Game 34: Denver Nuggets 115 – Phoenix Suns 137

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

I need to throw something out there on the Nuggets effort against the Suns last night before you all give up on me.  I did not get to watch much of the game last night.  Tonight I was able to watch some of the recording of it, but not as closely as I would have liked.   

What I was hoping to see was that the Nuggets played well, but the Suns were just hot and there was nothing they could do. Well, the Suns were hot, but the Nuggets effort on defense was not what I had hoped to see, but then again, when is it?  They were constantly out of position in their transition D, even when they had the opportunity to get back after a made basket, which helped the Suns get out to an early lead.   

I thought Iverson and Carmelo played hard on offense, but the supporting cast did not offer much help.  Melo hit the boards as hard as he had in the last week or two and AI continued his offensive attack.   

Nene was very solid as he rebounded well and was able to score in the paint although it seemed like most of his points came late in the game against half hearted defense. 

I am not sure who would beat the Suns when Marcus Banks and Shawn Marion combine to make 12 threes(!), but the Nuggets made sure they had no chance to win because of their lax defense.  Even when the  Nuggets made a run to get it down to 11 or 12 points the Suns would hit a couple of threes and that would be that. 

I loathe excuses, but playing Phoenix on the road on the last game in a four games in five nights stretch is not an appealing situation to be in.  I think some of their indifference on defense could be attributed to the schedule even though it kills me to say that.

Other Observations From Game 34:

 - Martin looks like he is healthy again.

Check out the Bright Side of the Sun if you are looking for something from the Suns perspecitve.

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.

AI has been Framed!

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

For those of you who did not see it on the Nugg Doctor’s blog, IFC, the Independent Film Channel, has a show called “Framed” where a celebrity directs a film about another celebrity.   

Who cares?  Well, tomorrow night’s installment presents a documentary directed by Nelly about Allen Iverson.  It first airs at 8:30 MST on IFC so we can switch over directly after the Nuggets game in Minnesota, which should finish just before 8:30.  If the game runs a little long it is on again later that night at 12:30 MST. 

Click here to view the trailer on You Tube. 

Look for a post on the big win against the hated Spurs tomorrow morning.

Kiki a Net, DerMarr a Spur

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Former Nuggets are on the move.   

Kiki Vandeweghe has been hired by the New Jersey Nets to fill a front office role under Rod Thorn.  This is undoubtedly a case of Thorn paying Kiki back for not only taking Kenyon Martin off of the Nets hands, but also giving New Jersey three first round picks for the right to do so.   

Kiki did a tremendous job tearing apart a horrible team with a couple of huge contracts and rebuilding from scratch.  The Nuggets went from a laughingstock with no future to a perennial playoff team in just three seasons thanks to Kiki’s work.  He made a good trade that landed the Nuggets both Camby and Nene, knew when to sell high on Raef LaFrentz getting rid of Juwan Howard’s atrocious deal in the process, he avoided giving horrible contracts to the Anthony Goldwires and Tariq Abdul-Wahads of the world and when he did spend money he did it reasonably, for the most part, as he signed Andre Miller and Marcus Camby to flat contracts that did not include an exponential jump in value from year to year.  In fact, he was able to get them each to accept a reduction in salary in the second years of those contracts in order to maximize the Nuggets’ cap space that resulted in the sign and trade for K-Mart. 

Of course, that is not the entire story of the Vandeweghe era.  He made the aforementioned gaff of giving up three first round draft picks in the sign and trade for Martin.  That contract has become one of the worst deals in the league although to be fair no one had any idea Kenyon would need microfracture surgeries on both knees at this point in his career.  But we all knew the Nuggets overpaid for Martin both monetarily and in resources throwing in the three first rounders.   The Nets gave no indication that they would have matched an offer sheet and in fact what was coming out of New Jersey make it sound like they would definitely not match an offer sheet, which would have made Martin’s contract much more reasonable.  The offer sheet would have been for one less season with lower annual salaries.  However, Kiki gave up the three first round picks just to make sure he did not have to wait the 15 days the Nets had to match.   

Add in the fact that from everything I have read and heard Kiki would have drafted Darko ahead of Melo, he drafted Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Ricky Sanchez and he drafted Nene ahead of Amare Stoudemire. Throw that all in a pot and mix it together and you see a GM who basically deconstructed a team, spent the team’s cap space somewhat responsibly and misappropriated a handful of draft picks.   

That record is spotty at best. 

Kiki put the Nuggets back on the map, but some of his decisions also kept them from reaching their final destination.  Kiki was never afraid to do something controversial, but it is difficult to know if that is ego (I will show everyone how smart I am) or intestinal fortitude.   

I cannot wait to see how the Thron/Vadeweghe administration handles the many issues that are facing the Nets.  Maybe Thorn brought Kiki on board to help him deconstruct the mess that he has made. 

In other news DerMarr Johnson has been signed by the San Antonio Spurs.  I always liked DerMarr as a ninth or tenth man.  He seemed to be a solid defender when he challenged himself to be and was an effective shooter from the corner.  During the Nuggets amazing second half run in the 04-05 season it seemed like DerMarr was automatic form the corner, especially in the first quarter, after which many of their games had already been decided. 

However, last season his three point percentage dropped from 35% down to 22% and without giving a consistent effort on defense, rebounding or passing he essentially lost all of his value. 

It will be interesting to see if he can get on the floor for San Antonio.  Free Agent signee Ime Udoka can not seem to get off the bench and he is a consistent defender and a solid shooter from that corner spot.  The Spurs seem to keep their fifteenth spot on the roster in constant flux.  DerMarr may not be around for very long.

Game 30: Denver Nuggets 95 – Golden State Warriors 105

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score

There was one major difference between the first game against Golden State and tonight’s game.  I will give you two different sets of numbers.   

23-43 

and 

10-29 

In the previous game against the Warriors the Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson combined to shoot 23-43.  Tonight they combined to shoot 10-29.  That’s umm, not so good. 

It was mentioned in my last post and in the comments section that the Nuggets offense the other night in Oakland was based far too much on isolation sets.  When Melo and AI are hitting their shots and attacking the rim that type of offense in a fast paced game can produce 124 points.  When even only one of them has a good game it results in 95 points.  I would hate to see what would have happened if Melo had shot as poorly as Iverson. 

Even on possessions where the Nuggets moved and passed the ball, which were about as common as a svelte Samoan, they just were not in sync.  It may have just been one of those nights or part of the reason for their discombobulation on offense when they actually tried to run something may have been because they had no idea how to do anything more complex than pass to AI or Melo and clear out. 

Another difference between the two games was the Warriors inability to hit threes in the fourth quarter in the first game (going 2-11 from behind the arc) and their more restrained attitude in the fourth quarter in this game (2-4).  Golden State did a great job of slowing the pace down and playing under control in the fourth quarter. 

The Nuggets lost some of the positive momentum they had built up tonight.  Nene looked rusty for the first time since returning from injury and Kenyon Martin’s strain looks to be worse than expected as he has missed the past two games.  Instead of being healthy and on a roll heading into their next game, which happens to be against the World Champion San Antonio Spurs, they are unsure about Martin and they are not playing a style that will translate into success against such a strong defensive team. 

