My end of the First Quarter, beginning of the Second Quarter Assessment

By my calculations, the first quarter of the season ended at halftime of the the 76ers game, and the second half of that game provided us with a taste of what's to come kicking off the second quarter of the season. Due to weather and other constraints, I wasn't able to watch last nights game, and likely will have to rely on ESPN's GameCast and play-by-play accounts online for the rest of the week, so instead of the usual game recaps, I'm going to go a little "A Christmas Carol" on you and take a look at the Ghosts of Nuggets' past (the first quarter of the season) and a brief look into the Ghosts of Nuggets' future (at least the next few games on the schedule).

Ghosts of Nuggets' Past (trends I've noticed through the first quarter of the season):

I've heard of "trap games," but never seen "trap weeks."

20 days passed from the time the Nuggets pounded the Pau-less Lakers to the shellacking they laid on D-Wade's Heat last Thursday. In between they faced nary a winning team. They went 6-2 during that stretch, with the losses coming against the bottom of the barrell Clippers in LA and the streak-ending Minnesota Timberwolves and the wins including a nail-biter against the Knicks and a variety of virtual blow-outs against the Raptors, Bulls, Nets, T-Wolves and Warriors. As bad as those (and the narrow victory over the Knicks) were, It's hard to complain too much about your team going 6-2 over a 3 week stretch. You're bound to have off-games over that period of time, and I'd rather have those at the beginning of the season that when it gets down to crunch time in the Spring.

Melo's production has tailed off from his torrid start.

Teams are coming into games focused on not letting Carmelo beat them and there has been more success recently than there was at the beginning of the season. It will be interesting to see how Melo responds to having his record-setting streak of 20 point games to start the year broken. My gut tells me he'll finally relax a bit and get back to his playmaking and electrifying post-passing that launched him into the MVP debate to begin with. It also could just come down to match-up problems. Combining Andre Iguodala's perimeter defense with Sam Dalembert's ability to protect the rim makes for a tough night for Melo. Fortunately, all that attention has allowed some of the other Nugget players to step up as Chauncey's 31 points last night proved. Over the course of the year, they're going to need some guys to step up like that when the shots just aren't falling for Melo.

Nuggets: Easy opponents, difficult schedule

Many people point to the lack of quality opponents when they talk about the lack of difficulty in the schedule so far for Denver, which is a fair point since I just mentioned they went almost 3 weeks without facing a team with a winning record. The problem with leaving it at that though is that you fail to take into account the logistical difficulties they have faced already this year. 3 of their 5 losses coming into tonight came on a 6-game road trip over the course of 9 nights. That road trip consisted of 3 back-to-back sets of games and they will be finishing up their 7th set of back-to-backs tonight, so 14 of their first 21 games have been part of back-to-backs and 11 of the first 21 have been on the road. Most teams have a pretty even home/road split at this point, but I mainly wanted to point that out so I could compare the logistics of the Nuggets season so far that of the Lakers.

Lakers: Average opponents, cake schedule

It's really unbelievable just how easy the Lakers have had it so far. It's one thing to favor a certain team, but they've had 15 games at home and a ridiculous 4 on the road. 4 road games so far! Unreal. Their road games consist of overtime wins against OKC and Houston, the blowout loss in Denver and a blowout win over Golden State. Seems like there's still a lot to learn about how they're going to handle things on the road this year. Combine that with their 3 back-to-backs and you start to get a picture of just how easy LA has had it so far this year. There's a lot of hoops to be played and there's no doubt the defending champs are still the team to beat, but I'm going to wait and see how they handle a little scheduling adversity before I pencil them in for another NBA Finals appearance.

The 8-man rotation

For the first time that I can remember, the Nugs have a well-defined and fully productive 8-man rotation. Barring garbage time and foul trouble, Junior Smith, Ty Lawson and Birdman take up all the meaningful minutes that the starting 5 spends on the bench. This is one of those things that grows out of being confident in your team in the off-season. The Nuggets front office took a lot of heat for essentially standing pat and losing Linas the Menace and Dahntay Jones for nothing, but look at what's happening with the Spurs now. They had a good system, a good rotation, then they went out and got Richard Jefferson and now the team is in disarray offensively. They're surviving on the strength of Duncan and Parker's abilities to beat their defenders one-on-one which is a far cry from the well-oiled machine we've known them to be for the last decade. Somehow with all the big names changing homes these past few off-seasons, people seem to have forgotten how important it is for players to have experience playing together. The only thing that worries me about sticking with 8 players at this point in the year is that they may wear down by the time the playoffs roll around. Hopefully there will be enough garbage time in the remaining games (with the Nugs leading of course) to keep the main rotation players rested.

