the Spurs were shorthanded as well playing without Tony Parker.  Tim Duncan returned to action, but only played 20 minutes as he was clearly still hobbled by his sprained ankle and bruised knee. 

The Nuggets did miss Kenyon.  Linas Kleiza started in his place, but found himself in early foul trouble.  Carmelo and Camby also ended up missing time in the first half due to fouls.  Of course, no Spur ended the game with more than two fouls.  Hmmm…interesting. 

The good news is the Nuggets were just another victim laid to waste by the steamroller that is the Spurs playing at home.  They are still in first place in the Northwest and fourth in the conference. 

Next is a home game against a red hot Portland team who is on a six game winning streak including wins against Utah twice and Golden State (all three wins were earned without the services of LeMarcus Aldridge).  They have also won their last two road games as part of the six game streak.   I doubt that tomorrow night will be as easy as the previous meeting with Portland, but the Blazers have to lose sometime right?   

Other Observations From Game 23:

 - Has anyone noticed that Camby has pretty much stopped taking that horrid shot from around the top of the circle?  On the other hand, he has become quite deft at drilling the fifteen foot baseline shot.  Chris Marlowe has called it his knew favorite shot on a couple of occasions. 

I am glad that Chris cares enough to keep asking Marcus what his favorite shot is from week to week.  

 - I think Manu Ginboli’s bald spot is already much larger than it was at the beginning of the season.  It must be growing because all of the stress he is experiencing because of the guilt he feels from defrauding the NBA with his horrible flopping. 

 -  Bobby Jones played well.  He had active hands on defense and made things tough on Ginobili for a short time in the fourth quarter.  It will be interesting to see if he played well enough for George to call his name tomorrow against Portland. 

 - Almost Famous is such a freakin’ great movie.  Maybe I should start a Cameron Crowe Underappreciated Movie Blog.  I could write about Almost Famous, Singles and even Elizabethtown which was not as strong as most of his other work, but was nowhere near as bad as most people claim.  Then I could see which of my two blogs would be the first to attract 100 page views.  Maybe I should just move on… 

 - Somehow Michael Finley, in only 25:30 of game time, finished as a +27!  Think about that.  For every minute he was on the floor the Spurs scored one more point than the Nuggets.  Finley set his season high for points and his second best totals in rebounds and assists.   

 - Melo had a quiet night.  He shot well (7-15) and rebounded well (nine boards), but he was difficult to notice on the court from time to time.  He shot no free throws for just the second time this season.  His defensive effort was not particularly impressive (shocker).  Apart from the fourth quarter of the New Orleans game Melo has not put much of a stamp on any of their recent games.   

 - Iverson was tremendous again tonight.  Even when the game was done and it was just a matter of the clock hitting triple zero, Iverson showed a great deal of emotion in the fourth quarter as he tried to bring the Nuggets back.  Things almost became interesting with a little over four minutes left in the game, but the Nuggets could never get closer than eleven points. 

 - I honestly have not really cared much about the whole Iverson’s team or Melo’s team debate.  I always believed that they both needed to work together to make the game easier for everyone.  Over the past few games, it is clear that Iverson has definitely played the role of alpha dog.  It may just be that Melo has struggled lately and Iverson is just trying to pick up the slack, or it may be something more significant in the entire AI’s team or Melo’s team question.

For insight from the perspective of the spoiled fans of the Spurs check out Pounding the Rock.

Game 22: Denver Nuggets 105 – New Orleans Hornets 99

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

NBA.com Game Report (they give more indepth stats than ESPN.com, thus the switch)

Many times I can start writing this drivel during the game and have a good idea what the outcome of the game is going to be.  Not tonight.  It is early in the fourth quarter and I have no idea who is going to win this game.  The Hornets won a very similar game in Denver the third game of the season. 

The mistakes the Nuggets made tonight are as numerous as the empty seats at the Pepsi Center.  Think of a mistake and the Nuggets made it.  Poor rotation on defense, stagnant offense, questionable shot selection, lack of focus and an attitude of contentment if that is a word. 

It was proof over and over about how one player blowing his assignment can derail a team.  Almost every play in the second quarter could be used as an example, but I will mention a couple of gaffs I witnessed throughout the game.   

On one occasion Kenyon Martin was supposed to be guarding David West.  He ran down the floor alongside Paul seemingly happy to have the use of his legs.  I cannot say I blame Kenyon for enjoying the ability to run, but he still needs to do his job.  He continued to run with no apparent purpose into the lane absolutely clueless as to where his man was.  Well West was spotted up at the top of the circle.  Paul simply passed the ball to the wide open West who easily sank the jumper. 

On at least two occasions when playing zone Melo was pinned inside as Rasual Butler was left open in the corner.  Melo should know from his time at Syracuse, where he played zone exclusively, not to get pinned because if the outside baseline defender is pinned, no one can get to the corner.  It is a play that every high school coach in the country warns his players about.  However, I have noticed that many of those high school defensive fundamentals apparently have no place in the NBA. 

Anthony Carter took himself completely out of a play by not only running, but diving at the ball and sliding into the first row.  He is lucky he did not get a beer dumped on his head. 

Eduardo Najera was guarding Tyson Chandler about ten feet from the basket on the baseline.  All seemed well with the world, but when the shot went up he did not back into Chandler at all.  Najera stood there only a foot or two away from Chandler, who happens to be the number one offensive rebounder in the entire NBA, and when the rebound came off Chandler was able to get it.  Had Najera even just made contact with him Chandler could not have grabbed the rebound.  What is really strange is Najera is the kind of player who would box out his grandma if she dropped a donut.  It is almost second nature to him. 

However, the most embarrassing mistake came when Anthony Carter was called for a foul and proceeded to the bench even though the Nuggets had not subbed for him.  The Hornets, playing 5-4, scored an easy dunk on the other end.  Fortunately Anthony did report for the chance to score on the offensive end. 

I am probably reminding you of your wife right now remembering every little mistake and then refusing to let them go, but there was play after play where the Nuggets made little mistakes similar to those.  I am only listing a few that I remember.  It was a game that would have been fun to watch the film of together and laugh at all the silly goofs. 

However, in the end the Nuggets made a strong commitment and won the game because of their lock down D.  Anthony Carter, Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby made it almost impossible for the Hornets to run their high pick and roll, which they ran almost exclusively in the fourth quarter.  Carter got up close and personal with Chris Paul who was the dominant player in the game for the first 42 minutes of action.  Kenyon and Camby jumped Paul coming off the screens aggressively and Carter quickly got back in Paul’s mug.  Paul had absolutely no room to operate.   

The play that I believe turned the tide happened with 4:28 left in the fourth quarter.  Camby jumped Paul on a screen and stole the ball.  Starting with that play Paul committed two turnovers and had the ball knocked away at least three other times.   

Camby also made the key play on offense tipping the ball twice before getting it in the hoop after Iverson took a bad three giving the Nuggets the lead for good at 101-99. 

Even though the Nuggets were expected to win tonight this game definitely goes into the category of a good win.  Melo was struggling mightily with his offensive game, they were playing sloppy on both ends of the floor and the Hornets were shooting very well.  Despite all of that the Nuggets persevered and earned their second impressive victory in three games (the other being at Dallas). 

Other Observations From Game 22:

 - I thought Melo played about as good a game as he had all season.  He was struggling like I had never seen him struggle with his offensive game.  I thought he definitely forced some shots in the first half, but he also made an effort to post up and drive to the basket.  Absolutely nothing was working for him.  In the past, he would have blown up and done something stupid.   

Instead, he decided to work his butt off on the offensive glass.  He ended up with four offensive rebounds, but was in the mix for probably about twice that number.   

His hard work was rewarded in the fourth quarter.  Anthony broke out his slump in a big way by going 5-7 from the floor and 4-4 from the line totaling 15 big points.   

Melo struggled with his shot for four games and the Nuggets were able to win three of those four games.  In the past when he was bad on offense, the Nuggets had no chance to win.   

 - Anthony Carter is slowly winning me over.  His defense on point guards is something the Nuggets need badly.  You should all know by now that I am no fan of Chucky Atkins.  The only benefit Atkins can bring is supposed to be outside shooting.  Atkins is only a 37% three point shooter, which is solid, but that small benefit is not worth giving him time over superior players.  Carter is not a good three point shooter, as I have pointed out previously he is a very good perimeter shooter from 20 feet and in.  You can stretch the floor from 20 feet just as easily as you can from 23′ 9″. 

 - I mentioned that the Nuggets made the mistake of contentment.  What I meant by that was they went on a 9-0 run to take the lead early in the third quarter.  After that they seemed to grow a little happy with themselves and they went on to fall back behind by nine not long after they took the lead. 

 - Iverson had another strong game.  He struggled with his shot in the second half, but still ended up shooting 8-16 and he ended up with 11 assists.   

 - I have to give George Karl credit tonight.  According to Julie Browman (believe it or not, people actually do internet searches for Julie Browman.  I know because some of them have found Born a Nuggets Fan by searching for her) Karl was repeatedly encouraging the Nuggets and pleading with them to work through their frustration.  He knew that Melo was exceedingly frustrated and the team was down double digits in the second quarter due largely to some of the weird mistakes they were making that I referenced earlier.  Karl knew what the team was feeling and he addressed it directly.  Now click here to proceed to FireGeorgeKarl.com.

 - The Nuggets are now tied for third in the Western Conference with New Orleans.  Teams such as Dallas, Utah and especially Houston are struggling.  If the Nuggets end up in the top four, it will be more because of teams stumbling than the Nuggets reaching that 55-60 win mark.  I will be very interested to see how they react to this recent success.  They play at San Antonio, who should have Tim Duncan back, next so the quality tests continue

For some insight on the game from the perspective of Hornets fans check out Hornets 24/7.

Fire (Up) Karl

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

George Karl is a lightning rod for Nuggets fans.  Some are calling for him to be fired.  Some think he needs to become a little more active and others still believe he is a good coach who can take the Nuggets beyond the first round in the playoffs. 

I certainly do not believe he should be fired at this point in his tenure.  Even if he is dismissed who could the Nuggets bring in who has enough cache to get the players’ attention?  Larry Brown?  After the way he mailed in the Knicks job I think I will pass.   

The realistic question becomes how can George Karl improve as the coach of the Nuggets?  At this point in the season I think there are a handful of ways where he can make the team better by making himself better. 

First of all, there is some concern, at least on my part, that he does not command enough respect from his players.  I have mentioned before how there are times where after a timeout Julie Browman will report that George said they need to do this or that and when the game begins you do not see even a remote trace of what Julie said George asked them to do.  Either Julie is a horrible reporter, or the players do not take everything George says to heart. 

Think back to when George first arrived in Denver.  He was replacing a coach with absolutely no track record of NBA success in Jeff Bzdelik.  He was the successful veteran coach who could make young spoiled players not only listen to what he said, but believe he was right.  That team played hard and smart.  They ran on offense and played hard on defense.  Consequently they went on one of the great runs of all time the second half of the season.   

By the end of the 2004-2005 season the Nuggets were playing great basketball and we all knew it was thanks to Coach Karl.  When he took the court before the beginning of every home game George Karl would receive a rousing standing ovation.  He probably would not have received a better reception had he personally handed each fan in attendance a $1,000 although that may be because most of the fans would have run out of the arena to spend the $1,000 on crack and prostitutes.  He had a team that was a nice mix of veterans and unproven youngsters playing at a high level.   

How did he do it?  If a player did not do what he wanted, it was guaranteed that that player’s posterior would end up on the bench next to George.  Even young star Carmelo Anthony found himself watching important possessions from the cushy fold out chairs found courtside.  Karl showed that no one was immune from losing playing time if they did not play hard and play smart.   