Other Observations From Game 30: 

 - I mentioned Nene looked rusty, but it was not all his fault.  The Nuggets did not do a good job of hitting him when he was open under the basket and there were occasions when he did have the ball that their spacing was so poor he had no room to operate.   

He was also the biggest mismatch on both ends of the floor finding himself guarding players like Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson and being guarded by Barnes or other smaller players.  He failed to take advantage of his mismatch when the Nuggets had the ball, but Golden State did not make the same mistake.   

 - Both teams shot poorly, but the Nuggets compounded their shooting woes by turning the ball over 24 times.  When a team is shooting poorly, you cannot afford to give that many possessions away.  Denver did grab 19 offensive rebounds, but part of that is a factor of how many shot they missed, which happened to be 55! 

 - The pattern for the quarter by quarter pace factor we tracked in Golden State was repeated tonight.  The pace factor of the first quarter was 116, the second quarter it was 106.  Things picked up in the third quarter as it increased to 110, but in the fourth quarter the pace factor dropped down to 94.   

 - The downside of getting a lot of steals is he exposes his teammates to being undermanned by running out of the play.  The other downside of overplaying the passing lane like he does is he is susceptible to backdoor cuts.  Monta Ellis did a great job of making those backdoor cuts, but fortunately the Warriors did not really look to take advantage of those situations. 

 - I thought the Nuggets did a good job of trying to run, even after made baskets.  They ended up with only 11 fast break points, but had they not pushed the pace like they did, they may not have scored any more than 80 points. 

 -  Do not look know, but the Blazers won their 13^th straight game tonight and are now tied for first in the Northwest Division.  Can someone please beat Portland! 

Once again check out Golden State of Mind for some thoughts from the Warriors’ side of things.

Game 29: Denver Nuggets 124 – Golden State Warriors 120

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

What happens when two teams who are both in the top three in scoring and pace factor play each other?   

Fast breaks.  Lotsa’ threes.  Points.  Fun. 

Going into the game it was clear that the Nuggets faced a stern test.  Golden State has gone 8-1 at home since Stephen Jackson returned from his suspension for pretending he was the star in an action movie during the off season.  Golden State is a great offensive team because they create matchup problems all over the floor.  They usually have four players who are capable and willing three point shooters and there are several sequences during every game where all five players on the court are ready and able to pop the three.  Then to take that advantage to a higher level they push the pace relentlessly.   

They also have a big man in Andris Biedrins who does a great job of cutting to the basket both off of pick and rolls and from the weak side.  Biedrins has great hands and is a very good finisher around the hoop.   

Add in good isolation players like Barron Davis, Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson (who is more crafty than quick) and the only way to shut these guys down is to pray for a power outage.   

The offenses (and defenses) of both teams did not disappoint.  After the first possession of the fourth quarter both teams were already over 100 points.   

Thanks to NBA League Pass and the fact that the Warriors play a lot of late games due to society’s insistence to use time zones I have seen a lot of Golden State games over the past couple of years.  When playing at home the Warriors have a tendency of ramping up their defense in the fourth quarter.  They ride the emotion from their great crowds and play with great intensity.  Free flowing games end up grinding to a halt as they milk the clock and rely on Baron Davis to create shots for himself or his teammates late in the shot clock. 

With this in mind I was very worried about the Nuggets’ ability to keep up with the Warriors when Melo was called for his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter.  Allen Iverson came to the rescue as he so frequently has in the past couple of weeks.  He singlehandedly kept the Nuggets in the lead through the fourth quarter. 

Even after Melo returned Iverson was the man that carried the load.   AI did a great job of forcing contact and getting to the line.  He found himself frequently matched up with players such as Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.  It is easy for quick players in those situations to settle for long pull up jumpers.  Iverson continually attacked them and that resulted in eight fourth quarter free throws.   

In the end Stephen Jackson had his chance to make love to pressure as he claims he is wont to do, but pressure had a headache, rolled over and turned out the light as his three pointer that would have put the Warriors up one in the closing seconds caromed off the rim.  Now we all can say we know how it feels to be an NBA player. 

I thought the Nuggets played another focused game from start to finish.  We have seen them string together two and a half consistently good efforts in a row starting at half time of the Kings game.  They have done that a couple of times so far this season only to go on a stretch of maddeningly inconsistent games. 

The schedule takes them home to play Golden State on Sunday and then they get a long rest before facing the Spurs on Thursday.  I think you will see the Nuggets put forth good efforts in those games and hopefully run their record up to 20-11.   After that they go on the road to face the horrid Timberwolves and as we all know, that is probably a big warning sign for Nugget fans. 

Other Observations From Game 29: 

 - I mentioned pace factor earlier in the post.  Pace factor is simply how many possessions a team averages over the course of a game.  Denver is first in pace factor at 103.  Golden State is third at 100.9.  Obviously the pace of tonight’s game would make Lance Armstrong wishing he was about to head into the Andes with his little ten speed.   

I charted the pace quarter by quarter and extrapolated it out to what that quarter’s pace would be if it was carried out throughout an entire game.  Here is what I found out: 

First quarter pace factor = 118

Second quarter pace factor = 104

Third quarter pace factor = 100

Fourth quarter pace factor = 92 

Earlier I mentioned how the Warriors like to make things as crazy as possible through three quarters and then try to buckle down in the fourth.  These numbers bear that out.  Both teams scored over 30 points in each of the first three quarters.  In the fourth quarter Golden State outscored Denver 23-22.   

I find it interesting that both teams that are known to push the pace are content to play a much more half court style when the game is on the line.   

 - This was a tough game for Nene.  You would expect him to be able to dominate in the paint against a smaller Warrior squad, but Golden State is used to having teams try to pound the ball in side and they are very adept at swarming around and making life difficult on bigger post players.   

The Warriors are also good at exposing bigger players when they are on offense.  Both Camby and Nene found themselves in foul trouble partially due to unsuccessfully trying to draw charges against quicker players.  Actually the unsuccessful part could be up for debate.  It kind of seemed like the Warriors got all the borderline, and not so borderline charge/block calls, but why complain about things like that after a win, right?   

 - It was also a bad game for Najera to have to start in place of Kenyon Martin.  Najera is not a post player capable of taking advantage of his extra girth on offense and he was too slow to keep up with Matt Barnes and Al Harrington.  If Martin can play on Sunday, it will help the Nuggets with that matchup problem. 

 - Melo missed a lot of time in the second half with foul trouble and we talked about how Iverson took care of the fourth quarter, but Linas Kleiza did a very good job to keep them in the game in the third when Melo was on the pine.  Kleiza actually scored the last 11 points of the third quarter for the Nuggets. 

Melo only scored six points in the second half, but the Nuggets still managed to score 53.  Iverson scored 21 of those and Kleiza and Camby came up big to help fill in some of the slack.  Anthony Carter hit a shot with just over seven minutes left in the third quarter and after that the only Nuggets to score were Iverson, Kleiza, Camby and Melo.  That attack was about as diverse as a KKK rally.   

 - The Nuggets may have won the game at the foul line as they shot 33-37 for the game.  Iverson, Melo and Kleiza were 29-31 from the line.   

 - At one point Altitude missed ten seconds of game time and what was described as a long two by Stephen Jackson after repeatedly showing a charge called against Carmelo.  We saw it, OK!  We know it was a charge!  We know he should have either pulled up or passed it!  Show the fricking game! 

