Nuggets' Nuggetz

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

2009-12-08T12:13:00.002-07:00

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

2009-12-05T15:16:00.004-07:00

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

2009-12-04T00:32:00.002-07:00

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

2009-12-01T21:23:00.003-07:00

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!

Who Needs an Answer?

2009-11-28T21:41:00.005-07:00

I've been a fan of Allen Iverson ever since he started playing at Georgetown and if it weren't for the fact that the Nuggets traded him for another of my favorite NBA players (Chauncey Billups) I probably would have been very upset when he left the team. My point is that it's unbelievable that some teams aren't falling all over themselves to sign this guy. With the news that the Sixers have extended a one-year offer to Iverson, I'm going to go through some other teams that should have at least considered giving AI's agent a call.

The "If We're Going to Lose, We Might as Well Sell Some Jersey's" Teams

New Jersey Nets

Other Guards on the Roster: Rafer Alston, Keyon Dooling, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Terrence Williams.

The Nets have gone nearly a quarter of the way through the season without winning a basketball game. I know they are well stocked at the guard position, and even have some nice young prospects there, but what good is that if you can't win a single game this far into the season? Having watched them a couple times against the Nuggets, this team could use a player who plays as hard as Iverson does every game. Even if it means cutting down the minutes of some of their youngsters for a season, I think getting to watch a player like AI would have a positive effect on these guys in the long run. Not to mention the fact that if any team could use a guy that can single handedly win a game for you when he's on, it's the New Jersey Nets.

New York Knicks

Other Guard on the Roster: Chris Duhon, Nate Robinson, Larry Hughes, Toney Douglas, Cuttino Mobley

It seems like Iverson is a perfect fit for the up-tempo Mike D'Antoni style of basketball. He can drive to the lane, get creative on the fast break and is good at finding the open man spotting up for a 3. He would provide a nice change of pace from Duhon, and I have a hard time believing that cutting into Hughes' minutes would be much of a problem considering he's shooting under 40% from the field and 30% from 3 pt. range. The main issue I see here is that there's pretty much no way to play AI and Nate Robinson together. As much press as Iverson gets for being a bad apple, I can't even imagine the impact Li'l Nate would have if his minutes got cut down any more. I can see why people thought the Knicks should go for it, but as long as Nate's on the roster, it just wasn't worth it.

The "We're Probably Not Going Far in the Playoffs with our Current Roster" Teams

Indiana Pacers

Other Guards on Roster: Travis Diener, TJ Ford, Luther Head, Dahntay Jones, AJ Price, Brandon Rush, Earl Watson

Obviously there's a glut of guards on this roster, but I don't see why AI can't take Earl Watson's minutes here. Watson plays roughly the same game, maybe a little better defensively, but definitely not even close offensively. Having Rush and Jones around make AI's height (or lack thereof) a non-issue, and with such good shooters in the frontcourt (Granger, Murphy and Hibbert) this is a surprisingly good fit for Iverson. I'm sure there are some financial reasons behind why they were never really mentioned as a possible destination (along with the strange picture of Allen Iverson living in Indiana), but based solely on the current roster, I think the Pacers would be a great basketball fit for Iverson.

Toronto Raptors

Other Guards on the Roster: Marcus Banks, Marco Bellinelli, Jose Calderon, Jarrett Jack, Sonny Weems

This team has been very disappointing so far this season and could use something to inject a little life into their game. The guard play has been so inconsistent that Nuggets castoff Sonny Weems has been getting a decent amount of legitimate playing time already this season. Chris Bosh seems like the exact type of front-court player Iverson could mesh with. He's got a good shooting touch from the outside, so he won't clog up the lane, but he can also crash the boards and take advantage of AI's aggresive offensive style. Obviously Calderon will get this minutes, but with where this team is right now in the top-heavy East, I don't see why Iverson couldn't see the time that Jack and Bellinelli are currently getting. Much like Indiana though, it's hard to picture Iverson lacing them up in Canada for a year.