You want proof?  Look at Melo’s shooting percentage pre George Karl and post George Karl.  2003-2004 Melo shot 42.6%.  2004-2005 Melo shot 43.1%.  Karl rolled into town halfway though 2004-2005.  Then in 2005-2006 Melo shot 48.1%.  Last year he shot 47.6%, but this season he is down to 44.9%.  Why the jump after Karl took over?  He would sit Melo down for taking bad shots.  Maybe Melo has forgotten that lesson as his shooting percentage has dropped off significantly this season.     

George needs to recapture that discipline.  I think this team has a nice mix of veterans and youngsters just like the 2004-2005 team did.  When guys stop running they should get to watch from the sideline.  When someone gets a little jump shot happy show them that it is not acceptable by having them take a seat.  If the defense is a little lax, send in a player who is not afraid to get down and dirty.   

Right now there is not one of the primary players who are in danger of being yanked out of the game if they are not playing hard and/or playing smart.  If players are not afraid of losing out on playing time, they have no reason to make a little extra effort and do what the coach wants them to do.  Karl talks about how players get too wrapped up in debating with the refs or they stop running or they take bad shots, but if all he is going to do is tell them to stop it, that is not enough.   

Another area I would like to see Karl make a change is his style of defense.  When he was with Seattle he was known as a coach who would use pressure and traps to get a team off kilter and produce turnovers.  This Nugget team is actually statistically better at forcing turnovers than those SuperSonics teams were.  The Nuggets average almost two steals a game more than Karl’s best Sonics team did (thanks to basketballreference.com for the old stats).   

I realize when you have a short bench you cannot afford to play that style of defense, but now that everyone of consequence other than Nene is back, yes I know Chucky Atkins is still out, they have the manpower to play just such a trapping havoc creating style.  Players like AI, Melo, Kenyon Martin and Camby all have good instincts and could be great in just such a system.  Add in Kuba Diawara, Bobby Jones, Anthony Carter and J.R. Smith and they have tremendous athleticism on the bench to help out. 

Perhaps Karl does not think that type of defense will work anymore or maybe he thinks it would be a waste of energy.  I do know that Karl has had success with that type of defensive scheme before and they also have Mike Dunlap on the staff.  Anyone who watched Dunlap’s teams at Metro State, a Division II school in Denver, knows they had ingenious blitzing scheme that completely rattled their opponents.  Dunlap used that style to win two championships and get to a title game on a third occasion.  Dunlap was a hot coaching name and it was my understanding that the Nuggets brought him on board to have him help institute some of his revolutionary ideas.  So far, I have not seen anything similar to what he did at Metro State utilized by the Nuggets. 

From my point of view Karl has both the personnel and the brain trust to play some trapping high pressure defense.  As I said, he may have some good reason for not doing so, but I would like to see them try it.  If anyone out there has heard or read anything about this and I have missed it, please leave a comment.   

Lastly, Karl has made some “interesting” decisions involving game management.  The Nugg Doctor has made a case on more than one occasion that Karl has called timeouts too late when the opposition has made a run.  I will not attempt to steal his thunder and will let you read for yourself should you so choose.  Perhaps Karl has joined the Big Chief Triangle Appreciation Society and gone the way of Phil Jackson who prefers to allow his teams to try to figure out what they need to do to stop a run instead of calling a timeout.  I can appreciate that sentiment, but momentum can be like quick sand.  The more you struggle against it the worse things get.  Sometimes all you can do to break free is to stop the game altogether.  

We have also talked about his lack of fire during games before and again, I am not going to get into it again here.  Karl also makes some strange lineup decisions such as leaving Bobby Jones and Kuba on the bench after they played such a big role in the six game winning streak earlier this season.   

No matter what you think about George Karl he is going to be the Nuggets coach for at least the remainder of this season and probably next season as well.  He has had as much success as any Nuggets coach in his NBA career.  Hopefully he can recapture some of that fire that triggered the Nuggets to great heights in 2004-2005 and lead them beyond the first round for the first time in what will be 14 years by the time the playoffs roll around. 

I am afraid if he does not, it will be more of the same from our Punxsutawney Nuggets.

Game 21: Denver Nuggets 101 – Sacramento Kings 97

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

Remember the game against the Clippers in Los Angeles where I said the Nuggets faced the most insurmountable six point lead in the third quarter I had ever seen?  Well tonight was just the opposite.   

Even when the Kings took the lead in the third quarter, I never felt very worried about the final outcome.  Even the production by altitude seemed to be much less serious than usual.  They showed the bit with Rocky stealing Scott Hastings’ jacket and selling it to a fan.  They showed Hastings kissing Chris Marlowe after being on the “Kiss Cam.”  And they topped it all off with the marriage proposal at mid court.  (They also missed two full possessions showing replays.  Not parts of possessions, but entire possessions.  Is missing what is going on in the game for some mundane replay a joke to them?)     

Guess who else felt like the game was never in doubt?  The Nuggets.  And that was not a good thing. 

The Nuggets laid a collective egg in the third quarter.  They stopped running, they stopped moving on offense and they stopped defending.  That is a pretty good recipe for disaster.   

The Kings played a great deal of zone throughout the game.  In the first half the Nuggets swung the ball from side to side and had plenty of cutters and flashers, which sounds like a frat party but is actually good for offense in basketball, to put pressure on the zone.  In the second half against the same defense they switched into isolation mode and started throwing up all kinds of outside shots including plenty of bad threes.   

On defense, they completely stopped guarding the paint.  Sacramento did a good job of running a screen to trigger their offense and then having players cut into the paint from the weak side.  The Nuggets bigs had to help on the player coming off the screen and left the cutter open for either a pass or to grab an offensive rebound.  The Nuggets also were caught in quite a few bad switches in the second half.   

Did Iverson come to the rescue again?  How about Melo?  Well, J.R. got hot right?  Actually it was Anthony Carter with his perimeter shooting and scrappy defense who saved the day.   

Carter never does anything flashy and I do not think he does a particularly good job running the half court offense, but he is a consistent shooter from 20 feet and in and he always plays solid defense.  Guys can be blowing their assignments or losing their guys right and left, but Carter will know exactly what he is doing the and be in the right place the whole time.  On a team like this that can be important.  He blocked a shot by John Salmons in the first half and then to prove it was not a fluke took care of one of Brad Miller’s shots for good measure.  Miller was so displeased he gave Carter a forearm shiver to the side of his head.  Brad will be hitting his own head when he gets the memo from the league that the frustration induced shot to Carter’s bean has been upgraded to a flagrant foul.   

Even with Carter’s heroics the Nuggets ended up having to put together a small comeback of their own and then let Sacramento back into it after getting up by eight towards the end of the game. 

They did just enough to win the game and in the end there was no reason to worry.   I have no idea why, but I am feeling magnanimous.  I am not going to be upset about the close game against the only winless team on the road in the entire league.  Sacramento played well in spurts and the Nuggets did continue to show a commitment to run except for the putrid third quarter.  Maybe I have just finally accepted the fact that not only are the Nuggets inconsistent from game to game, but from quarter to quarter.  We just have to live with it. 

Other Observations From Game 21:

 - At the end of the third quarter when there was nine tenths of a second on the clock I thought to myself, “Good buddy, J.R. Smith can definitely get a shot off in that little amount of time.  In fact, he might be able to get two shots off in nine tenths of a second.”  The inbounds play did indeed call for J.R. to utilize his quick release and he made a fading 22 footer to give the Nuggets a little momentum going into the fourth quarter. 

 - Watch Kenyon Martin shoot free throws.  I know if can be very difficult, but if you can stomach it notice how he shoots the ball from in front of his left eye.  The problem with that is he is right handed.  One of the keys to being a consistent shooter is keeping your forearm and elbow on your shooting arm perpendicular to the ground.  Try a shooting motion right now wherever you are, in a chair, on the couch or on the toilet using your right hand to shoot from in front of your left eye and look at where your forearm is.  For those of you who enjoy science, try to figure out where the ball will go if you mover your arm at that angle as if you are shooting.  It sure is heck ain’t going straight unless you compensate somewhere else.  No wonder he is inconsistent from the line, and everywhere else.  Somehow he made two big ones inside two minutes to go.   

 - When Brad “The Slow White Tantrum” Miller fouled out Reggie Theus was going a little nuts and Francisco Garcia was trying to get him to back off.  I like when players realize better than their coaches that they cannot afford to give up a technical free throw with under five minutes left in a relatively close game.   

 - Melo had a low scoring game, but I did not get the feeling he was trying to force anything to happen apart from taking some unnecessary threes.  He made some good passes when the Kings’ zone surged towards him.  He was relatively active on the glass as well.  He will get it going soon, but the sooner the better. 

 - It is amazing how much worse of a shooter Anthony Carter is from outside the three point line than he is just a step inside of it.   

 - When Eduardo Najera went down I thought for sure he blew out his knee.  Fortunately it looks like it is only a contusion. 

 - Apparently Beno Udrih needs to be in a low pressure situation.  Playing in San Antonio where it is championship or bust turned his game into a quivering mound of jello.  However, playing in Sacramento where they want to maximize their ping pong balls he can jack up shot after shot without concern.  I can just see him going to Cleveland after this season turning back into jello ensuring Eric Snow has a job for another couple of seasons and Cleveland fans have something else to complain about. 

 - George Karl actually got up and worked the refs on at least two occasions.  Maybe his hemorrhoids were acting up and he could not sit down.  That is kind of mean, I am not sure I should have said that.  Oh well, it is not like he is reading this. 

 - I keep hearing about how Kenyon Martin had some kind of knee surgery, but it does not seem to have affected him much.  In all seriousness how amazing is it that he is playing at this level?  He is as explosive and agile as ever.  When he was with the Nets they had him guarding small forwards from time to time.  Tonight, he guarded Artest quite a bit and did a great job.  He was pulling rebounds out of the sky, blocking shots and throwing down dunks.  Kudos to modern day medicine for how far microfracture surgery has come and kudos to Martin for a great deal of determination and rehab to get back. 

Check out Sactown Royalty for some perspective on tonight’s game from some Kings fans.

Game 19: Denver Nuggets 107 – Los Angeles Lakers 111

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

It is easy to dwell on how amazing Allen Iverson was tonight.  He was incendiary.  It was awesome to watch, but it is all overshadowed by the outcome of the game.   

The Nuggets tend to get a little too cute on defense coming up with schemes where they believe they can take advantage of a matchup here or there, but once again tonight they out-thought themselves.  When Chris Mihm was in the game in the first half Camby did not guard him unless he entered the paint.  (I know about the box and one with one guy playing man to man, but what is it called when four guys play man to man and the other plays zone?  The dot and four?)  This unconventional defense left the Nuggets confused on their rotations and assignments once someone had to help on a screen or drive.  Because of their confusion they gave up a bevy of wide open three point shots in the second quarter. 

Fortunately in the second half the strategy was abandoned, as far as I could tell and Mihm helped by not straying from the paint anymore, but the damage was done as the Nuggets gave up seven threes in the second quarter alone.  Iverson had his best quarter scoring 18 points, but that was negated by the threes they gave up on defense.  Instead of going into halftime with a six or eight point lead, they were down four. 

There was an aspect of Iverson’s big game that did worry me a little and that was the offense was largely stagnant as Iverson pumped in bucket after bucket.  That is very difficult to avoid when a player like Iverson is taking over the game and there is a good reason to let it happen.  Watching the game unfold you kind of dreaded the potential situation where Iverson either cools off or the rest of the Nuggets have to pick up more of the load on offense.   