 - By the way, Microsoft Word in all of its contempt for humanity suggests I change fricking to frisking or frocking.  I may take them up on frocking.  That sounds kind of naughty.  

 - The Nuggets were not as stationary as they have been in the past on offense, but their offense was definitely comprised of mostly isolation plays.  They ended up with only 13 assists on 43 makes.  That is usually a deadly ratio for the Nuggets.  The offense was helped by the fact that Golden State did not have anyone who matches up well with either AI or Carmelo and they were able to create quality shots on their own.   

That style of offense is fine when AI and Melo are shooting a combined 23-43, but if one of them had an off night things would have been much different. 

 - If you will permit me let’s look at a basic box score stat one more time.  The Nuggets scored 124 points while only being credited with six fast break points.  How is that possible?  Typically if they end up with six fast break points they would end the game with 78 points or something similarly insipid.   

 - I am always impressed with the Warriors unselfishness from the perimeter.  They frequently make an extra-extra pass.  Many times you see them swing the ball around the three point line and when they have the shot most teams take and most defenses are designed to have a player running at the shooter on the rotation, they throw the ball one more time to a player that the defense is completely unprepared to guard and instead of having a defender run at them, they have a completely open shot.   

 - J.R. Smith played very well.  He played eight minutes and took four shots, but none of them were threes.  He drove to the rim at every opportunity and from what I saw only made one late rotation on defense. 

 - I liked the breakdown of minutes amongst the point guards.  Anthony Carter played 27 minutes and Chucky Atkins played 21.  I have no problem with Atkins playing 20 minutes in the role of a sniper and the only Nugget who seems to be able to pass the ball to the roller on a pick and roll.   

While we are here, I know he is one of the premiere scorers of all time, but has anyone ever explained to Iverson that the pick and roll is not just designed to get him a shot.  Can one of the Nuggets plethora of assistant coaches please inform him that there actually is another option on the play? 

To partake of some insight from the Warrior’s perspective, and to see one of the absolute best blogging communities around, check out Golden State of Mind.  Just try not to be too disappointed with Born a Nuggets Fan when you come back.

Game 28: Denver Nuggets 125 – Milwaukee Bucks 105

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score

The only way you can get away with using injures as an excuse is playing like the Nuggets did tonight once everyone gets healthy.  With all apologies to Steven Hunter at this point we are going to proclaim the Nuggets at full strength. 

Time will tell if this was the Nuggets coming out party or if it was just a combo of a hot night by the Nuggets combined with a nightmare game by the Bucks.   Because the competition was somewhat lacking tonight we cannot draw any strong conclusions from what we saw, but we can celebrate the many things the Nuggets have done correctly: 

They shared the ball on offense and actually moved without the ball as well.  Those two things go hand in hand and they made the Nuggets offense nearly unstoppable.   

I do not have the stats in front of me to prove it, but I am going to guess the Bucks are not one of the better rebounding teams in the league.  That allowed the Nuggets to run out on almost every possession resulting in a ridiculous 44 fast break points. 

Nene.  I left a comment after the article on the Denver Post’s website reporting that Nene and Kenyon Martin would play tonight stating that we had better see the well conditioned version of Nene tonight.  Well, Nene looked about as good as Bo Derek in “10” right down to the cornrows.  He played with energy and was very productive.  Welcome back Nene! 

Carmelo is still hitting the glass.  He notched a fourth consecutive double digit rebound game nabbing exactly ten.  He has taken it personally that even his teammates question his desire to fight for rebounds.  There is no reason he cannot average 8+ rebounds every night.  The five or so he has been producing is an insult to basketball. 

It was good to see Iverson heat back up.  After a couple of rough shooting outings AI made some good decisions with the ball and took only good shots.      

Their defense was solid but not spectacular as the Bucks missed quite a few open shots in the first half, but the Nuggets had 13 steals and 11 blocked shots (ten by Marcus as he earned a triple double when he splashed a trey to give him his ten points on the first possession of the fourth quarter) and they outrebounded the Bucks by 11. 

As those numbers would lead you to believe, the Nuggets were very aggressive on defense and they harassed the Bucks into playing at a pace that was much quicker than they are accustomed to.  The Nuggets lead the league in pace factor at 102.9 and the Bucks are the eighth slowest team at 92.8. 

The Nuggets played as well as they could ever be expected to play.  I have been on them for allowing themselves to slip mentally a little because of the injuries they have dealt with.  If that mindset was really there, look for them to begin playing with more confidence and urgency now that they are healthy again.  They know this is their time to make a move.   

It is a great time to get healthy as the Nuggets face three stern tests in a row with a home and home against Golden State and then a clash with the Spurs.  If they can play as focused in those three games as they did tonight, there is no reason they cannot sweep those three games and establish themselves as one of the true contenders in the West. 

Other Observations From Game 28:

 - Why on earth was Iverson in the game in the fourth quarter?  He played over 36 minutes and was in the game for four minutes of the fourth quarter.  Why?  Are we trying to prove to the world that his age is not catching up with him?  Is there some language in his contract that he must play at least 40 minutes every game?  If so I want that same contract at work, I want to work 40 minutes every day.  Of course, some days I that would require to increase the time I spend actually working at work. 

 - I may be giving the Nuggets too much credit.  I should take some credit for myself.  I had an HDTV installed in my bedroom this afternoon and it may be the presence of the fancy technology that pushed the Nuggets to a higher level.  Of course, I may have to take it back because my wife wanted to get the couches reupholstered so it is a situation that bears monitoring. 

 - I know it is difficult to play disciplined in a blowout where the ball is switching sides of the court almost as quickly as a tennis match, but J.R. Smith needs to take show that he can play under control and smart no matter what is going on around him on the floor.  I thought he played very well, but there were plays where he made poor decisions.  I really like when he is on the floor because he really is a well rounded player, when he is playing smart ball.  He is a very good passer, he can drive and he has shown a willingness to work hard on defense, he just needs to hone his mental focus.  If he wants to earn more minutes, he needs to remain controlled even in the chaotic fourth quarters that go down during a blow out. 

 - Michael Redd and Bobby Simmons were both -30 for the game.  That is not good.  Melo led the Nuggets with a +26.   

Check out Brew Hoop for some attempt at making sense of this game from the Bucks’ perspective.

Game 27: Denver Nuggets 106 – Sacramento Kings 105

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

I will be honest.  When Linas Kleiza hit the game winning shot I jumped around my living room and ran up and down my little hallway cheering like a nut job.  It was an awesome ending for Nugget fans. 

But I cannot let that exciting finish cloud what happened in the first half or how extremely lucky the Nuggets were down the stretch.  After playing with such great effort the previous game in Portland, the Nuggets came out flat and soft against Sacramento.  Perhaps we should have expected them to come out that way due to the combination of the return of Camby and the fact that they were playing a team they undoubtedly viewed as inferior.  The Nuggets probably did not even notice the Kings have defeated Detroit, San Antonio, Houston and Utah and only lost to Phoenix by two at home in the last month or so. 

In a way I wish the Nuggets would lose games like this so they do not continue to inflate their view of themselves and get away with thinking that they can just turn on the intensity in the second half or fourth quarter and pull out wins. 