Ghosts of Nuggets' Future

The immediate future

• Tonights game against Charlotte

A big second half run keyed the Nuggets win in an emotional game against Allen Iverson, so it'll be interesting to see how much they have left in the tank for tonight's game in Charlotte. They're 8-11 on the year, but they're coming off a two day break following a 1-pt victory over the road weary Phoenix Suns, so I think the Nugs best opportunity to run away with this one will be coming fast out of the gate before the Bobcats have a chance to work the kinks out. They're a young, scrappy, well-coached team that can score in bunches, so it would be a good idea to try and build a big lead before the fatigue kicks in.

• Thursday's game against Detroit

It would be nice to be able to close out this road trip with an emphatic win, but I see this as the upcoming game in which we're most likely to see a disappointing performance from our Nuggets. Detroit has been underwhelming all season long, but they still have a decent set of players that can put it together for a night here and there. The fact that teams are gunning for them this year along with a home date with the Suns looming a couple days ahead makes me a little worried about what the mindset of the team will be like at the end of their second-longest road trip of the season so far. That being said, with a win in tonight's game, they could have a chance to sweep all 4 games on the trip and put an end to the talk of Denver as a team that struggles on the road, and that may be enough motivation for these guys to keep focused.

• Saturday night against Phoenix

I really hope I'm able to find a way to watch this one, because I think it could be one of the most entertaining games of the year. The Suns are back to their run and gun ways, are battling for the second best record in the Western Conference and we'll get to see a match-up of two of the best point guards in the league in the twilights of their careers (fortunately for this game, their age has affected their defense and barely touched their offensive abilities). I won't get too deep into this game yet as I'm going to look more closely at the match-ups and post a more in-depth preview once we get closer to Saturday.

Beyond the upcoming week

I think it's safe to say that the Nuggets can be considered one of the NBA's elite teams right now after their 16-5 start to the season, but they've only played two games against division rivals (both wins against Portland and Utah) and and four games against teams that were thought to be contenders this season (all wins against Portland, Utah, San Antonio and the Lakers), so I'm excited that there's still so much to learn about this team as the Divisional games and NBA elite show up on the schedule. Hopefully by the time we're all back at work following the holidays, we'll be cheering on a team that has stood toe-to-toe with the best the NBA has to offer and that's getting themselves ready for the stretch run into the Spring.

Game Preview: Dec. 5, 2009, Nuggets vs. Spurs

This is a biggie

Since the Miami game turned out to be more of a pop quiz than a test for the Nuggets, tonights game against the Spurs in San Antonio will likely prove to be the first time this team has been truly tested in a looooooooong time. The Spurs don't have an elite record to start the year, but turned in a solid performance in a loss against Boston a few nights ago and if Michael Finley had been wearing shoes 2 sizes smaller, they had a good chance at coming away with a win in that game as well. Despite their early struggles, this is a team that many predicted to be the one with the best chance at unseating the Lakers in the Western Conference this year, so it will certainly be a challenge to beat them on the road. I have 5 questions leading into this game that I hope can be answered by the end of the night, they are as follows:

• How will the Spurs choose to defend Melo? With longtime defensive stopper Bruce Bowen no longer around, who's going to draw the unenviable task of trying to guard the Western Conference's reigning Player of the Month? Richard Jefferson will line up across from him, but has never been known as much of a defensive stopper. Looking at the roster, I really don't see a single player with the size and quickness combination to do it, so this will be interesting to see.

• How will the Nuggets contain Tony Longoria? Chauncey has had his issues with quicker point guards so far this season, so it's going to take a team effort to keep Mr. Eva Longoria from having a big game. The biggest asset the Nuggets have here is the athleticism of Nene, Birdman and K Mart. Assuming Parker makes his way past his initial defender a few times tonight, he'll still have to find a way to get his shots over the Nuggets' high flying trio of frontcourt players. He's a sneaky one, and usually manages to get his points, but this match-up should be a fun one to watch with the Nuggets' big guys playing as well as they have been defensively recently.

• Will Poppovich play any of his regular starters? Last season, when the Spurs were a little banged up and it seemed clear that the Nuggets were playing at a higher level overall, Coach Pop decided to hold out his best 3 players in a ploy to keep Denver from gaining a psychological edge by beating a full-strength Spurs team. The plan backfired big time when that game turned out to be the difference in playoff seeding at the end of the regular season. With the Nuggets firing on all cylinders at the moment and the Spurs still finding their groove, are there any other mind games that Pop has up his sleeves? It will be interesting to see.