The Lakers made sure Iverson did not end up beating them.  Through three quarters Iverson had 49 points.  He scored two in the fourth quarter. 

In the first half the Lakers were frequently doubling Carmelo, but in the fourth quarter the Lakers decided to aggressively double Iverson and take the ball out of his hands.  On a night when J.R. Smith was 1-10, Kenyon Martin was 2-8 and missed three of four free throws in the fourth quarter and Marcus Camby was 0-3 there was not much help to be had.  Anthony had played a decent offensive game up to that point, but went 3-9 in the fourth quarter excluding his meaningless made layup with two seconds left.   

Iverson did his part posting four of his eight assists in the fourth quarter as he tried to set up his teammates as a result of the double teams, but it was a difficult adjustment for the rest of the team to make after he had scored so much on his own for the first three quarters.  He must have felt like he was playing with the likes of Matt Geiger, Eric Snow and Aaron McKee again. 

This game reinforces what I said after the encounter in Los Angeles last week.  The Lakers are simply a better team than the Nuggets at this point in the season.   In several ways the Nuggets outplayed the Lakers tonight.  They ran pretty well putting up 23 fast break points.  They had a slight lead in points in the paint.  They both shot and made 11 more free throws than the Lakers and they outrebounded them as well.  But the big difference in three point shooting was the clincher for the Lakers.   

Thus we see another game go down the tubes that the Nuggets really needed to have.  The Nuggets travel to Dallas tomorrow night (back to back and injury excuse warning!) and if they drop that game they will finish up the first quarter of the season at 11-9. 

In case you were wondering, but even if you were not, the Nuggets have lost six of the seven games they have played in Dallas since Carmelo joined the team.  They usually do not play very well there, but hey who does?   

I will be very interested to see how they respond if Dallas puts a run on them in the second half.   

Other Observations From Game 19:

 - Eduardo Najera is the best cutter on the team.  He has a great sense of timing for when to make his move. 

 - Melo put forth more effort on defense tonight, but it was actually frustrating to watch.  He will play close to his man, denying the ball and staying close to him for a while, but if he gets picked off or if his man moves out to the perimeter after Melo covers him on a cut he will just stop playing.  It almost seems like he is content with what he did and he considers his job to be done.  On a few occasions he just completely stopped.  He was not going for rebounds and he plays absolutely no help defense.  He even stops paying attention to his man.  That is not quiet a commitment to defense.  He is in a relationship with Defense, but he is still seeing his old lady friend Apathy on the side.  I hope Apathy has something going for her and is worth it, because I hate to see Defense treated that way.     

 - I got a kick out of Chris Marlowe pointing out that Melo was taking on the challenge of guarding Kobe at one point in the second quarter.  Melo guarded him for two possessions one of which he was rubbed off by a screen and switched off of Kobe almost immediately.  He was relieved of that duty when Anthony Carter checked back into the game. 

 - The Lakers were playing on the second half of a back to back set and on the road no less, yet somehow they won.  How could that be possible?  Any thoughts on that Marcus? 

 - Again, I do not like just reciting stats out of the box score, but Camby had another 20 rebound game.  He is pouring his heart out on the glass every night, but he still just plays pick and rolls like the ball handler has cooties.  During a key sequence in the last couple of minutes he did not step up to slow down Kobe when all J.R. needed to get back in front was a little help.  Camby just watched him go by and score a layup.  At least he tried to remedy that mistake on the next pick and roll, but Kobe did such a great job of quickly getting away from the screen Smith had too much ground to make up and Kobe was able to shake Marcus and hit a big jumper.  I do not expect Marcus to stop Kobe in that situation, but I do wish he would have put forth the same effort during the play that he could have made a difference. 

 - Don’t you just wish you could watch film with the Nuggets sometime with the remote in one hand and a pointer in the other?  I would probably get jumped afterwards by a lynch mob of posse members and beaten to a pulp, but if I get my message though it might be worth it.  I have enough life insurance to pay off the house.   

 - Lamar Odom had been struggling big time and it was only a matter of time before he had a good game.  He played very well scoring all 17 of his points, in the first two and a half quarters. 

 - I absolutely hate hearing cheers over the television when the Lakers score during games in Denver.  It grates on me like a braggart foisting his silly pathetic stories on a fair maiden. 

 - The Nuggets keep playing zone here and there and it makes me nuts.  They play sloppy defense when they are in a zone and the do not rebound well at all.  They have the potential to build the foundation of being a very good man to man defensive team.  After all, Melo is in a quasi-serious relationship with Defense for the first time in his career.   

 - I think it is safe to say that George Karl has lost faith in Bobby Jones and Kuba Diawara, who is back to being the Nuggets leading three point shooter after the 0-5 night J.R. Smith threw up.   

 - I thought it was interesting watching Iverson heading towards the bench after the third quarter, being met on the court by Karl and then emphatically telling him that he did not need a rest and would prefer not to be taken out of the game.  They guy had 49 points through three quarters in a close game.  You might as well be asking a pitcher in the middle of a no hitter if he wanted to let someone else take care of the last three outs or asking Drew Carey to date someone who does not take their clothes off for a living. 

 - I just hit my funny bone so I am going to wrap things up. 

Again, for some thoughts from the Lakers’ perspective on tonight’s game and to see what a high quality blog actually looks like as opposed to this slop check out Forum Blue and Gold.

An Open Letter to More Optimistic Nuggets Fans Than Me

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Disco left a comment after my post for the Miami game.  He brings up some good points and I wanted to make sure that everyone saw it because it displays a more optimistic side of things for the Nuggets and may very well prove to be accurate when contrasted to my more pessimistic view of what may transpire for the rest of the season.  It is definitely a good conversation starter and I think we could have some good discussion regarding these issues.   

Here is Disco’s comment:

Assuming GK/AI/Melo/Camby are ok with losing anything is silly. These are some of the most competitive guys in the NBA we are talking about. Most people assume Karl is fine with losing because he made this comment… but what would you have him do? Call out Melo/AI in the press? Right…thats gonna make the team better. I think you have greatly misjudged the psychological makeup of this team. This team thinks they can beat any team on any night…which is why they get lazy. They do not think its ‘OK to lose this one’.

In addition, its silly to extrapolate a season worth of games from the first month ESPECIALLY with this team. I think we all agree this team has not hit its stride yet.

These are all good points, but I tend to disagree with what he said so here is an open letter to optimistic Nuggets fans everywhere addressing the comment left by Disco: 

I can see and appreciate where you are coming from.  It is possible that I am being too hard on the Nuggets, or further still, completely wrong.  But it is obvious to me that this team is not making the obvious changes that are necessary to succeed consistently on the court.  That is a mental issue that this team has.  You are right that they are not in the locker room before a game saying to one another, “We can afford to lose tonight.”  It is a more subtle subconscious process that is allowed to fester by Karl himself using the excuse of injuries or Camby using the excuse of playing five back to back sets of games to rationalize poor performances.   

I wrote that I did not want to hear one player or coach use injuries, or anything else, as an excuse for why they lose because it fosters that defeatist mindset.  As soon as someone allows themselves to think that they lost because of injuries, it becomes an acceptable reason for the team as a whole to underperform.  The Nuggets, specifically Karl, let that happen. 

As far as their competitiveness, I agree that Camby and especially Iverson are competitive.  Melo is competitive, but he is no where near the level of Iverson.  I actually think Melo is a frontrunner where he is great when they are scoring a lot of points and things are going his way, but when things start to go bad, he gets frustrated and if that frustration festers for too long he becomes a detriment to the team.  His shot selection becomes atrocious and he starts pouting.   

Karl is much more difficult to read.  I know he was a very passionate player and coach when he was younger, but we do not see that much anymore.  I wrote a couple of days ago that he is clearly trying not to grate on his players as he used to.  He definitely makes a point of not calling his guys out in the papers, but none of us have any idea what he says to them behind closed doors.  He may be doing all he can, but I do not get the sense from him that every loss just eats him up inside.   

Ultimately with this team the problem is not having enough competitors who do not want to lose, but how that competitiveness manifests itself when the other team makes a run and how they react when they are not playing well.  I think Iverson is by far the most competitive player on the team.  I believe every loss hurts him and more than anything he wants to win a championship.  He gives it his all every night and will never stop fighting, but he is only one guy. 

I have also seen a downside of that super competitive nature that Iverson possesses in how it impacts the way he plays.  We all know that this team is at its best when they are playing some semblance of defense, running the floor and moving without the ball on offense.  When Iverson senses things are going bad and that hatred of losing boils to the surface, he becomes even more of a one on one player.  Ultimately, he relies on himself to carry the team out of it and usually that only exacerbates the issues on offense.   

When a game starts slipping away I want to see AI, Camby and Melo call everyone together and get on the same page.  Demand that everyone shares the ball and moves on offense.  Demand that they all start gritting it out on defense.  Remember together that they play their best when they play as a team and not as individuals.    

Instead, when things start to go bad we see Melo jacking up more and more contested jumpers and AI over dribbling.  The result of which is things seem to go downhill even more quickly.  At this point that attitude I wrote about comes in where the excuses they use to dismiss poor play impact their acceptance of what is happening on the court.  Again, I am not saying it is a purposeful decision, but a reason to let the flood of momentum overwhelm them.  Their effort becomes hollow.   

The best example of this was the game against the Clippers in Los Angeles.  On several occasions they were only down four in the second half, but they never gave me the slightest inkling of belief that they would get any closer.  After the game I wrote that it was the most insurmountable small third quarter lead I had ever seen.   

That game happened to be the second half of a back to back and they were playing without Nene, Chucky Atkins, Anthony Carter and Steven Hunter.  To top it off Linas Kleiza was injured in the second half as well.  Mentally they completely mailed in the second half.  It was pathetic.  Is it a coincidence that those excuses they site so readily were present in that game?  I do not think so.  Somewhere in their minds they decided that with all the obstacles they were facing that game was one that they could let go of.   

Instead of pulling together and fighting back when things get tight, they let a 17 point lead against the Lakers turn into a 28 point blowout, a nine point lead against an undermanned Clipper team turn into an inexplicable 11 point loss.  They have had one game all year where things were not going their way and yet they fought back to win against a decent team and that was the game in Indiana where we know Karl gave them a good thrashing at halftime.  They have come back to win games against Seattle and twice against Minnesota, but those were against the two worst teams in the league.  I do not think that is much to get excited about, but to be fair it does merit mentioning. 

Based on what I have seen, I have to question this team’s mindset and attitude heading into games.  I have to wonder why they allow themselves to play four horrible games in a row without showing the slightest interest in changing the things that they know they need to do better in order to win.  The very fact that they make excuses about injuries and schedules when those things do not prevent them from moving without the ball or taking good shots or rallying their teammates to change how they are playing shows where there mind is.  How else can you explain what we have seen the first month of the season?  This is a veteran team that should not have to keep learning the same lessons over and over again. 

You bring up another good point that has bugged me for the past three years.  They have a very arrogant attitude about themselves.  They do get lazy against poor teams and they lose important games because of it.  I do not believe the reason is because they know that they can beat anyone at anytime.  I believe it is because they think they are good enough to just show up and win.  That is a ridiculous attitude to have for a team that has not accomplished anything together. 

Concerning the projected record I put together, I was merely working with what they have done this season and their performance in previous seasons to develop what kind of pace they were on.  I am not saying it is etched in stone that they will be 50-32.  I think I used sound arguments for how I came up with that number.  Can they win 55 games?  Sure, but it seems unlikely.  Have they hit their stride yet?  You are correct in saying they have not.  One of the points I have tried to drive home though is that the schedule gets much more difficult.  Look at what they have in store for them in March.  They will have to play much better than they have to this point just to win seven or eight games that month. 