That being said we need to give the Nuggets credit for their effort in the second half.  They were a completely different defensive team in the second half.  The Kings scored 66 points in the first 24 minutes, but only managed 38 in the second 24.   

I was particularly impressed with Allen Iverson’s defense on John Salmons in the post.  Sacramento tried to take advantage of the size difference, but Iverson was the gnat you could not seem to swat away.  AI fought with Salmons all night long to the point where the Kings were afraid to throw an entry pass because Iverson would either get a piece of it or Salmons would get the pass, but as a result of Iverson’s defense he would be completely out of position to score.  

I am relieved the Nuggets won.  However, I am definitely still not happy with their mindset.  On the bright side, this is probably another game they would have allowed to slip away last season and they are showing the ability to come back from large second half deficits even on the road.    

I just wish the Nuggets would realize that if they play hard in the first half they will not have to come back from big second half deficits.   

Other Observations From Game 27:

 - Carmelo has finally broken out of his slump, but now Iverson has gone in the tank.  I feel like a kid who opened a present on Christmas only to find that it did not work.  I know my dad will get me a new one tomorrow, but I want it now.  There will be a point when Iverson and Melo are both locked in at the same time, but we will have to wait. 

 - How encouraging is it that the Nuggets two game winners over the last three games have come from Anthony Carter and Linas Kleiza?  Remember back when the Nuggets acquired AI?  Of course you do.  That is like asking if you remember your wedding day, or for others of you the day your divorce was finalized.  One of the primary questions was who is going to take the last shot in close games.  The explanation has always been it would go to the player who was having the better game. 

Well last night heading into the last possession AI was 6-20 and Melo was 11-21.  However, it was AI who took what looked to be the last shot and ended up 6-21.   In Iverson’s defense it was a good look and I expected him to make it when he shot it, but Melo has yet to see the ball in a game deciding situation in the Nuggets last two close games.  Obviously defenses are stacking up on him to try to make sure that he does not beat them, but that is a situation the Nuggets can use to their advantage as long as he is willing to trust his teammates and pass to whoever is open.  If guys like Carter and Kleiza keep hitting game winning shots, Melo should feel comfortable giving the ball up in end of game situations.   

 - I know he hit a couple of big shots against the Rockets and he is coming off an injury and I am trying to give him time to get back into form, but Chucky Atkins has been horrible.  As I said, he needs time to get back into the groove, but he also needs to be smarter about getting there.  He should not be jacking up 19 threes in his first three games back when he is struggling.  Of course, he is a completely one dimensional player so what else can he do to help the team when his shot is not falling?   

Here is a link to Sactown Royalty for our exposure to what Kings fans thoughts are about the game. 

On a personnal note, for those of you who may be alone or unhappy this can be a difficult time of year, but focusing on what we have instead of what we do not have can help us all realize how good life is.  Have a Merry Christmas and may God bless you all.

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 25: Denver Nuggets 112 – Houston Rockets 111 2OT

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

I started this blog just before the playoffs started last season.  I have never done this during the season before.  Frankly, it is becoming annoying to write about these frustrating games over and over again.  But, I can’t complain, I brought this on myself and I must see it through until either the Nuggets move, everyone stops reading or I am assassinated by a member of a player’s posse after I insulted his game one too many.  

Without their most talented player, Tracy McGrady the Nugget Slayer, playing on the second night of a dreaded back to back the Rockets were able to be more than competitive as they battled back from a seven point deficit with less than two minutes left to send the game into overtime. 

When I heard McGrady was not going to play I figured this game would go one of two ways.  I realize you have no reason to believe me, but I through either the Nuggets would blow the Rockets out or Yao would go off and Luther Head would score 24 points and the Rockets would win.  Well, it was not a blow out and Head only had 22.  If he would have ended up with 24, the Rockets would have won by a point.   

I will only mention it in passing as Doug Collins drove it into the ground, but the Rockets did a great job of posting Yao up on the weak side and then they swung the ball around to his side and entered it in to him in the post.  The Rockets ball movement was stupendous for most of the game.  If you recall the resolution to the Sticky Fingers Study from a month or so ago one of the keys to good half court offense is quick passing.  The Rockets did just that making quick diagonal passes from the post to the perimeter or to the weak side.   

It all starts with Yao.  I referred to McGrady as the Rockets most talented player, but Yao is definitely their most important player.  Yao is very smart and skilled and his willingness and ability to pass makes him an even better player.  And how many centers have you seen that take their team’s technical free throws?  And how about my overuse of the word and? 

The Nuggets offense was as bad as it has been all season.  Melo and Iverson went off and had good individual scoring totals, but they played very much as individuals.  The offense was completely stagnant and as a result the Nuggets took many long contested jumpers.  Looking at the box score they made 41 shots and had 25 assists.  That is a solid ratio.  Some people may be happy with that and think that is a sign of good ball movement.  Well, the Nuggets may have mad 41 shots, but they missed 71!  The reason there were so many missed shots can be directly attributed to the fact that the Nuggets did not pass the ball well or move at all on offense. 

Remember the old Looney Toons bit where some character was sitting there on an assembly line hitting bombs with a hammer to see if any of them would explode?  That is what the Nuggets offense was like.  It was the same thing over and over and eventually something would explode and they would actually score.   Tonight the Nuggets offense consisted of an entry pass to either Melo on the right side, or Iverson on the left and a shot.  The first time I noticed any of the Nuggets hitting a cutter in the lane was in the second OT when Melo passed it to Najera who snuck into the lane along the baseline.   

The bright side of tonight’s game is not just the win, but this is another home game the Nuggets probably would have allowed to slip away last year.  The Nuggets remain in first place in the Northwest Division and 11-4 at home.  If they are going to surpass 50 wins, they will need to win at least 30 home games and as good as 11-4 sounds, that is exactly a 30 win pace.   

Other Observations From Game 25: 

 - Early in the second quarter Iverson took the inbounds pass after a Rockets miss and raced up the floor.  He flew by his defender, who was still trying to get back, and beat the entire Rocket team to the rim.  He made the layup and drew the foul.  It ended up being a four point play as Rick Adelman was nailed with a technical and AI hit both free throws.  I would love to see AI do that more often.  He is one of the fastest players from end to end with the ball and he should take advantage of that. 

 - In tonight’s game the Nuggets threw more long outlet passes to trigger breaks than they had all season.  One key to the fast break is the outlet pass.  If you can hit a guard that is streaking up the floor with an outlet pass at half court, you are probably going to have a very good chance at scoring an easy basket.  It also forces the opposition to abandon the offensive boards, which has been a big weakness of the Nuggets team this season, because both guards need to retreat to try to stop the transition game. 

 - Everyone is talking about Melo’s shooting slump.  His second game of the slump was against New Orleans.  He made a strong effort to get in the paint and try to earn some easy baskets.  Over the past two or three games, he has simply jacked up horrible jumpers.  Even tonight when he had Bonzi Wells guarding him, who is no where near as quick as Carmelo, he simply settled for catch and shoot or one dribble and pull up jumpers. 

Obviously at some point he is going to come out of it and start hitting some of these shots, but until he does he must play smarter.  Half way through the second quarter, after he had missed nine of his first ten shots from the floor, he finally realized what we all realized a week ago.  He started driving to the basket and getting to the line.   