The "Contenders Who May Be Looking to Fill a Hole" Teams

Los Angeles Lakers

Other Guards on Roster: Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic

I realize this is probably the longest of longshots, but looking at the roster, why not? Obviously they love Derek Fisher in LA, but there's no question that he's about as slow a point guard as there is in the league these days. He's always been a streaky shooter, but the hot streaks have been coming few and far between this year. He stays out of the way on offense, which could be a good thing on this team, but I think it's pretty clear that he's the chink in the armor of the defending champs. Kobe and Vujacic have the height to cover for AI defensively and as good as they've been for short periods of time, I don't think anyone's crying over Shannon Brown and Jordan Farmar seeing a little more time on the bench. I know it would never happen, but it's hard not to think that adding AI would give the champs a bit of a spark for the rest of the year.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Other Guards on the Roster: Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, Daniel Gibson, Delonte West, Coby Karl, Daniel Green

Now Cleveland is a team that I actually did hear tossed around as a possible landing spot for the Answer. There's really no need to emphasize how important this season is for this franchise, they will do whatever it takes to build a contender around King James as he heads towards free agency. I think that if AI had become available later in the season and it was clear that they needed a little something extra to dominate the conference, they would have seriously considered bringing Iverson in for a spark, but at this point in the season, I think they're willing to see how this team comes together with Anthony Parker and Shaq Diesel as their big off-season acquisitions.

The "Sentimental Favorite" Teams

Charlotte Bobcats

Other Guards on the Roster: DJ Augustin, Raymond Felton, Gerald Henderson, Acie Law, Flip Murray

Re-uniting with Larry Brown would be somewhat of a story-book ending in the career of Iverson and this franchise is clearly not afraid of undersized guards. Larry Brown wants his team to be taken seriously as a contender (for the playoffs at least) in the Eastern conference this year, but for some reason they immediately took themselves out of the running. Augustin, Felton and Murray have their moments, but have they done anything to prove that they deserve big time minutes on successful teams? Maybe Brown thought that the good relationship with his former nemesis Iverson would be in danger if he had to actually coach him again. Whatever their reasoning, I think it would have been worth a shot for this team to put the ball in AI's hands and see where he could take them for a season.

Philadelphia 76ers

Other Guards on the Roster: Andre Iguodala, Willie Green, Lou Williams, Royal Ivey, Jrue Holiday

It seems like every guard they've acquired (other than Andre Miller) since trading AI away has had the tag of possibly becoming the "next Iverson" but all have fallen far short of those expectations. Lou Williams was off to a solid start this year but was far from a game-changer and will now miss a significant amount of playing time with a broken jaw. Iguodala provides the Sixers with a chance to play smaller point guards, so the Williams injury makes this just about a perfect fit in every way. Not only is it a decent basketball decision, but it'll give AI a chance to spend at least one more season with the team he grew up with and carried on his back for a decade. I was very happy to hear that Philly decided to extend an offer to Iverson and I hope that he takes advantage of this opportunity to prove to the league exactly what he has left in the tank.

Nuggets vs. Knicks, Nov. 27, 2009, Game Nuggetz

2009-11-27T21:59:00.003-07:00

"We didn't take a step forward tonight, but I don't think we took a step back."

-George Karl

I think that quote from Coach George pretty much sums up the game. It was a weird game from start to finish. The players all seemed more or less disinterested defensively and unfocused overall, the referees seemed like their minds and whistles were elsewhere and if it weren't for the incredible offensive output of Carmelo (50 pts), Billups (32 pts) and Al Harrington (41 pts), this game would have been completely forgettable.

Here are some Game Nuggetz:

As sloppy as the game appeared, the teams only combined for 20 turnovers which I don't entirely believe, but that's what the box score says.

The Nugs had 4 players with 5 or more assists in Nene, Chauncey, Melo and Lawson

Lawson turned in a very Anthony Carter-esque performance with 2 points on 3 shots, 3 rebounds, 6 assists and no turnovers in 16 minutes. So not the difference maker we've come to know, but also provided some very effective minutes while Chauncey was catching his breath.

Chauncey managed 8 assists along with his 32 points making it two great offensive games in a row. One more game of 20 plus points and I'll declare him back in form.

Big Earl Smith the Third was quiet in the first half, but I like that. I think he's learning to pick his spots and that he doesn't have to start firing up 3's as soon as he comes in a game in order to be effective. He ended up with 17 points on 6 of 11 shooting (4 of 6 from 3 pt range), 2 assists and no turnovers.

Both Nene and K-Mart had 11 rebounds. They were the only two that ever showed signs of life on the glass, but even with that being said, with the amount of possesions and missed shots in the game, even they could have done a better job rebounding.

Nene was the beneficiary of a few more nifty passes from Melo tonight, although the Knicks seemed a little better prepared against the interior passing than any other team has so far this season.

Nene also continues to throw down powerful dunks. The only time I saw him fade away from the hoop in the lane, he had his shot blocked, so let's hope he learns from that.

Afflalo only made two shots tonight, but I continue to be impressed with his shot selection and silky smooth jump shot. It's far from a quick release, but with all the firepower the Nuggets have offensively, I think he'll continue to have plenty of time to get his shots off.