I do have very strong reservations about this team.  I may be wrong and I may be misreading their mindset, but I do not know how else to interpret the indifference, inconsistency and lack of urgency I see from them.  I hope I am wrong and they can begin playing consistently great basketball.  They definitely have the ability to do so.   

It really makes me worry that they know they need home court advantage and a favorable playoff matchup to have a good chance to advance in the playoffs, but their play has not reflected that belief.  November was a month to prove that they were a team to be taken seriously and get a lead on many of their competitors and they failed to do that.   

I would like to thank Disco for posting his comment as well as all of you who take the time to share you thoughts.  I truly appreciate all of you who chose to read this blog.   

I think this can be a good starting point for more discussion so please leave your thoughts below.  Am I completely wrong?  Do we need to give the Nuggets more time?  I am looking forward to what everyone thinks about the state of the Nuggets at this point in the season. 

Game 17: Denver Nuggets 123 – Los Angeles Clippers 107

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score

What I saw from the Nuggets tonight made me even more disappointed in the results last night in Los Angeles against the Lakers.   

They did many of the things tonight that they failed to do last night.  They pushed the pace for more than a few minutes, even after makes, they had much better movement on offense resulting in a plethora of easy shots in the paint and they played good defense for a majority of the game.   

Of course, that has been the way they have done things for years.  When you can claim that you played the champions as well as anyone, or that you did really well for having to fight through injuries, why change anything?  As long as players keep getting injured, you can keep that line of crap going for years. 

Getting back to the game, the Nuggets played well enough that I was surprised when looking at the box score that some individual numbers were not better. 

I was very impressed with the play of Kenyon Martin.  He played very tough defense on Chris Kaman.  He was constantly working to push him away from the block when Kaman was trying to establish position and he met Kaman in the lane and began working him over instead of letting him come across the floor and then start fighting him.   

Martin was also aggressive on offense as he drove and cut to the rim frequently resulting in at least three dunks.  He was also very determined on the glass fighting everyone, even Marcus Camby on a couple of occasions, for rebounds.  Martin ended up with nine points and five rebounds, but I would have guessed he had 15 points and eight or nine rebounds from the way he played. 

When Martin was out of the game, Eduardo Najera did a very good job on Kaman as well frustrating him on more than one occasion. 

Carmelo Anthony made a concerted effort to get to the basket in the first half and I do not recall an instance where he forced a shot over a double team.  He also brought some effort on defense once again although only in spurts.  Most of all I was impressed with Melo’s effort on the defensive glass, especially in the second half when he recorded all of his rebounds.  He was so aggressive that, as with Martin, I thought he ended up with eight or nine boards.  He actually only grabbed four, but he kept some other rebounds alive by tipping them until a teammate could get to it. 

Tonight it was obvious that they knew what they had to change in order for them to succeed.  My question is why did they wait until tonight to make those changes?  Why don’t they approach every game the same way? 

I believe that they go into some games with the idea it is OK for them to lose.   

I have written previously about how important it is for the Nuggets not to site the injuries that they have endured as an excuse for underachieving.  Unfortunately not only are they using injuries as an excuse, it is coming directly from the head coach.  Successful teams and coaches do not give any excuses for loses.   

I think they went into the Laker game last night with the idea that they could lose the game and not feel bad about it because of the “rash” of injuries they have experienced.   

When you add that defeatist attitude they bring into some games because of the ready made excuse of injuries with the arrogant attitude that they think that they can just show up and win in other games they are approaching a large portion of their games with a very poor frame of mind. 

The Nuggets are like the teenager who is happy to get a ‘D’ because it is a passing grade when they are capable of getting an ‘A.’  Anyone who cares about them is upset that they are happy with the results and ultimately, they are hurting only themselves by settling for less than they are capable of.   

What makes things even worse is that the Nuggets achieved their goal for the month of November, which was established by none other than Coach George Karl, to win ten games.  For the Nuggets to proclaim this month a success for posting a 10-7 record is nothing short of preposterous. 

Maybe it is not quite a ‘D’ it sure as heck isn’t much better.  And there is Karl standing in front of the cameras telling everyone how pleased he is with it. Well, congratulations you are going to graduate from high school George, but do not expect to get into any good colleges, or to get any further than the first round of the playoffs. 

I had stated that in order for the Nuggets to make me believe that they are capable of winning 55 to 60 games they would have to end November with a 14-3 record.  Well, as the calendar turns to December they find themselves four games off of that pace and there were some ugly games mixed throughout for such a veteran team with lofty goals.   

Other Observations From Game 17:

 - I am still not sure what to think of Anthony Carter.  He has proven to be an adequate shooter from 20 feet and in.  He has put up some nice assist numbers.  However, he does not seem to run the team very well.  Many of his passes are off the mark and do not allow the recipient to take a shot in rhythm.  I think that is the first time I have ever spelled the word rythym correctly on my first try.  Dang it, I guess I could not do it twice in a row though. 

 - Looking at the stats the Nuggets did much better in all the areas they struggled in when the lost to the Clippers just over a week ago.  They outrebounded the Clippers by one, outscored them in the paint by six and even though they lost the fast break battle 20-14, they did a good job of pushing the pace. 

 - Just yesterday I wrote that the Nuggets might be better off starting AI at point and J.R. Smith at shooting guard, but I can certainly see the merits in having Carter and AI on the floor at the same time.  While playing Iverson at shooting guard is certainly a defensive liability, they run the floor much better when they have two options to take the outlet pass and run the fast break.   

 - Diawara is the only Nugget who has not gone through a slump from long distance.  He made two tonight, the second one killed any hopes of a Clipper rally.  Kuba is 14-31 on the season which equates to over 45%.  He is constantly compared to Bruce Bowen as a defender by George Karl my question is, if he really believes that, with his three point shooting why is he not playing more?   

 - Corey Maggette is by far the best offensive player the Clippers have, but I get the feeling they think he gets more than his fair share of shots up.  There were several occasions where his teammates chose not to pass to him even though he was set up in what seemed to be good scoring positions. 

 - Karl has been taking a lot of heat from fans regarding his lack of fire on the bench and his overly supportive comments in the press.  Everyone wants him to rant and rave along the sideline and call out his players in the papers and on television, but there are two problems with expecting those types of behavior from him.   

Karl is a Carolina guy and reveres Dean Smith as a coach and a person.  Smith was, for the most part, stoic on the sideline and Karl is trying to emulate that style.   

As far as speaking ill of his players to the media, that was one of the issues his players had with him in the past.  By the time his tenure was up in Milwaukee he had seriously hurt his relationship with his players, Ray Allen in particular, because he was hard on them openly with the media.  I think he is talking the way he is now to avoid some of those old problems.   

I am not supporting Karl in his decisions in how to conduct himself during games or with the press.  I am just saying this to give some background to why he may do what he does.

For a perspective on tonight’s game from the Clippers point of view check out Clipper Blog or Clips Nation.

Update:

J.R. Smith deserves a mention as he hit his first four or five threes he took.  They were all quality shots until he took a shady heat check three that ended up being his first miss.  He closed the game going 6-9 from long distance.  His lack of effort on defense and quasi psychotic shot selection made it difficult to keep him on the floor in the past.  Now that he is making an effort to correct those shortcomings, he can be a tremendous asset to the Nuggets.

Game 16: Denver Nuggets 99 – Los Angeles Lakers 127

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

Tonight’s game against the Lakers was not a total loss.  Yes the end result was a whitewashing of our Nuggets by the Fancy Lakers, but the Nuggets finally came out with an intense, hard working attitude to start the game tonight.   

Too bad it lasted about as long as I would in Compton. 

Even as the Nuggets built up that 17 point first half lead it all seemed a little fluky.  They had a game’s worth of steals in the first 18 minutes.  Once the Lakers started taking care of the ball things dried up for the Nuggets quickly. 

I have come to the conclusion that the Lakers are a better team than the Nuggets at this point in the season.  It is that simple.  I do not like admitting it, but it is true.   

As of now, all the preseason hype is long gone.  The 55 to 60 win aspirations are now no longer worth mentioning.  There are nine playoff caliber teams in the Western Conference.  It is now time to hope the Nuggets do not end up number nine out of that group.   

However, the Nuggets did show some progress as they made a concerted effort to run the floor in the first half even after made baskets, which is a key indicator of whether or not a team has a desire to run the floor.  Anyone can run after a steal at the three point line.  The swing in the score in the Lakers favor was more a result of the Lakers waking up than the Nuggets getting a lead and then settling back into their old habits.  

I guess at this point, with this team about all we can hope for is progress.    

 And we can also be glad we are not Knicks fans.  Dang, now that was a woopin’. 

Other Observations From Game 16: 

 - We must talk about Carmelo Anthony’s night mustn’t we?  He was ejected for the first time this season in what would appear to be his first “losing his head” moment.  I looked back at the replay and I do not think that is the case.  He had his hand up to feel where Vujacic was and was looking away at the ball.  Vujacic started to cut and Melo’s hand just happened to be up around his neck.  Melo then did show some frustration by simply pushing back against Vujacic after he started to exert some force on Melo’s arm.  Melo did not look at Vujacic and in a fit of xenophobia decide that he was going to try to choke him.  He just had his hand up too high.  If his hand was on Vujacic’s chest it would not have been a big deal. 

By the way, with the level of pain Sasha exhibited was truly fitting of a European who grew up watching and playing soccer.  I can see him sitting at the locker after the game rubbing his scrawny little neck with that pouty look on his face while his teammates giggle hiding behind towels.  What a sissy.  Actually, I do not think the other Lakers would even bother hiding.  I am pretty sure it is safe to openly mock Sasha. 

I hope it is not too late to mention this, but look at the word mustn’t.  I do not think I have ever seen it written down before.  It just looks like there is something wrong with it.  It could be the team word for the Nuggets because there looks like there is something wrong with them. 

Getting back to Melo, by looking at the box score, it would seem like he had a pretty solid game, but I do not completely agree with the box score.  He did shoot a very high percentage, but he is just so content to settle for that midrange jumper.  I do not think he drove to the basket more than twice all game long.  After he has hit a couple of those midrange jumpers, which he almost always seems to do starting off games, he can get to the basket at will using a pump fake and his awesome first step. 

Why won’t he do that?   

On some occasions the other team brings a second defender to the ball side of the lane when Melo is on the wing, but unless Melo makes that defender commit to cover him by driving there is no real offensive advantage to be gained from it.  The true sign of his complete dependence on the jumper is the fact that he only took one free throw.  That free throw capped a three point play in one of the two or three instances Melo did drive to the hoop. 

If I could make one other observation on what Melo has been doing on offense, notice where he posts up.  He rarely actually posts up on the block.  He is always posting up twelve feet from the hoop or further.  This just makes it easier for him to continue to shoot that midrange jumper.  He is so quick and so strong he can spin off the block and get either a great shot or set up a teammate.  He used to use that drop step/spin move all the time on the block.  I have not seen it in a while. 

The other change in Melo’s game from the beginning of the season that should be noted is his newfound desire to be a good defender is long gone.  He is not even pretending to play solid defense anymore.   

The bottom line is Melo is not putting forth the necessary effort, especially mentally, on offense or defense. 

 - It will not be long before Andrew Bynum is mentioned among the other top centers in the league.  Since he entered the league he showed good athleticism, nice hands and good touch.  The rest is work ethic and it sounds like after some early concerns he is learning how to be a professional. 