He temporarily caught fire to start the second half making his first nine shots of the half, but things fell apart after that as he went 2-6 from the floor with no assists from early in the fourth quarter through both overtimes even though he had the ball in the post on almost every possession late in the fourth and in both overtimes.   

All of us have discussed how the Nuggets are better off when Iverson is a facilitator.  Well, Melo is a very good passer and can drive into the lane at will against the players that guard him.  Why are Melo’s assists dropping during this slump instead of rising?  It is because he is trying way too hard to shoot his way out of his slump instead of working through it by running the offense. 

Melo was 13-32 and only had two assists.  He must change his mindset when his shot is not falling to get his teammates more involved.  Instead of taking bad jumper after bad jumper he needs to be getting on his teammates to cut and move without the ball when he has it.   

 - I like how Kenyon Martin has brought back the phrase, “Get that shot out of here!” except he says it with an ‘i’ instead of an ‘o’ in the word shot.   

 - Martin ended up hurting his hamstring at the end of the third quarter, but when Craig “Neutron Dance” Sager made his report he said it happened when Martin went for a shot fake made by Yao.  It actually happened the play immediately before that where Kenyon lunged and knocked away an entry pass intended for Yao.  I am not really sure why I included that except to prove that I pay better attention to the game than the TNT crew does.  Heck, the announcers did not even notice for another minute or so.  Don’t they have spotters? 

I have determiend that Martin will be day to day with a hamstring strain.

 - The Nuggets were great on the glass tonight and that was probably the difference in the game.  After being outrebounded by almost 20 in the previous game against Houston they were able to outrebound the Rockets by seven.  The Nuggets also grabbed 27 offensive rebounds.  That is not quite so impressive when you remember that they missed 71 shots, but it was a very good effort.   

Melo himself had 12 offensive rebounds.  That is amazing.  He continued to try to get out of his slump by crashing the offensive glass.  Now the key will be maintaining that effort after his shot starts falling again.  Could it be a warning sign that he did not nab any of his 16 boards in the third quarter while he was shooting 8-8?  Only time will tell.

Chaos in the Wild, Wild West

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is going on here? 

The Northwest Division is in turmoil.  Denver remains in first place, but Portland is on a nine game winning streak and has surpassed Utah.  The Jazz are 1-8 over their previous nine games and actually out of the top eight in the west at this point.  Even though the Nuggets are in first they are only 6-7 since they hit their high point of 8-3 earlier in the season.   

Will Denver or Utah ever get their sad little acts together?  Right now it is a race between two Yugos that have had their little engines replaced with some 500 horsepower beast of an engine.  Both cars sound great when you step on the gas, but the driver’s cannot steer and rainwater is pouring in through the windows.   

I keep waiting for Utah to bounce back thinking that every loss is rock bottom, but they continue to find new low after new low.  If the Nuggets go through a stretch like that this season there would not be an unbroken piece of glass, mirror or television screen left in my house.   

There is a bright spot the size of a gnats’ jimmy for the Jazz it is that seven of those eight losses were on the road.  The losses to the Spurs, Mavs, Suns and Blazers can be explained away, but the last two defeats at the hands of the Hawks and the Bobcats must be especially disturbing to Utah.   

Once again rock bottom may be a few more rungs down as their next three games are at Orlando, at Miami, home against Dallas and then at the Lakers.  As a Nugget fan, I am enjoying every floor the Jazz crash through as they plummet to the basement.   

Portland is an amazing story.  Written off before the season started they have interrupted the exclusive meeting of western playoff contenders with some very impressive play the past three weeks.  After watching the recording of the game they had against the Nuggets the other night I believe more than ever that they earned that game.  Their shooting in the third quarter was quite impressive.  Tonight they had another strong comeback against the Raptors to keep their streak alive. 

Even with their incredible current streak it is difficult to see Portland ending up much better than .500.  They are still young and this winning streak cannot go on much longer the way they have barely eked out some of those games.  Once this momentum ends we will see what they are really made out of.  As opposed to Utah who is feeling the pain on the road, Portland has enjoyed a hoard of home games as they have won six of the nine games at home.  Their run may still have some legs to it though as their next four games are at home and they may very well have vaulted into first place by then. 

We have been over and over the Nuggets’ situation because that is what we do here.  We can now count the Nugg Doctor among the growing number of fans who believe this team will be battling inconsistency all season.  It is clear that the Nuggets can play better and I am sure they will.  The return of Nene will help, but many of you already know I believe Chucky Atkins will be about as useful as a concrete pillow.  Anthony Carter is a much better player, especially on defense, and Carter has done a great job of hitting open shots, which is all Atkins is good for.   

The inconsistent play is not just plaguing the Northwest Division.  Houston has not been anywhere near as good as advertised.  They are closer to Sacramento than they are to the eighth seed and that is not because the Kings are any good.  Phoenix is currently enduring a 2-4 stretch.  Dallas has decided not to focus so stringently on the regular season after realizing that killing yourself to win 67 games does not necessarily do much to help you get past the first round of the playoffs.  San Antonio came out of the gates red hot, but they have never placed much emphasis on the regular season.  They are not going to kill themselves to maximize their regular season win total.   

The only two teams that have been consistent from start of the season through today are the Lakers and the Hornets.  I guess the Timberwolves and SuperSonics have been very consistent as well, but not in a good way.  Neither the Lakers nor the Hornets have played a cake schedule, both have had a pretty even mix of road and home games and neither one has undergone a damaging losing streak.   

The wild card in the west has to be Golden State.  Even since Stephen Jackson, who claims to “make love to pressure,” (actual Stephen Jackson quote that makes you wonder who is responsible for the birth control in that relationship) returned from his suspension they have been sensational.  They may not be an elite team, but they have not had what I would call a “bad loss” since Jackson started suiting up.  I think they will definitely level out a bit, but they must be considered a legitimate team in the race for the fourth seed. 

In the end I am sure some combination of the Spurs, Mavs and Suns will possess the top three records in the west at season’s end, but is there any team out there who you believe is a shoe in for that fourth spot?  If I had to pick a team with my family’s life on the line I would have to try to kill all the bad guys who held them captive because even though I am a supreme wuss I would have better odds at going John McClain on them than correctly selecting the team that will end up fourth.   

This may all seem a bit uneven, but after all of this analysis I am here to deliver good news to Nuggets fans.  They are in that fourth spot right now as they are currently leading the division.  Nevermind the fact that they only have the sixth best record and they are equally close to the eighth spot as the fourth.   

That fourth spot would guarantee one thing.  The Nuggets would not have to play the Spurs, Suns or Mavs until round two.  Of course, last time they avoided one of the top teams they were embarrassed and eviscerated by the Clippers.   

That series proved that losing to the Spurs is not so bad after all.  At least there is some dignity in it.

Game 24: Denver Nuggets 105 – Portland Trailblazers 116

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score – we are back to ESPN’s because NBA.com’s box score is not updated with final stats 

I wrote yesterday that this game might be interesting because the Nuggets were not going to see the same Portland Trailblazer team they ran out of the gym just over a month ago.   

What a difference that month has made.  Portland is a team that believes in itself and any team that believes in themselves can be very dangerous. 