• Can the Nuggets prove that they are winners on the road? Much has been made of Denver's "struggles" away from the Pepsi Center this season, but as you can tell by the quotation marks, I don't subscribe to this line of thinking. While they have yet to see many of the NBA's elite, logistically, the Nuggets schedule has been ridiculous to start the year. 3 of the 4 road losses came against solid teams on the Nuggets 6 game road trip that contained 3 sets of back-to-back games, the other road loss being the indefensible loss to the Clippers at the Staple's Center. I contend that the Nuggets have yet to have a chance to really prove what kind of road team they're going to be this season, and tonight's contest will go a long way towards showing us that.

And finally, the most important question of all...

• What sounds better, Manu Bartokomous or Balki Ginobili? And as a secondary question, who would his "Larry Appleton" be? As for the initial question, Balki Ginobili clearly has a better sound and flow to it, but Manu Bartokomous tends to make the absurdity of the name a little more clear. Maybe I'll go with Balku Bartokonobili. For the second question, you could say it's Tony Parker because they're partners in crime, or Coach Pop because he's always telling him what to do. Personally though, I'm going with Tim Duncan since the "Tim Duncan Face" reminds me a lot of Larry Appleton's expressions of exasperation.

• Pop Culture Bonus Question for readers: What popular sit-com was a direct offshoot of Perfect Stranger?

I won't be able to post a Recap after the game tonight, so I'm hoping that the answers to all of these questions will be evident by the time the final buzzer sounds. I think this is a good match up for us at this point, we have the bigs to limit Duncan and protect the rim against Parker, we have a stopper in Afflalo to limit Ginobili, and I think Melo will have a much easier time guarding Richard Jefferson than Jefferson will trying to stop Melo. It's looking good on paper and hopefully tonight we'll see a passing of the torch as the Spurs, despite their best off-season efforts give way to the new Western Conference powerhouse, our Denver Nuggets.

Game Prediction: Nuggets 112, Spurs 104

Nuggets vs. Heat, Dec. 3, 2009, Game Nuggets

Swaggerific!


I came into this game excited to see the Nuggets get their first real test in a really long time. It was not to be. Despite some extremely sloppy offensive play, the Nugs willed themselves to another blowout victory with opportunistic defense and smart 3 point shooting. The jumpers didn't fall often, but the 3's that they did make were wide open and very timely. It's late and it's hard to think of much to say after yet another 4th Quarter comprised entirely of garbage time, so I'll get straight to the Game Nuggetz:

• I was watching the TNT broadcast, but early on, I'm pretty sure I heard Scott Hastings yelling something about "boxing out."

• Arron Afflalo continues to impress. D Wade never looked comfortable in this game and holding him to two made shots in the 1st half went a long way towards setting the tone.

• I don't think i've ever seen the Nuggets with a double digit lead going into the half when they're shooting less than 40%
  

• This is probably the first game I've seen the Nugs shoot poorly from the outside in a blowout win. Hopefully they realize they can still dominate teams even when the jumpers are missing the mark.

• For the second straight game, the Nuggets bigs dominated the paint. Nene went with the soft lay-ins more than I would like to see (and missed a handful of them), but overall, Nene, K Mart and Birdman absolutely owned the area under both hoops.

• Birdman turned in his second impressive performance in as many games, so hopefully his health issues are behind him and he can get back to his form from last year.

• Chauncey's shot wasn't falling, but he still managed to get to the free throw line, get Chalmers in foul trouble and distribute the ball in a way that helped the O more than hurt it.

• He had to play a few extra minutes to get it, but Melo continues to be the only player in the NBA to score at least 20 points in every game this season, and he got it on a dagger 3 pointer early in the 4th.
  

• One way to save up your energy for the playoffs is apparently to play well enough to rest your starters every 4th Quarter.

• Lawson seems to be adapting his game more and more as the season goes on. He's not forcing as many shots and getting stuck in the paint as often as he was a few weeks ago. It's hard to imagine just how good he may turn out to be, especially considering the extended learning curve for most point guards entering the league.

• The end-of-the-bench players looked a whole lot more organized during garbage time tonight. Maybe it was the opponent, or the fact that it was the second time in two games they've played an entire quarter, but they looked like they were willing to be patient offensively and let the scoring chances come to them instead of forcing things.