 - Allen Iverson had another decent game, but it was a tale of two styles for AI tonight.  When the Nuggets went on their run to push the lead up to 17 points Iverson had four assists in that sequence.  He ended up with six assists for the game.  I still contend that the Nuggets are a better team when Iverson is playing the set up man, than the primary scorer.  In the second half he went into scorer mode, as he usually does when he senses things are turning against him, and the Nuggets suffered for it.   

Doug Collins commented that AI is better as a shooting guard, but I do not think that is true.  Has anyone noticed a difference in his style of Iverson’s play whether or not he is playing the one or the two?  I never have.  The only difference is how early in the possession he starts dribbling. 

 - Along the same lines, I am starting to think the Nuggets need to start playing Iverson at the point and J.R. Smith at shooting guard.  That gets their five most talented players on the court at the same time and can be a deadly offensive lineup, especially if they dedicate themselves to running.   

 - I thought J.R. played smarter against the Pacers and even more so against the Lakers.  He did a great job of driving instead of settling for the three.  He did take a very bad three at one point in the third quarter as he was off balance on the baseline and chucked up an airball, but overall he is trying to make better decisions.  He will take bad shots, but with his nice offensive package and definite increased effort on defense, I think it is time to see how well he can help this team. 

 - I know George Karl has come out and admitted that the first 20 games or so are like an extended training camp where he is still trying to figure out who to play, where to play them and how much to play them.  Well, he is still fiddling.   Diawara has gone from starting to the DNP – CD.  The small scrappy lineup of Klieza, Najera, Bobby Jones and Smith have gone from being a game changing force during the six game winning streak, doesn’t it seem like that was several weeks ago, to not even being on the floor together.  As I mentioned Diawara did not play a second tonight.  Jones only played in garbage time. 

How much longer is this shuffling going to continue?   

The only reason for it I can think of is if the fall off in three point accuracy by Jones, Kleiza and Diawara have made Karl gun shy to throw those guys out there together. 

For some thoughts from the Lakers’ perspective on tonight’s game check out Forum Blue and Gold.

We Kneed Fewer Injuries

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

The Nuggets finally caught a bit of a break today.  Who among us did not expect the worst after Kenyon Martin hurt his knee against Houston?  After looking over Martin’s MRI the doctors declared his knee injury a bone bruise and not an injury of a more serious nature.   

The ultimate idea of this post is how the Nuggets will deal with yet another injury, but there is another issue to address.  Is this a sign that a more significant knee injury for Kenyon is over the horizon, or perhaps even just around the corner, or might it be a sign that Kenyon’s knees are sturdy and they can handle some trauma without giving way to more significant damage?  I do not think we can draw a conclusion either way until Kenyon either makes it through the season or experiences a serious injury along the way.  It is one of those questions that we cannot really know the answer to, but can spend a lot of time arguing about anyway. 

The results of the MRI show that Martin will miss at least the next game against the Indiana Pacers tomorrow, but will probably also miss a game or two beyond that.   

Other good injury news is that Linas Kleiza is very close to returning and will be a game time decision tomorrow against the Flat and Boring State Pace Cars.  (I went to school in Indiana for two years, no not at IU thankfully, and things there are pretty dull.  In fact, the closest thing I ever received to hate email was regarding my treatment of Indiana in a scathing article I posted on an old website of mine.  OK, I admit that some people in Indiana have more than three teeth and not all of them have an incalculable Body Mass Index, but I still do not want to go back.) 

Whether Kleiza plays tomorrow against the AMC Pacers or not, the Nuggets will be significantly short handed without Nene and Martin.  After Steven Hunter went under the knife, I blogged that the Nuggets could not afford to lose anyone else to injury without it impacting their rotation.  Since then Kleiza and Martin have both been injured.   

It has appeared that the Nuggets have not really missed Kleiza, but that may not be entirely true.  He does run the floor as hard as any of the other players and he brings an energy and determination to the court when he is out there.  However, he did not hurt his ankle until the fourth quarter of the Clipper game and the Nuggets were not running or playing with energy, apart from Allen Iverson of course, while he was in there.  It is a stretch to believe he personally could have made much of a difference in the Timberwolf or Rocket games as pathetic as those performances were, but he would have provided a little of what the Nuggets have been missing.  However, now that Martin is out, they do need him back desperately. 

Even when Kleiza returns they will be undersized at power forward with Marcus Camby and Eduardo Najera the only players who can even pretend to be low post defenders.  The Nuggets are going to have to play at a very fast pace to make up for their lack of size and the Pacers, for one, will oblige as they want to play quickly as well.  It will also help that they will be light in the front court as well as Jermaine O’Neal will probably miss the game in Denver with knee problems of his own.  Denver has been successful at playing small ball in short spurts so far this season and it helps that the next three opponents (Pacers, Lakers and the juggernaut Clippers) lack any low post threat from the power forward spot.   

The bottom line is the Nuggets are going to have to play with tremendous effort and passion on both ends of the floor in order to be successful while Martin is out.  Obviously, they have failed to do that for three straight games as miserably as the Maginot Line failed to hold back the Germans.  If they cannot turn things around as they did at halftime of the first Pacer game, they will find themselves staring at a .500 record and a long road ahead of them to respectability.   

I have no idea what George Karl will do with mixing and matching of lineups over the next few games.  He probably does not even know what he will do until Kleiza is either ruled in or out for the Pacer game.  This will be a test of his coaching skill as he will have to find the right mix of players that can work together on the floor and more importantly, prevent the Nuggets from using injuries as an excuse over the next few games.   

If you ask the Nuggets players point blank if they blame injuries for their recent poor performance, I guarantee you to a man they will say, “No.”  But they will list off everyone who has been hurt and deep down in a part of their soul that only God and their agent knows exists I suspect that they may allow themselves some leeway mentally to play poorly because of the current lack of health around the locker room.   

I will make another guarantee.  At the end of the season, if they do not achieve their goals, injuries will be one of the primary excuses at the top of everyone’s list to explain why. 

It is a mindset that Karl cannot allow to be fostered and it is up to him as well as players like Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby and Carmelo Anthony to make sure that such a mindset is not tolerated. 

Game 12: Denver Nuggets 90 – Los Angeles Clippers 101

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

Another game, another blow out, but this was not the blow out Nuggets fans expected.  Make no mistake about it, this was a blowout.  From the middle of the second quarter on the Nuggets were cooked. 

“We really will not find out much more about them until they play at Houston on Saturday.  That is unless they lose on the road against the Clippers or at home against the Timberwolves.” 

I wrote that just last night after the Bulls game in reference to the fact that the Nuggets were playing much improved defense and doing all they could to run the other team out of the gym. 

Well, all those things they had been displaying over the previous five and a half games suddenly disappeared.   

No heart. 

No offensive movement. 

No focus. 

No chance. 

They lost a game to a team missing three of their four best players (OK, Cassell did come in for a bit in the third and fourth quarter, but the tone of the game was set long before that) because of injury.   

This is the second bad loss for the Nuggets already this season including the Knick game and excluding the Hornets game, which was a borderline bad loss.  Last year Phoenix won 61 games, which is something the Nuggets have stated that they believe they can accomplish.  Phoenix had five bad losses all last season. 

The Nuggets are on a pace for 13 bad losses.  You do not win 60 games, or 55, with that many bad losses.  The only player who made any attempt to get to the basket was Iverson.  He was by far the Nuggets best player tonight.  He single handedly kept them in the game in the second quarter.   

One example of the Nuggets’ mindset tonight was Martin had a shot blocked by Kaman which he thought was goaltending.  He stood back behind the play glaring at the ref while Kaman hustled down and got a wide open layup on the secondary break. 

The Nuggets also missed a myriad of layups in the first half.  In the second half, they did not get nearly as many chances close to the rim. 

To top it all off, they started running the offense they perfected from the first half of the Celtics game.  A devastating combination of a lack of movement and a lack of passing and it worked just as poorly tonight as it did then. 

This was a pathetic display of basketball.   

Other Observations From Game 12: 

 - The bloom is off the rose for Bobby Jones and Kleiza from the three point line.  Jones has missed six straight and Kleiza is two for his previous 15!  Iverson had a couple of chances to kick it over to Kleiza, but he had seen enough. 

 - Even early in the second half when the Clipper lead was hovering around six it seemed like it might as well have been a 20 point lead.  At no time did I believe the Nuggets were in position to make a run. 

 - At what point was George Karl going to realize that Kenyon Martin could not guard Chris Kaman one on one?  He abused Martin in the post over and over.  Maybe he would make an adjustment at halftime. 

 - J.R. Smith regressed in a big way tonight.  He was terrible in the first half.  He was out of control and was lucky that he did not get called for traveling on a couple of occasions because he could not decide when to pick up his dribble.  In the second half he started jacking up bad three pointers. 

 - Camby took four, FOUR, pull up jumpers in the first half.  He actually made two of them to double his total as a Nugget, but that does not change the fact that they were horrible shots.  Other than that, he was quietly effective grabbing another 18 boards. 

 - The Nuggets did not double Kaman in the post in the second half, but there was a possession where they doubled Mobley.  That resulted in a wide open jumper on the off side.  Ultimately I guess it did not matter what they did with the pathetic mental state they were in tonight, they were going to lose regardless. 

 - Someone needs to tell Melo that bodying up to his man 45 feet from the basket is not good defense.  He also has to move his feet.  There is no reason to play that tight on your man that far from the basket anyway.  That is an example of fake hustle and fake intensity.   

 - It is a testament to how talent poor the Clippers are that they were only up by seven at the half and only won by 11. 

 - Karl’s big second half adjustment was to start Mike Wilks in stead of Diawara.  I did not know why Wilks was playing in the first half when he did.  Why he started the second half over Kuba in a game where the Nuggets were lacking defensive intensity was ridiculous.  Let’s say I am mad at my car for getting poor gas mileage.  I do not take the air out of the tires because I am trying to prove a point.  I do whatever I can to get the gas mileage up as high as possible.  Starting Wilks instead of Kuba was letting the air out of the tires.   

 - If it were not for spell check, I would never have spelled the word mileage correctly.  Shouldn’t there be a ‘d’ in there somewhere? 

 - Another thing I wrote last night was that Melo had not lost his head yet this season.  Well, in the second quarter Cuttino Mobley bumped Melo with his posterior which apparently gave Melo a bit of a boo-boo.  He backed off about fifteen feet and let Mobley drain a wide open three.  The rest of the game he was pouting and decided the best way to get back at Mobley was to pick up fouls running through screens and taking poor shots.  He then resorted to firing up a bunch of threes.  Sure he made a couple, but realistically, they were all bad shots. 

 - During the game I received an email newsletter from the Nuggets announcing Iverson was player of the week last week.  Not much of a chance of repeating that accomplishment after this stink bomb even though Iverson ended up having a very good night.

 Have a great Thanksgiving everyone and I truly appreciate all of you who take the time to read this blog and even leave your thoughts in the comment section.

For a sample of what the Clippers fans thought about this game check out Clipper Blog or Clips Nation.

Reassessing the Sticky Fingers Study – Is Passing Really Helpful?

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

When I wrote my sticky fingers post charting how many passes the Nuggets and Celtics made before shooting everyone thought, “that is nice, you certainly have a lot of free time on your hands, but we have no idea how many passes are made in an average NBA possession so this is all pretty meaningless.” 

You are right.  We need something to compare those numbers to.  Well, I have found it. 

82games.com has a study where they chart the ratio of possessions, shooting percentage and points per 100 possessions by the number of “touches” made on that possession.  (Yea, I am not the only one with free time on my hands am I?)  They did not start counting touches until the team had the ball in a “reasonable attacking position” so they did not include the cross court passes in the backcourt when bringing the ball up against pressure that would have counted as touches, but not touches.  Apparently they did include fast break possessions which might skew the numbers towards fewer touches slightly. 