To me this game was more about the Portland Trailblazers than the Denver Nuggets.  Portland struggled early in the season just as everyone expected having traded away their “best player” Zach Randolph who is the poster boy for putting up good numbers on bad teams (look out Orlando Woolridge, Zach is coming for you) and lost the top draft pick for the season.   That was then, this is now and now Portland is already very good team.  They have talent, they have good coaching, they have players who play hard and are mentally tough. 

Young teams go through two stages of development before they become playoff contenders.  They learn to win at home and then they learn to win on the road.  Once they can do those two things, they are ready to be a factor in the playoffs.  Portland is 9-3 at home and that is not a result of a weak early schedule.   However, they have struggled on the road at least until the last week.  Portland started off the season 0-9 on the road, but now have won three straight, the last two being in Utah and in Denver.  Even more impressive is the fact that they have been doing much of this without LeMarcus Aldridge. 

Brandon Roy is already a much better player than I ever expected him to become.  Travis Outlaw has shown signs, at least in my mind, of becoming a good player in the past and this year he has put things together.  They get very good play from the point in Steve Blake, Jarrett Jack and Sergio Rodriguez.  Przybilla is a force on the glass and on defense.  He has come a long way since leaving the University of Minnesota after his sophomore season and widely being labeled a bust after his first couple of seasons in the league.  Joel has been around a while, but is still only 28.  They have good depth in the frontcourt with Aldridge, Przybilla and Channing Frye.  Portland also has what many teams crave and that is shooters who can consistently drain threes in Martell Webster and James Jones.  And then there are the players that have not even suited up for them yet led by the top center prospect to enter the league since Tim Duncan in Greg Oden and experienced Euroleague player Rudy Fernandez. 

What is this team missing that will prevent them from winning right now?   Forget the future being bright, the present looks very promising for this very dangerous team. 

Other Observations From Game 24:

 - To be honest between church, Christmas shopping, cooking and actually getting to play a little basketball, and play it poorly, I did not get to watch the game with my typical level of profound concentration and focus. 

That being said, it was easy to see the difference in the game. 

Rebounding. 

Portland had 18 offensive rebounds on 40 missed shots!  That lead to the Blazers outrebounding the Nuggets by a total of 41-31. When you let a team grab almost half of their misses you are in for a long night. 

 - Allen Iverson scored 38 points tonight continuing his impressive scoring run as of late in losing efforts.  I started looking at his game by game stats and found an interesting break point between Iverson’s per game shot totals and the Nuggets’ winning percentage. 

When AI takes 20 or fewer shots the Nuggets are 12-4.  When he takes 21 or more shots they are 2-6. 

I think we can draw three conclusions from this.  The first conclusion is the correlation is just a factor of such a small sample size.  That may be true, but it does not make for interesting blogging so let’s pretend that conclusion one does not exist. 

The second conclusion we can draw is that Iverson always goes down with both guns blazing.  The Nuggets may not have lost because he shot too much, but he kept shooting in a vain attempt to get them back in the game.  I think there is a good amount of truth in that conclusion and I have even documented at least one such occasion where he did just that. 

The third conclusion we can draw is that the Nuggets play their best when Iverson is playing the role of distributor.  This is nothing new as we all like pointing to the Nuggets record of 17-1 when he posts double digit assists. Looking further in those eight games this season where he has shot 21 or more times he has reached double digit assists only once which was one of the two wins the Nuggets notched in those games.  That is probably somewhat obvious as there are only so many possessions in a game and the more you shoot, the less you can pass.  But that is also the point.  We all look for him to hit double digit assists, but now we can also look for him to shoot 20 or fewer times.

Check out Blazer’s Edge for some perspective on tonight’s game from Portland supporters.

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.

The Potential Problems With an Iverson Extension

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

There is a report in the Denver Post today that Allen Iverson wants to opt out of the final year of his contract at the end of this season and sign an extension, a six year extension, with the Nuggets.   

This may sound like great news.  The chance to lock Iverson up and make it highly likely that he retires a Denver Nugget is very appealing.  However, as much as I love AI this is not the slam dunk decision it may seem to be for the Nuggets. 

If Iverson resigns for anywhere near his value the Nuggets will be locked into their current core of players for the near future.  For example, let’s assume that Iverson signs a three year extension for $10 million a season, which I believe is highly conservative considering the he is making over $19 million this season.  For the next two seasons the Nuggets will be over or close to the salary cap with just Carmelo, Marcus Camby, Nene, Kenyon Martin and AI.  The third season of Iverson’s hypothetical deal Camby comes off the books, but they will still have Melo, Nene, Martin and AI in high priced deals.  Look at that core of players.  Carmelo is the only player in that group that has been able to stay consistently healthy and is not past his prime.  Would you trust them to be contenders in 2009-2010?  I do not think I would. 

The other problem that rises if you keep this core together for the next three seasons is there will be very little to work with to add quality players to the roster.  The Nuggets will be a good team, but probably not a great team.  If they cannot win a title with this group this year or next year, they will most likely begin to decline due to age.  Camby will be 34 by the end of this season and Iverson will turn 33 during this season’s playoffs.   

Can we rely on them into and past their mid 30’s?  If the Nuggets extend Iverson at the end of the year, they will have to.  The only move they have available to them would be to trade Camby’s expiring deal at the trading deadline in 2010.   

If Iverson is extended, the Nuggets’ brass better be pretty darn certain that they can win a title with this current group.  Otherwise they will waste between a quarter and a third of Melo’s prime seasons with a team that while good, it will probably not be great. 

I had been hoping that the Nuggets could assess whether or not this team was a title contender as next season progressed.  If they were not legitimate contenders, then they had Iverson’s $20 million expiring contract to make a deal to acquire some new pieces.   

However, that scenario was never very realistic.  Every player anywhere near Iverson’s abilities wants to know they have an extension ready before they reach the end of their current contract.  Should Iverson opt out the Nuggets are going to have to make a very difficult decision after this season.  Do they sign him and lock that core of players listed above in Denver for the next two or three years, do they let Iverson walk or do they try to pull off a sign and trade? 

I already expressed my concerns with resigning AI and obviously just letting Iverson walk would be a horrible decision.  The Nuggets would still be well over the cap and they would not be able to add a player of Iverson’s caliber to replace him.  Picture the core listed above without AI.  That would be the reality for the next two seasons.  Not a pretty picture. 

The Nuggets best option may be to sign and trade him, but only if they can get a good young player in exchange for him.  Who would that player be?  I have no idea.  As good as AI is, I do not think there would be very many teams calling the Nuggets to work something out.  Maybe the best bet would be an expiring deal and lottery pick.  You can see what a tough predicament they will find themselves in. 

The Nuggets made a very big gamble trading for Iverson.  I still think it was the best deal they could have made and it was a deal they should have made.  As I wrote previously, this is the first time as an NBA team the Nuggets have been considered at least borderline contenders.  But the bill may come due for that gamble as early as July of 2008 and once again the Nuggets could face a very important crossroad for the development of the franchise. 

In my mind this is just one more reason this team should be playing with more urgency than they are this season.  Their best shot at a title is probably right here and right now.

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.

Do Not Read This Post Standing Up

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Jon Hollinger pointed out in a recent chat that the Nuggets are third in the league in defensive efficiency.  I almost fell out of my chair.   