• They're defense, on the other hand, looked terrible.

In Summary:

It was another boooooooring win, but every win counts the same in the standings, and it's especially rewarding in that it came against a team that had just gone into Portland and knocked off probably our biggest division rival. None of the backcourt players played particularly well tonight and i'm hoping that these defensively induced blowouts become a trend. Nene, K Mart and Birdman are beginning to look and play like a much more formidable frontcourt than anyone expected as they make up for being somewhat undersized with their unparalleled athleticism. It was a nice, unexpected easy win tonight and i hope it provides the Nugs with enough momentum to start off this coming road trip the right way. There's no question the incentive will be there as their next stop is in San Antonio to play a Spurs team that just gave Boston all they could handle tonight and will be hungry for a win back on their home-court. The opportunities to prove that they're for real have been few and far between for this Nuggets team since the Lakers game, so I'm very excited to see what's in store on Saturday.

Until next time, good night and Go Nugz!

Nuggets vs. Warriors, Dec. 1, 2009 Game Nuggetz

They say the Warriors can't play defense. I happen to agree.

It was a worrisome 1st Quarter, but it didn't take long for this game to turn into the runaway victory for the Nuggets that it was supposed to be. There were a couple occasions where the Nugs got into a "jumpshooting contest" as Scott Hastings likes to call it, but they soon remembered that they're a whole lot bigger, stronger and more talented than the Warriors. Golden State has surprised a few teams over the past week, but they didn't seem to have anything left in the tank in the 2nd half and had absolutely no answer for the Nuggets trio of big guys. Here are a few Game Nuggetz:

• The Nuggets immediately attacked in the paint with Nene. Mikki Moore just has no chance of defending Nene 1-on-1.

• After some success inside, the rest of the Nuggets decided to see if their jumpers were falling. They weren't.

• Vlad Rad hit some shots early and looked to be heating up. Fortunately he went ice cold soon after.

• Anthony Morrow to the referee after fouling Melo: "What am I supposed to do?"

• Horrible start on both ends for the Nugs, allowing easy buckets defensively and relying on jumpers offensively.

• Great finish to the 1st Quarter with great defensive plays followed by excellent fast break offense got the Nugs right back in the game.

• Nuggets open the 2nd Quarter with Lawson, Billups, Afflalo, Junior Smith and Birdman. I like the creativity, but I don't necessarily like that the Warriors are the ones setting the tone for the game.

• Nuggets got back to attacking the hoop in the 2nd and the Warriors only hung around early because their jumpers were falling.

• Nene and Birdman are dominating the post defensively, every drive to the hoop is contested if not flat out blocked.

• Ty Lawson was the best player on the court in the 2nd Quarter, making plays all over the place.

• The Nuggets extended the lead to 19 with solid passing and movement for easy hoops.

• The Nugs tried exchanging 3's with Golden State to end the first half and managed to turn a 22 pt lead into a 14 point lead at the half.

• The Nugs came out in the second half looking to re-establish their dominance in the paint going to Nene or K-Mart, whichever one happened to be more open.

• Nuggets showed a lot of patience offensively as well, not forcing shots and working the clock until an easy shot opened up

• Golden State looked totally beat coming out of the gate in the 2nd Half Sloppy on offense with unforced turnovers and very little movement on defense as the Nugs made it look like a scrimmage.

• The Warriors shooting went cold and the Nuggets played hard all the way through the 3rd Quarter despite maintaining a 20-25 point lead throughout.

• Denver broke the Taco Barrier tonight with 2:30 left in the 3rd Quarter on a free throw by Chauncey.

• As baffled as Morrow was by guarding Melo, I'm surprised they thought he'd be able to guard K-Mart.

• The 4th Quarter was pretty unremarkable as the Nuggets bench took care of business against Golden State's exhausted short rotation.

• All 12 of the Nuggets players that entered the game managed to score at least one basket.

The bottom line tonight is that all of the starters and main rotation players played extremely well tonight, including Junior Smith who's starting to learn that he can have a positive impact on a game without doing much scoring. While you can't get to worked up about taking care of business against a tired-shorthanded team at home, it's nice to see the Nuggets get back into a bit of a rhythm with Miami coming to town on Thursday and a big game in San Antonio on Saturday. As teams focus more on stopping Melo, it's going to open things up in the paint for Denver's bigs and they definitely took advantage of that tonight. Until next time...

Good night and Go Nugs!