They found that the number of touches per possession does not necessarily increase points per possession nor does it increase field goal percentage.  In fact, there may be a negative impact on passing the ball too frequently.   

They determined that the average number of touches per possession was two.  23% of all possessions consisted of one touch, 30% had two touches another 23% consisted of three touches, four touches were made on 13% of possessions and the last 11% of possessions saw five or more touches made before the shot. 

Field goal percentage was highest with two touches at 49.5%.  One touch was second with a rate of 49.1% made field goals.  With three touches shooting dropped down to 47.8% and after four touches it bottomed out at 44.8%.  There was a slight rebound on possessions with five or more touches as teams shot 45.7% in those situations. 

The study then questions how important touches are for getting good shots.  It looks like teams are going to get their best chance at scoring on their second touch, or after one pass.  That flies in the face of what we believe to be true, that teams should pass the ball around and move on offense in order to get good shots.   

This is bad news, right?  Has one on one play truly taken over the game of basketball to the point where passing has a negative impact on offense?   

If this were a television show I would put “To be continued…” at the bottom of the screen while the characters all have dismayed looks on their faces.  We all know what happens on the continued portion of the show.  No matter how bad things are in the first installment, things always end up OK by the end of the second show. 

Anyway, that was my way of saying here comes the good news.   

They then go on to chart touches per second and this is where we see a dynamic difference that displays the importance of moving the ball around on offense. 

When touches per second were higher than 0.25 (which means there is a pass every four seconds or less) the offense shot over 50%.  On the flip side when touches per second were below 0.25 the offense shot 44%.   

That is quite a disparity, but one pass every four seconds is not really an example of quick ball movement is it?  To go further, on possessions where a team had their touches per second above 0.45 their shooting percentage increased to 58.5%!  If a team can pass the ball every two seconds, the numbers dictate that they will see a massive increase in their shooting percentage.  However, 57% of possessions that they charted had a touches per second rate of below 0.25.   

Now in our television analogy this is where we would go to a commercial, because wait, there is more! 

They go on to look at the impact of dribbling on shooting percentage.  On shots where a player catches and shoots, or takes zero dribbles, the field goal percentage comes out to 48.4%, which is pretty solid.   

When a player dribbles once, they shoot 47.5%, which is still good, but not as good.  Think about the times you see a player dribble once and shoot.  It is either a rhythm dribble for an open shot or a longer pull up jumper.  Most times a player cannot drive all the way to the basket on just one dribble, but it does happen. 

When a player takes two dribbles and shoots they shoot 50%.  Two dribbles is usually enough to get any of these athletes to the rim or get to some open space or else they are shooting a mid to close range pull up jumper. 

Those numbers are all pretty acceptable, but when a player takes three or more dribbles things go downhill quickly with a charted a field goal percentage of 45.7.   

When you add everything together in order to have the most efficient offense possible you want an offense where no one takes more than two dribbles and the ball should to be passed every two seconds.   

Does that sound like the Nuggets? 

No? 

Well for the final kicker, guess which coach they site in the article as a coach who stresses doing something right away with the ball?  You guessed it, none other than our own George Karl. 

Keep those things in mind as you watch the Nuggets play.  How quickly are they passing?  How often does someone either hold the ball or dribble it over and over, even if they are moving around?  Does it look like George Karl is getting on the players in an attempt to get them to do something quickly with the ball? 

I hope all of this helps put the sticky fingers study into a little better perspective.  If I was any good at this I would have presented this information first and then looked at what the Nuggets were doing on offense, but hey, I am doing my best here so thanks for cutting me a little slack.

To see the full study click here.

Game 9: Denver Nuggets 110 – Portland Trailblazers 93

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score

Did anyone else watch the first half and just feel kind of unsettled about the game tonight?  Not about the outcome, but about the intensity and the flow.  I would equate it to watching a decent foreign movie.  I was interested in what was going on, but felt a little smarmy and uncomfortable because of it. 

At the end of the first half the Nuggets had a 14 point lead, but did you get the feeling you were watching good basketball?  Towards the end of the second quarter the Nuggets started to get it together to build the lead up to 14, but I felt that was due more to Portland’s lack of performance (a young team coming off of a big win at home against Detroit the night before) than the Nuggets dominating them. 

At half time you could have looked at this game in one of two ways.  Either the Nuggets are good enough that they can play poorly and still handle a mediocre team or they did not have good focus and had they played a better team, they might have been in trouble.   

Actually I think the truth, like a creamy filling, is somewhere in the middle. 

Fortunately the second half was completely different.  The Nuggets came out in the third quarter and played with focus and purpose.  I felt like I was watching a good old American action flick again with lots of explosions and other macho stuff. 

After a cold shooting first half, Iverson was red hot to start off the second.  He knew Steve Blake could not guard him and proved it.   

The Blazers switched to a zone in an attempt to slow down Iverson and the Nuggets took advantage of it to increase their lead.  After the standing around isolation offense the Nuggets foisted on us in the first half the ball movement and unselfish passing was tremendous to watch.  On several occasions Portland chose to double Melo on the wing and he almost always made a smart pass that resulted in a good shot.  Melo, Camby, and J.R. Smith all made tremendous passes that resulted in dunks or easy layups.  

The Nuggets were very active on defense and on the glass.  They stripped the Blazers post players continuously in the third quarter and ended up with a total of 13 steals. 

Following Iverson’s lead Melo was red hot in the fourth quarter and they were able to turn the last five minutes of the game into garbage time.   Heading into a timeout in the third quarter Melo saw that he was coming out of the game and showed some displeasure.  He knew that he could be dominant on offense against this team and wanted to stay in the game.  When he came back in the game he was dominant.  I thought that was good to see.  Melo has the hunger to be an MVP caliber player.  He is also starting to show the all around game and smarts to get him there. 

If there was an area I was disappointed in tonight it was that I believe the Nuggets had a chance to really start to develop a defensive identity.  They had played six quarters of tremendous defense in a row.  Tonight they actually implemented a completely different defensive system than they had in any of the previous games this season.  Instead of fighting through picks and playing straight up, they switched almost every pick.  They also played a good deal of zone defense.    

I almost wonder if George Karl was experimenting during this game as the Trailblazers were a good team for the Nuggets to implement this type of switching defense against.  They did not have a cat quick scoring point guard or a big man who could overpower anyone inside.  Steve Blake was not going to kill the Nuggets and the only Nugget that could not reasonably guard LeMarcus Aldridge on a switch until help arrived is Iverson.   

Even with the defensive game plan differing from what I was hoping for, the bottom line is the Nuggets took care of business at home and easily dispatched of a young team.   

Other Observations From Game 9: 

 - I continue to be impressed with J.R. Smith.  In the past if his shot was not falling, he would be a liability for the Nuggets.  This year he is working hard on defense and creating quality shots for his teammates.  He even passed on a wide open three at one point in order to swing the ball around the perimeter.  On several occasions J.R. found himself matched up with players like Aldridge and Przybilla under the basket either on a switch or when the Nuggets were playing zone.  He never stopped fighting and did as well as anyone could expect of him under those circumstances.  In the past he would have probably run out of there faster than my readers are passing out from boredom. 

 - Kleiza again brought a great deal of energy and hustle to the game.  He dove on the floor for a loose ball in the fourth quarter with a big lead.   

 - Things got a little chippy in the third quarter when Camby took a wild swing at a shot by Aldridge and clipped his head in the process.  Aldridge took exception to the fact that he was hit in the head and the two started jawing at each other.  Fortunately they were separated because if either one threw a punch and landed it their scrawny arms would have probably shattered. 

Later on in the broadcast I picked up on a clue as to why Camby tried so hard to prevent the easy shot by Aldridge.  I forget which Blazer received the pass, but he had an open layup.  Camby violently pushed J.R. Smith into him to prevent the shot from going in.  I heard someone yell, “No layups!” when Camby pushed J.R. into the Blazer.  On the replay Camby’s mouth was moving which leads me to believe he was the shouter. 

That leads me to believe the Nuggets were trying to play physical with the Blazers and had implemented a “no layup rule” at least for the night.   On the play that angered Aldridge Camby fouled him hard enough to make sure he did not get a layup. 

This strategy hurt the Nuggets in garbage time though as they gave up more three point plays than should be legal in most states.

 - The three point watch is on life support.  After three straight hot shooting games the Nuggets had a gooseegg until Mike Wilks hit one late in the game.  They ended up 1-13.  Everyone missed at least one three except for Martin, Camby, Von Wafer and our hero Mike Wilks.  Fortunately Martin and Camby did not take a three and unfortunately Wafer did not either. 

 - The Blazers ran a promo during the Pistons game the night before the Nuggets game where Steve Blake claimed they had a plan for Melo.  They better go back to the drawing board because it was not effective.   

At all. 

 - I do not think Camby took one jumper tonight.  I can not tell you how happy that makes me.  He almost fired off the dreaded pull up jumper, but dropped off a beautiful bounce pass to Martin for a big slam instead.  That was the best decision that has been made since someone put cheese and bacon on a hamburger.  Perhaps he is reading Born A Nuggets Fan!

Once again a very good win against an underrated team.  When my only complaint was that I wish they had played a different defense during a game where they held the opposition to 39% shooting and held their best player (Brandon Roy) to 10.6 points under his average it was a good night.

This reminded me a little of how the Nuggets played during their hot streak to close out the 2004-2005 season, but as always I remain cautious.  A team that is supposed to win 55-60 games should have a large number of these games during the season.

Game 8: Denver Nuggets 122 – Cleveland Cavaliers 100

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Tonight you will hear no griping from me.  The Nuggets finally did what they have been talking about all season.  They played tough defense when the game started.  They played tough defense as the first quarter went on.  They played tough defense when the second five came in.  They played tough defense to close out the first half.  In the second half, the Nuggets played even more tough defense.  I think you get the point. 

Cleveland was able to reduce a 27 point lead to 16 at one point in the fourth quarter, but it was not the fault of the Nuggets’ defense.  The offense became stagnant and the Nuggets settled for several poor shots.  However, J.R. Smith scuttled any hopes of a Cleveland comeback with back to back threes. 

The only big picture issue that mattered for the Nuggets tonight was that they played 48 minutes of aggressive defense for the first time that I can remember.  The Cavs were ripe for a letdown game as they were closing out a six game road trip and had a nice comeback win last night in LA against the Clippers.  Then Larry Hughes was ejected for apparently complaining to the refs that he is a horrible shooter with a habit for having poor shot selection.  This was a team that the Nuggets should beat easily and they did. 

On the flipside, the Nuggets also had the foundation for a mental letdown as well.  They came out strong and got up on Cleveland early.  It would have been easy to let up a bit on the defensive intensity, but they did not allow that to happen.  Having watched these guys for years, that was an important step. 

Other Observations From Game 8: 

 - Early on in the game I thought Iverson was looking for his shot at the expense of being the distributor the Nuggets need him to be.  When he took a rest near the end of the first quarter he was 3-7 with no assists.  He then made 11 of his next 12 shots and ended up with 37 points and eight assists. 

 - Melo can get caught up in the mano a mano battle with Lebron at times when the Nuggets play the Cavaliers.  He did a great job of staying out of that mindset.  He did a great job on the glass in the first half and really only took a couple of bad shots.  He continued to challenge himself on defense as well.   

 - Camby, Martin and Najera completely took Zydrunas Ilgauskas (i kan spel that nam withowt luking, im so smahrt, thats y i hav a blogg and u doughnt) out of the game.  They were physical with him and made sure to tip rebounds away from him when they could not grab the ball.  Poor Big Z only played 20 minutes and shot 1-6 and those three get the credit for that.