What is the one area that we can all point to where the Nuggets have struggled mightily almost all season?  We are all constantly railing on the Nuggets defense.  How on earth can the Denver Nuggets under any statistical measurement be one of the league leaders in any defensive category other than steals?  The Nuggets are only yielding 97.9 points per 100 possessions safely ahead of teams such as San Antonio, New Orleans, Detroit and Chicago.  Good for third in the league. 

How on earth is this possible?  I had to investigate.  My initial gut feeling was that the Nuggets had built up such a solid defensive efficiency rating during their six game winning streak earlier on in the season was somewhat artificially inflating their rating.   

Defensive efficiency is determined by how many points a team gives up per 100 possessions.  To test that theory I added up the total possessions in each of those six games then divided the number of points they gave up in those six games by the number of possessions.  Then I multiplied that points per possession number by 100 to get points per 100 possessions and my rough estimate of their defensive efficiency.   

The Nuggets opponents had 616 possessions over those six games, but they only scored 565 points.  That amounts to a 91.7 defensive efficiency rating which is absolutely stellar.  There is the smoking gun.  They only reason they have such a good rating is because those six games were so low that it has placed them far above where they should be.   

To prove that point further and show how absolutely atrocious the Nuggets defense has been I decided to determine what their defensive efficiency rating is for the other 14 games they have played.  I will not bore you with my eighth grade algebraic methods, but the results were not exactly what I expected.   

Using the Nuggets’ pace factor (don’t ask unless you want to be bored by more math talk) their opponents had roughly 1,468 possessions over those other 14 games and they had scored 1483 points.  That amounted to a 101.0 defensive efficiency rating.  That is just over three points per game worse.  That sounds bad, but here is the kicker.  After removing those six games where they undoubtedly played very good defense against some poor teams that 101.0 rating still would rank ninth in the league ahead of teams such as Miami, Toronto, Dallas and Cleveland who much more well known than the Nuggets for their defense.   

My next guess was they were putting up such a good defensive rating because thanks to Marcus Camby, they league’s leading rebounder, they prohibit teams from getting many second chance opportunities.   

Upon further review that is definitely not it.  From watching their games it seems like the Nuggets give up more than their fair share of offensive rebounds and they do.  They are the sixth worst defensive rebounding team in the league, even with Camby having such a great season on the boards.  The truth is they have a very good defensive efficiency rating despite the fact that they allow a bunch of second and even third chances to the other team.   

What conclusion can we draw from this information?  Perhaps the Nuggets are athletic enough that even with a subpar effort and lack of focus, they actually are a decent defensive team.  If that is true, just think how good they would be if they put forth a maximum effort on defense every night.  They could be an absolutely dominant defensive team.   

This has rocked many of my assumptions to the bone.  Perhaps bacon double cheeseburgers are not healthy for me to eat every other day.  Maybe Santa doesn’t actually exist.  Could it even be that I am not as suave and good looking as I think I am. 

Nah, I bet by the end of the season the Nuggets will plummet down the defensive efficiency list and I will be as good looking as ever.  However, we will have to pay close attention to the Nuggets place on the defensive efficiency rankings throughout the remainder of the season.

Game 20: Denver Nuggets 122 – Dallas Mavericks 109

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

The Denver Nuggets have their first signature win of the 2007-2008 season.  They played with purpose and focus.  After showing the mental strength of a group of teenage boys sniffing glue in their previous few games they possessed a tremendous mental fortitude that had been sorely lacking.   

Coming into tonight’s game I said I wanted to see the Nuggets react with some backbone when the Mavericks put together a second half run.  The Mavericks run came late in the third quarter as they were able to whittle the Nuggets once plump lead down to one point on a couple occasions.  I began to wonder if the Nuggets would fold as they have on more than one occasion this season.  They most certainly did not.  From the time the Mavs got within 92-91 the Nuggets went on a 30-14 run to seal the game.    

They were constantly looking to push the ball up the floor even when they did not seem to have numbers.  By running the ball up the floor instead of walking it up opportunities can be created that would not have been there even though the defense is not outnumbered.  A true running team will can They had 22 fast break points in the first half alone and even though they only added two more in the second half, they played at a  good tempo.   

When they had to run their half court offense they took their time, were active cutting to the basket and took good shots.  They definitely played a very smart offensive game from start to finish. 

The best statistical proof that they were being patient and taking good shots is the fact that despite the fact they were hitting their threes early, they only took ten for the entire game making five.  The ten attempts was easily a season low.   

Other impressive stats that came out of the game are the Nuggets shot 50.5% from the field, they outscored the Mavs 64-36 in the paint and they absconded with the ball 13 times as opposed to only seven turnovers.   

The Nuggets were not just better on offense.  They scrambled much better on defense and they were intelligent with their defensive positioning.  The Mavs are very good about reversing the ball from the strong side to the weak side.  Last night against the Lakers the Nuggets weak side positioning was atrocious and it allowed the Lakers to take advantage of a bevy of wide open threes.  Tonight against the Mavs they were much more disciplined and made sure that they were able to react to any pass the Mavs made.   

They also played very little zone defense against Dallas.  I understand the need to mix it up a little from time to time, but the less zone the Nuggets play the better.   

Other Observations From Game 20: 

 - Melo had a terrible shooting night, but he did continue to attack the rim more than he had in the past.  There were a couple of situations where he probably should have gone to the line, but did not get the call.  In fact, he was great in the third quarter when the Mavs made their run.  He worked the offensive glass and hit a couple of nice jumpers.   

 - Melo started the fourth quarter on the bench and watched Iverson close the game out as the Mavs could not handle his ability to penetrate.  He drove on Devin Harris, Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse on successive possessions early in the fourth.  It seemed almost every possession he scored or made the assist.  From what I hear Phil Jackson would have called it a “Brokeback Mountain Quarter.” 

 - One of my pet peeves in basketball right now is the two for one at the end of quarters.  How often do you see a player throw up a bad shot just with the hope that they can throw up another bad shot with the clock winding down.  Notice how often a bad shot is taken and how often there end up being more than two possessions left in the quarter.  I know it makes sense on paper, but so does Communism.   

 - I do not think I am a big fan of Reggie Miller as an announcer.   

 - In the fourth quarter Iversom bumped Dirk on the elbow on a layup and the way Dirk reacted made me very concerned that he was potentially going to miss a few games.  He grimaced, yelped at the refs and waved his arm around like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack when his drive bounced off the ball washer and hit him.  (“My arm…it’s broken!”)  Dirk has been accused of a lack of toughness and I wonder what his teammates think when they see him react like that.   

There was a kid I grew up with who always cried every day at Young America soccer practice when he was kicked in the shin.  He cried in football, even in high school.  He cried on the playground.  When we made it to high school he ended up being a state champion heavyweight wrestler.  Despite his accomplishment did I ever think of him as tough?  Absolutely not.  I remember the whining and crying. 

Dirk won the MVP last season, a tremendous accomplishment, but what are the chances his teammates think of him as tough?  I may be wrong, but I think demonstrations like the one tonight stick in their heads. 

 - Allen Iverson was absolutely amazing again tonight.  Once again he shot a high percentage from the floor, 12-19, and made it to the line continually, 11-13.  He also played 43 more minutes.  The man is a physical marvel.  After seeing him play in person over the past few months, nothing he does from here on out will surprise me.  He could be averaging 40 minutes a game in ten years and I will not be shocked.  Well, maybe a little shocked, but I am not going to put it past him.