 - It looks like Champ Bailey’s son won Joakim Noah’s hair in a raffle.  I doubt they sold a great deal of tickets if that was the grand prize. 

 - J.R. Smith finally broke out with a great game, complete with seven threes, four assists, four rebounds and zero turnovers.  He has really been trying to change the way he plays to make Karl happy.  When he plays the point as he has lately with the injuries to Atkins, Carter and Wilks, he has a completely different mentality.  He attacks the basket relentlessly and does not just settle for threes.    

He was responsible for a hoard of turnovers in the Indiana game, but bounced back strong tonight and not only took care of the ball, but he shot tremendously well too.  He has the ability to be a great all around player.  Just like everyone has pointed out with the Nuggets’ defensive effort, he must play this way consistently in order to be successful. 

 - The referees called a bunch of ticky tack fouls in the fourth quarter, mostly against Denver.  Maybe they were scheduled to ref in Detroit or New Jersey tomorrow night and really did not want to leave Denver. 

 - The Nuggets again made a distinct effort to run the floor and again, they looked rusty.  They were plagued by a gaggle of first quarter turnovers due to bad outlet passes and forced drives.  In the second half they were able to settle into a grove and ended up with 21 fast break points.  If they can cut down on those turnovers and make smart plays, that number will start to approach 30. 

 - It was another good night from the land of Steve Kerr for the Nuggets.  AI was 2-4, Diawara, Kleiza and Jones were all 1-2 and J.R. Smith went 7-8.  On the down side Melo and Von Wafer was 0-2.   

 - Diawara, Jones and even Melo played great defense on LeBron James.  James still shot a good percentage and had 27 points, but nothing came easy for him. 

 - A great deal was made about LeBron keeping his body balanced while shooting jumpers.  He did not look nearly as consistent tonight as he did in Las Vegas over the summer.  He was definitely leaning back as he has done in the past. 

The Nuggets are at a crossroads.  They still have a favorable schedule for the remainder of the month.  If they dedicate themselves to playing on the defensive end like they did tonight every game, they can absolutely challenge the elite teams of the West during both the regular and post seasons. 

Unfortunately, this team has yet to put forth that effort on a nightly basis in years past.  They know that they are built to win now.  Let’s see if they can play like it. 

Next Game:  Wednesday against Portland in Denver.  Another must win game for the Nuggets to reach their goals.  Hopefully they can run their stretch of playing good defense up by another 48 minutes. 

Game 7: Denver Nuggets 113 – Indiana Pacers 106

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

How many of us wrote the Nuggets off at half time of this game?  It looked so much like the Boston game, or the game that we dare not speak of (that I cannot seem to stop mentioning).  Hot shooting team scoring at will combined with a lackadaisical effort on defense.  There were definite flashbacks. 

In this game, I have to give credit to George Karl.  He was certainly not sitting on his hands this game.   

Karl tried a lot of different things on defense hoping to stumble across something that would slow down the Pacers.  To start the game Diawara guarded Tinsley and Martin was on O’Neal.  That did not work because AI could not handle Dunleavy and Camby could not deal with the perimeter game of Murphy. He then brought in Kleiza for Diawara and Klieza was not able to handle the red hot Dunleavy either.  Next, he went to some three quarter court pressure and trapping which was defeated with even more hot shooting.  Finally Karl tried a zone, which was picked apart with nice interior passes and of course, more hot shooting.   

None of these defenses were effective and at the end of the first half the Nuggets were down big yet again. 

In the second half Karl made one last adjustment.  They decided that the issue on defense was not the scheme, it was the lack of focus.  They played straight up the rest of the night.  They did not double O’Neal the few times he received the ball in the post.  They did not try to out think themselves by mixing up the defensive matchups.  They just buckled down and played tough defense.  

That increased effort and determination working hand in hand with the law of averages, which dictated there was no way the Pacers could shoot anywhere nearly as well as they did in the first half, resulted in an impressive comeback by the Nuggets. 

Indiana set a franchise record for points in a quarter with 46, yes, you read that correctly, 46 first quarter points.  They followed that up with 28 points in the second quarter.  After all of that the Nuggets held them to only 32 points in the entire second half. 

Linas Kleiza was great tonight.  He had at least four or five defensive rebounds in the first half.  He hit a couple of timely threes.  His defense was shaky, especially in the first quarter, but he more than made up for it on offense.  The most important thing was that he played hard the entire time he was on the court.   

The offense was still somewhat stagnant, during the comeback.  It was a 180 degree difference than the night before in Washington, but the lack of movement and passing was overcome by some clutch shot making and the increased effort on defense.  

One interesting development was the comeback was actually triggered by Yakhouba Diawara.  He scored eight unanswered points, including two threes, in a minute and a half early in the third quarter.   I have mentioned Kleiza, Najera and Bobby Jones providing a boost from Downtown, but the Nugget leading the team in three point shooting right now is Diawara.  After hitting 3-4 against Indiana, he has made 10-21 on the season with comes out to 47.6%.   

This is the most surprising turn of events for the Nuggets so far this season.  Diawara shot less than 29% from Steve Kerr land last season.  I really cannot fathom how it was even that high.  He was absolutely horrible.  If my kids life depended on it I would rather have had a blind quadriplegic shoot a three pointer than Diawara last season.  Well, maybe the quadriplegic would have to be able to see, but I definitely would not have trusted Diawara. 

If Kuba can somehow keep this up the Nuggets seem to have finally thrown together a quality three point shooting team.  Melo, Kleiza, AI, Kuba, Najera, J.R. Smith and Von Wafer are all solid to good three point shooters.  Atkins has a good career percentage as well.  This is a very good development.   

Other observations from game 7: 

• The Nuggets have done a great job, especially against Washington, in getting defensive deflections resulting in a high number of steals. 
• Steven Hunter who?  So much for Hunter getting some run with Nene out.  Karl has gone with Najera and Martin playing center and Martin, Najera and Kleiza playing power forward.  I cannot complain.  Hunter is a good player, but with the teams they have played, size has not been an issue.  The only player of any girth that the Nuggets have seen was Brendan Haywood and he only played 20 minutes.  Cleveland is up next and Camby will be able to handle Ilgauskas while he is on the floor.
• One thing to take into account is neither Washington nor Indiana double teamed Carmelo until it was too late.  The Nuggets have struggled offensively to score when Melo is strenuously doubled.  Apparently they do not have game tape of the past few Nuggets games in DC and Indy.
• It was also encouraging that the Nuggets were able to put this kind of effort into a second half after playing the night before and on the last day of a road trip. 

I have been hard on the Nuggets, and this little two game winning streak is good, but they still have a long way to go to prove that they are approaching each game with a sense of urgency.

 Update:  Correction, Diawara is not leading the Nuggets in three point percentage.  It is actually Bobby Jones who has shot 5-8 good for 67.5%.  Sorry for the misinformation.  I will do my best to be more careful in the future.

Reconsidering the Celtics Game

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

I have spent way too much time on this game.  The Nuggets could have played great and still lost as well as the Celtics played on offense.  Boston is going to make quite a few teams look silly this season.  When I saw Boston play during the preseason from Italy I was surprised at how well they all played together and they are even better now.  It is amazing how quickly a team that is nearly completely reconstituted from last season has developed such a sense of where and when to pass to one another. 

Anyway, here are some final thoughts I have regarding this game and I promise it will be the last article discussing this contest. 

 - Carmelo really did show a higher level of dedication on defense.  (I can hear you all saying, “Well he couldn’t show any less dedication to it could he?”)  He has said that he wants to cover the other team’s best player and he really made a go of it against Paul Pierce.  Melo was chasing Pierce all over the floor, doing his best to fight around screens and being physical with him when he was trying to cut.  The bad news is that Melo still does not have a good sense of where to position himself and he was burned a couple of times because he did not know where the ball was.  It is clear that many of these guys were not taught the finer intricacies of man to man defense in high school or college. 

All in all I was impressed with Anthony’s effort and desire on defense.  Pierce scored a bunch of points, but several of his shots were a result of him just being a top notch offensive player. The next step for Melo is to put forth that effort on defense and still score 30+ on offense.  And yes, that is as difficult to do as it sounds. 

 - Following up on my Sticky Fingers article I compiled the passing numbers in the first quarter of the game to complete my analysis of the first half.  The Nuggets had an even higher percentage of possessions where either no passes or one pass was made before the possession ended in the first quarter than they did in the second.   

There were 27 possessions in the first quarter where the Nuggets were required to run some kind of half court offense.  17 of those 27 possessions they threw either no passes or one pass.  They had six possessions where they threw two passes and two possessions each where they threw three or four passes. Out of the 54 first half possessions where the Nuggets were in their half court offense, they only had three possessions where they passed the ball more than three times.   

Conversely, the Celtics had 43 first half possessions where they were running a half court offense and of those 43 possessions they had nine possessions where they threw four or more passes.  The Celtics scored 17 points on those nine possessions.   

As commenter Disco has pointed out, this is a very small sample size and we probably cannot draw many conclusions from them.  Also, the Celtics played as well as possible on offense.  They scored no matter how few or how many passes they made.   

The bottom line is I do think this is a trend to keep an eye on during the season.  The Nuggets have always played their best when they share the ball and move without the ball.   

 - Kleiza was absolutely abused on defense.  He could not guard Allen or Pierce when he was matched up against them.  When the Nuggets traded for Kleiza the issue was what position was he going to guard?  He is a much improved offensive player from the time he entered the league, but I am still not sure who he can guard.   

 - The Nuggets did not try to run at all.  That is not a good sign. 

 - J.R. Smith made a concerted effort to play smart and under control.  He played the point for a while and tried his darndest to be unselfish.  In the preseason game against Phoenix where Atkins reinjured his groin J.R. played the point and did a great job of being unselfish.  He is trying.  Now if we can just keep him out of night clubs… 

 - I am close to unleashing my analysis of the Nuggets pick and roll game.  I need to watch at least one more game to verify my findings.  How is that for a teaser?  Not something you are going to hear on the nightly news is it?  I promise it will be almost as exciting as folding laundry. 

 - How has Brian Scalabrine gone from being a symbol of all that is wrong with the Celtics to a fan favorite in just three years?   

 - I think it is time for Bobby Jones to see the floor early and often.  Karl talks about how the first 20 games or so are extended training camp and how he is still trying to figure out who to play together (which I find preposterous, but he is the professional) so why has Jones not gotten a chance yet?  He seems to be a very good hybrid of Diawara’s defense and Kleiza’s shooting.  I want to see him start and play 30 minutes for at least a week. 

 - This blog is going to kill me.  It is going to be after two again tonight.  My wife is spending my life insurance payment in her head right now. 

Thanks for reading everyone.

Game 3: Denver Nuggets 88 – New Orleans Hornets 93

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

The Nuggets’ three point shooting outburst for 2007-2008 lasted exactly one game.  Since their impressive game one performance the Nuggets have shot 7-32.  That includes 2-7 from Melo, 3-10 from AI and 1-8 from Kleiza.  Najera can be an effective shooter when he is wide open and can take his time with his relatively long set up and shot, but against New Orleans he took two quick threes where he was somewhat closely guarded.   

In game number three it was a lack of offense that hurt the Nuggets other than a lack of defense.  They held the Hornets to 38.4% shooting, but only shot 36.7% themselves including 22.2% from long range.   

Even with the poor offensive showing, this game was winnable heading down the stretch.  To me the key portion of the game played out early in the fourth quarter.  In a thirty second stretch New Orleans was able to get back to back wide open threes from Bobby Jackson and Rasual Butler.   

Denver called a timeout as a two point game had suddenly became an eight point game.  

After the timeout, David West hit an open jumper, Najera rushed up one of his two missed threes, and soon after that Butler hit another wide open three pointer.  The Hornets had an 11 point lead and for all intents and purposes the game was over even though there was still over seven minutes left on the clock. 

It amazes me how the Nuggets get out of position so frequently.  They almost seem surprised to find that there is an opposing player sitting there wide open when a swing pass comes around resulting in a wide open three.  I realize when a team has a player that must be doubled you will get out of position when rotating, but the Hornets have no such player.   

Despite the fact that the deciding sequence of the game for the Nuggets was a result of lapses on the defensive end, the offense cost them the win.  We have heard since the Nuggets traded for AI that there would be easy shots abounding for everyone as no team will be able to cover AI and Melo at the same time.  Well, the Hornets did a pretty good job of it.   

They focused their efforts on Melo double teaming him quickly after he received the ball.  With the Nuggets unable to hit their threes, New Orleans packed everything in and cut down the interior passing lanes and driving lanes.  AI, who should have benefited from open shots because of the attention the Hornets placed on Melo, had a terrible shooting night.  He missed a handful of relatively easy shots the worst of which being a break away layup where he was completely unchallenged.  

The lack of offense falls directly on George Karl’s shoulders.  He has a team with one of the two best scorers in the league in Carmelo Anthony (who is only surpassed by Kobe Bryant at this point) and another very talented scorer in Iverson.  Iverson has slowed a tad, but he can still get in the lane almost at will.  There has to be a way to make this work. 

Other Observations from Game 3:

• K-Mart looks good.  He is effective the entire time he is on the floor.  He is rebounding, blocking shots and finishing around the basket.  If he can continue to build his strength, stamina and most importantly his confidence in his knees, he will be a great asset heading into the second half of the season. 

• Marcus Camby’s shot selection is killing me.  I will write more about that in an upcoming post.

• Melo was trying to force things a little too much when he was doubled.  There are basically three things a player can do when he is doubled.  Make his move before the double team arrives, let the double come, theoretically giving your team an advantage elsewhere on the floor, and pass out of it or try to beat it on your own. 

Most frequently Anthony received the ball in the post, awaited the double team and then either tried to fight through it or pass out of it.  On the couple of occasions he made his move before the double team arrived, he seemed to have the most success.  He was getting very good position either on the block or just outside of it and consistently had a smaller man guarding him.  A quick turn around jumper was his best tool against this defense, but he only used it on one or two occasions. 

• The Nuggets inability to run was perplexing.  The Hornets outscored them 22-11 on fast break points.  The Nuggets consistently fail at running at home.  They play at a quick pace getting a lot of possessions by shooting relatively early in the shot clock, but they do not play a fast breaking style that they need to in order to have a true home court advantage.
• Nene is already looking to be in better shape than he was in for game one.  He still has a ways to go though.

 Next Game:  Tuesday @ New York Knicks – The revenge for the brawl game

Bags Packed and Questions Answered

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

I need something to divert my attention away from counting down the minutes to the Rockies first World Series appearance later tonight.  There has been a plethora of Nuggets news this afternoon so it is time for another post. 

First of all the Nuggets have waived five players to get down to 14.  A couple of the departures were mild surprises.   Predictably the Nuggets parted ways with Stacey Augmon and Brad Stricker.  Mike Wilks was shown the door just a couple of days after he was signed.  Anthony Roberson was the first somewhat surprising name.  With the uncertainty at point it might have made sense to keep him around until Anthony Carter was healthy.  Roberson put up good numbers and was the quickest point guard on the roster.   

The name that was a borderline shock to me was Jelani McCoy.  McCoy had proven to be a good rebounder and shot blocker.  As a third string center, behind Camby and Steven Hunter, he was a nice player.  I realize that some teams like carrying only 14 players so that they can add someone whenever they feel like it, but with Nene and Kenyon coming off of injuries and facing limited minutes and Najera seemingly constantly banged up why not hang onto another big body to fill in some potential gaps?   

If the Nuggets have their eye on someone else to fill in that fifteenth spot it may be Jamaal Sampson was just waived by Dallas.  I believed the Nuggets brought McCoy in as a cheap replacement for Sampson.  Now that Sampson has been waived, perhaps he can be a cheap replacement for himself.   

The other news that caught my eye was some questions posed by none other than Coach George Karl himself in an interview.  I believe I know the answers to some of these questions so let’s give it a shot. 

Question #1 – “I don’t know who’s going to be the starters on my team.” 

Answer #1 – OK, so that was actually a statement, but just roll with me.  Opening night starters should be AI, Bobby Jones, Melo, Nene and Camby.  This group was running together during training camp and I like the Jones has been shooting the ball.  He made only one of nine three point attempts, but so far in the preseason he has been shooting the ball very well.  I realize it is just the preseason, but let’s give him a chance to prove himself.  He plays solid defense and is a good passer.  Maybe he is a hidden gem that can be the difference between a good team and a great team.  Who knows? 

Those should be the opening night starters George so there you go. 

Question #2 – “I don’t know how we’re going to play the ‘four’ position, with Kenyon being limited minutes, and Nene will probably be on limited minutes early.” 

Answer #2 – Kenyon and Nene can play at least twenty minutes a piece.  Eduardo is perfectly capable of playing another twenty.  That is 60 minutes of playing for a 48 minute game.  Also, Kleiza has been practicing at the four and Melo is capable of sliding over for short stretches.  Camby and Hunter can play together in a big frontcourt.  Even if Kenyon and Nene can only go 15 minutes each, there are still plenty of options.  My vote is for Najera to fill in the relatively small blanks. 

Question #3 – Not Knowing even the backup (shooting guard/small forward) right now, because Bobby Jones has moved up the ladder.  J.R. (Smith) obviously won’t play for the first three games.” 

Answer #3 – OK, so maybe the question gimmick was not the best ideas as Karl was making statements, but he is definitely stating that he does not know what he is going to do and that is the point.  Anyway, Bobby Jones and Melo are going to start as shown in question #1.  That makes the back up small forward Linus Kleiza.  Von Wafer is the best candidate to fill in behind Jones and depending on how he does J.R. Smith may be relegated to the bench once again.  Wafer has been streaky in camp, but is very capable of hitting open threes which should be available in large quantities.  Once again, if Jones and Wafer play twenty minutes each, that leaves just a handful of minutes for AI to swing over to the two and they will not need to worry about Yakhouba Diawara ending up on the court without his warm ups on.   

Question #4 – “Will I start (Allen Iverson) at point or at off-(guard)?” 

Answer #4 – Finally an actual question.  Vindicated!  Once again see the answer to question #1.  AI will start at the point.  Chucky Atkins is a fill in at best.  The fact that they waived Roberson shows that AI will put in a lot of time at the point as the only other capable points on the roster are Atkins and Johnson.  Atkins is still not 100% and Carter will be out for at least the first two weeks of the season.  Right now there is no other option than playing AI at the point.   

Also, Iverson can slide over to the two, with Atkins or Johnson on the floor, but that is a defensive nightmare for the Nuggets, with the current focus on defense I doubt you will see many minutes played by a smallish back court.   

There you go George.  I hope that was helpful.

Nuggets on the Brink

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

This may come as a strange time to begin a Denver Nuggets blog with our “heroes” facing elimination at the hands of the hated Spurs, but this playoff season and off-season is going to be the most important for the Nuggets since the mid 1980’s.

I have been greatly disappointed by the results of the last three games of the current playoff series. The inability of the Nuggets to win a game at home against the Spurs for the second time in three years is completely deflating.

Entering this series I was not expecting the Nuggets to win the series, but I did expect them to at least make a strong showing. I wanted to see game six. Another playoff series that saw the Nuggets only win on game would be an utter letdown.

Baring an explosion from Allen Iverson, I do not believe the Nuggets have it in them to win game 5. San Antonio has a killer instinct to close out every playoff series in as few games as possible. The Nuggets have to be as disappointed as the fans are at the result of the previous two home games. It would take a strong effort on every player’s part to put that behind them and play tonight’s game with the passion they brought to Games 1 and 4.

We have all seen the Nugget’s shortcomings on the floor, but let me weigh in on what I believe the real problems are that have caused them to falter.

1. The complete surrender of the transition game to the Spurs. Denver has not tried to run and push the pace for any prolonged period of time. There have been a couple of sequences here and there where they have done it, but they have given up their commitment to running. The Spurs are great at shutting down even the best transition games, but simply accepting that as the status quo of the series has been a grave mistake on the Nuggets’ part.

2. No benefit from the bench. The Nuggets have had no contribution from their bench whatsoever. Najera has had a few moments here and there, but the now benched JR Smith and Linus Kleiza have been complete no shows. This has been an obvious issue throughout the series and we have all seen the statistical comparison between the two benches over and over again, but George Karl has done nothing to attempt to change that. Now that they are on the brink of elimination, we may see some new faces tonight, but even if players like Diawara, DerMarr Johnson, Reggie Evans or Anthony Carter play well the damage has been done. Also, this problem has a direct impact on problem #1. When guys know that they are going to be playing 40+ minutes a game, they want to pace themselves, thus eliminating their commitment to the running game.

I started off by saying that this off-season is crucial to the Nuggets, the reason is they need to add a couple of assets that can come off the bench and provide a boost. The Spurs can bring guys like Horry, Finley (Ginobili is a starter that gets his rest at the beginning of the first quarter instead of at the end of it) and Barry off the bench. If one of them does not fit in well (Barry) they can overcome it with their other options.

3. A coaching mismatch. George Karl has done a pretty good job with this series, but at the one of the two or three defining moments of the series Popovich got the best of him. When the Spurs went small to start the fourth quarter of game 4, the Nuggets were caught in a couple of mismatches that cost them several points. Karl also has also allowed the running game to be dismissed and has not pressed the team to incorporate Nene and Carmelo more. Nene has proven that he is too much for Duncan to handle in the post by himself and has been great on the pick and roll.

To be fair, this is not all Karl’s fault. Whoever has the ball in his hands needs to get the team in the position to succeed. In game 4 Iverson was the man with the ball in his hands and too often he called his own number when both Melo and Nene were shooting very well. However, ultimately, the coach needs to make sure the players do what is smart and if they do not, the responsibility falls on him.

4. Plain old bad luck. The Nuggets have played well, but they are missing that little bit extra something that could put them over the top. It could have come from either Kleiza or Smith hitting a couple of threes. They are a combined 1-18 from distance in the series. If they both just shoot 33%, which is below both of their season percentages, that is good for an extra 15 points. How big would an extra 15 points be in this series? Another example of bad luck is when Blake stepped on the three point line and made a two instead of a three to tie the game. Little things like that haunt you and it takes a special team to overcome obstacles such as those. At this point, the Nuggets are not yet a special team.

You will notice I put no blame on the officials. I honestly believe that this series has been officiated pretty evenly. Nene has been given some leeway on defending Duncan that I have not seen in the past. Ginobili has not been on a parade to the foul line as he was in 2005. If I had any complaints it would be the fact that Duncan has been called for an average of 1.5 fouls a game. That is preposterous and I can only attribute it to his clever statement that he hopes the refs did not hold the Crawford suspension against him.

With that I will say that I believe the Nuggets can win tonight and if they do, I have a difficult time believing the Spurs can win a fifth straight playoff game in Denver. Iverson is due to break out and Melo does not want to go down 4-1 for the fourth time in his four seasons.

Of course when all you can point to who is due what, it is clear that you need chance to be on your side. Maybe the bad luck the Nuggets have been experiencing can fade away for at least one night.