 - I always have to complain about something so here it is.  The Mavs outrebounded the Nuggets by 12 and they grabbed 16 offensive boards.  Had the Mavs shot better the game might have turned out differently.  Of course, the Nuggets defense was a big reason why the Mavericks did not shoot better.

 For insight into tonight’s game from a Maverick centric point view check out Mavs Moneyball.

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 18: Denver Nuggets 115 – Miami Heat 89

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Due to some extenuating circumstances, nothing bad I assure you, I was not able to watch much of the game last night.  I missed a lot of it live and only saw a little bit here and there of the replay.  So from what I saw here is an abbreviated report. 

Only Observations From Game 18:

 - The Nuggets rolled another poor team at home which once again makes it difficult to draw conclusions as to how they are improving.  That being said, they did really move very well without the ball on offense and they took advantage of that by making quick aggressive passes.  I do not like just reciting stats from the box score, but I will have to rely on some of that as I did not see all of the game.  The combination of pushing the pace, the Nuggets were +16 in fast break points, and the movement and passing mentioned above gave them an advantage of +24 in points in the paint.  They also topped 30 assists against only 12 turnovers.  Had Von Wafer not committed three turnovers in his five minutes on the court, their turnover total would have been even more impressive.   

I have no idea why they cannot play with that kind of focus and purpose on offense every game.  I realize teams can get in a funk here and there, but it should never happen for a prolonged period of time.  The Nuggets had gone for four or five games in a row without playing smart offense and that is inexcusable.   

There has been, and still is, a great deal of talk about how difficult it should be for teams to guard Melo and Iverson.  When they are focusing on isolations and dribbling in place long enough to make the ball lopsided they allow almost any defense to set up and be prepared to stop them, but when the entire team is passing the ball quickly the defense gets out of position and it is at that point when Carmelo and AI become almost unstoppable. 

 - Miami is really bad.  Shaq is at the end of his rope.  He may hang around and finish out his contract, but I cannot imagine how much of a liability he will be in the next two or three seasons.  I also do not think Wade is completely healed form his offseason surgeries.  I believe I heard them say that he has not dunked since he returned nine or ten games ago.  For a player that relies so much on his explosive athleticism that has to be concerning for the Heat.  Of course, I wish I had dunked nine or ten games ago.  I have to settle for lowering the basket at my in-laws house in order to accomplish that feat. 

The Heat are stuck in a position financially and talent wise that is somewhat comparable to the Knicks.  They are paying Shaq so much that they cannot afford to bring in any other players and they have no assets that anyone would want in a trade.  It would make sense to rebuild, but because of the presence of Shaq they have to play every season to try to make the playoffs.  They cannot allow themselves to rest Wade and play for the future.  Maybe they can buy Shaq out and go for a good draft pick, but financially they will still be a quagmire of poor contracts and poor players.  Will Wade want to wait around for a rebuilding project?  He signed an abbreviated extension that will allow him to become a free agent at the end of the 2009-2010 season.  Don’t think he will not leave after that deal is up. 

For all the debate over which star has the worst supporting cast in the NBA give me Wade over Kobe or LeBron by a mile for having to play with that pathetic bunch.  Because of that, I can see him leaving town at the earliest opportunity. 

 - But, who cares about the Heat?  Let’s get back to the Nuggets.  This is Born a Nuggets Fan, not Born a Heat Fan.  Obviously Kenyon Martin was great last night.  I had two concerns when they traded for him.  First of all, why do a sign and trade giving him an even higher salary and sacrificing three first round picks when it was pretty obvious that the Nets were not going to match, but that is all water from the river Kiki was sent up the river on under the bridge.  More importantly I was worried about his ability to guard the Duncans and Garnetts of the world.  Now that he has played for the Nuggets for a few seasons, and unfortunately not played for a couple, he proved that he does a decent job of defending in the post against almost any player.   

When the Nuggets are running, and he is healthy, Martin is as valuable of a player as the Nuggets anticipated him to be when they traded for him.  The problem comes in when they start playing a half court style game where he becomes just an average player.  He takes too many jumpers and has no offensive move he can rely on in the post, but we knew those things when they signed him.  In order for the Nuggets to get the most out of him, and really out of their entire roster, they must run every game. 

From a health perspective Kenyon is looking better and better every game.  He is definitely getting his explosiveness back as he threw down a handful of monster dunks last night.  We will have to enjoy it while it lasts because the likelihood of him suffering another injury is about equal to the likelihood of people being upset with politicians or kids making fun of portly people. 

 - I mentioned how I thought it was very sad that the Nuggets labeled November as a positive month because they won ten games.  Of course the Nuggets have a handful of excuses as to why they struggled in some winnable games.  One of those excuses was injuries.  You all know how I feel about that.  This roster has plenty of depth to handle a couple of players missing games here and there (especially when one of them is Chucky Atkins).  The second excuse I have heard leak out is the fact that they played five back to back games during November.   

How about we examine that for a minute?  They went 2-3 in the five second halves of back to back games.  Remove those five games and they were still only 8-4, which is good, but not great.  They have 14 more back to back sets this season.  Do we have to write off more than half of those as losses?   

I looked back at last season’s schedules for several teams to see how they did on back to backs.  Believe it or not Nuggets players, it is possible to win after playing the night before. The five teams that finished ahead of the Nuggets last season and their records on the second night of back to backs look like this:

Dallas Mavericks 14-1
Phoenix Suns 14-7
San Antonio Spurs 12-4
Houston Rockets 9-9
Utah Jazz 9-9

And then we have the Denver Nuggets who came in with a record in the second half of back to backs last season at 8-12.  As pointed out earlier, they have started this year at 2-3.  If you are good at math, you may notice that 8-12 and 2-3 are equal ratios.  They both equate to a .400 winning percentage.  If the Nuggets carry on the type of play they have exhibited on the second half of back to backs last year and the first month this year, they will end up with a record somewhere around 7-12 or 8-11.  Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and take the better record of 8-11.  Combined with their current seven losses that equals 18 losses that they have or will have.  Thus in order to win 55 games they can only afford to lose nine more games where they enjoy at least one day of rest before tip off.  They have 50 such games left therefore they will have to have a record of 41-9 to reach 55 wins this season.  If we further extrapolate their 8-4 record in those such games they will end up 33-17 or thereabouts.   

Add all of that up and they have a final record of 50-32.  That would give them the fourth 50 win season since joining the NBA and the first since 1987-1988.  Not bad, but definitely not good enough to get home court advantage or a promising matchup in the playoffs.  

Before we start getting excited about a 50 win season, remember that this was what I thought was perhaps the easiest month on their schedule.  To me that means that when things get tougher, it will be reflected in their record and there is no guarantee that they can continue on even at the somewhat disappointing pace they have set. 

What can be done?  It all comes back to the mental crutch the Nuggets allow themselves to utilize.  They give themselves the option of losing certain games before they even play because of injuries.  Now we have found out that they give themselves the option to lose on the tail end of back to backs because those games are more difficult.  The number of games that they allow themselves to lose is growing and growing.  What next?  They do not like the pressure of nationally televised games?  Dancing With The Stars is over so they have too much pent up frustration to focus on the game? 

The Nuggets can still have a fine season, but they will only accomplish as much as their little minds will allow them to.

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.