For the first time in a long time, Karl seems to have settled on a pretty standard 8-man rotation with Afllalo joining Melo, K-Mart, Nene and Chauncey as starters and the Treacherous Trio of Birdman, ES3 and Lawson off the bench. In 82 games, they'll need to have some help from the end of the bench, but it's nice to have a group of guys you can count on each night.

I wasn't too worried about the 1st Quarter when the Knicks were torrid from 3-pt land, but was surprised at how easily they drove to the hoop from that point on. I have no idea why this happened.

I really have no idea what was going on with the refs tonight. Maybe it's just that it was the day after Thanksgiving, but they were allowing all sorts of contact under the hoop for most of the game, then started calling touch fouls on the perimeter every once in a while and overall did an absolutely horrible job tonight on both ends. The Nugs benefitted as much as it hurt them, so I can't be too mad about it, but it was defnitely strange.

I remember the last time Melo had a chance to score 50 he was triple teamed away from the ball in the final seconds just to make sure he didn't do it, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise that this game remained close in the final quarter. I agree with Coach George that Melo's 50 point effort wont last long as his personal best, but it's nice to see him eclipse the half century mark on a night when he was scoring in every way possible. He was hitting jump shots, lay-ups, breakaway dunks, put-back dunks off of offensive rebounds and just as importantly, especially in the 4th quarter, he was great from the line tonight. Along with his 5 boards and 5 assists, the 50 pts are telling me that it's finally safe to say that Carmelo is beginning to realize his immense potential as an NBA players. Hopefully this is just another jumping off point for him.

In summary:

Not much to learn about the team in this strange game, but hopefully it's just a taste of things to come for Chauncey and Melo.

Good night and Go Nugz!

Nuggets vs. Timberwolves, Nov. 25, 2009 Game Recap

2009-11-25T21:04:00.002-07:00

Is it over yet?

I'm not sure that I should have expected or hoped for anything different, but for the second straight evening, the Nuggets took on one of the NBA's worst teams and it turned out about as expected. Minnesota didn't give in quite as easily as New Jersey did last night, which may account for their one victory on the year, but they just had absolutely no answer for anything Denver was throwing at them offensively or defensively. Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like from about the 8 minute mark of the 2nd Quarter to the 6 minute mark of the 4th Quarter the Nuggets were leading by 18-24 points and you could set your watch to a pass from Melo to Nene for a dunk about every 4 minutes. It's nice to get these two wins under our belt without any serious about the Nuggets ability and more importantly without any injuries, but here's to hoping for a little more excitement over the Holiday season and beyond. Here's a few addition observations from the game:

Melo continues to be an incredibly efficient scorer with 22 points on 12 shots tonight.

Arron Afflalo took a few questionable shots tonight, but still shows a knack for only shooting when absolutely necessary, something that Linas the Menace Kleiza could never figure out.

Nene continues dunking! And Melo keeps feeding him the ball. These two are finally becoming the inside-outside combo people were looking for during Melo's rookie season.

K-Mart has been remarkably consistent in effort and performance. I always hear groans whenever he shoots from the outside, but I think he's earned a couple heat-check shots per game with the energy he brings night in and night out.

With Billups, Afflalo, Melo, Lawson, sometimes Nene and sometimes K-Mart, the Nugs have a ton of guys who can hit the mid-range jumper fairly consistently, which seems to be a weapon in both the half court and the fast break.

Nice to see Chauncey hit some 3's, but I'm going to wait until he strings a few games like this together before I consider him out of his slump.

I'm not sure why the Nuggets felt the need to take so many 3's in the 3rd Quarter, but at least they made them. If it weren't for the late run by the T-Wolves against the end of the Nug's bench, I would have thought it a bit unnecessary.

Maybe it was because they got a whole quarter to play, but the Nuggets bench players just seemed out of control for most of the quarter.

Lawson wasn't quite as effective as usual tonight, fortunately, there's not too many other guys in the league as quick as Jonny Flynn.

No one player on the Nuggets is dominating on the glass, but the team managed to once again out-rebound their opponent by everybody chipping in a little bit with some boards.

Final Thoughts:

Not much to learn from this game other than the fact that this is clearly not the immature Denver Nuggets of old. With Thanksgiving right around the corner and playing on the road in the second game of yet another back-to-back it would have been easy to come out relaxed in this one, but instead the Nuggets were relentless on defense from the start and pretty much dominated from that point until garbage time. It's looking more and more like the Clippers game was an abberation and instead of an omen of demise, it was "Just one of those games" where things aren't going your way. While the teams haven't been the upper-echelon so far, there's no question that the Nuggets have had a logistically extremely difficult schedule and should be proud to be going into Thanksgiving with a an 11-4 record.

Good night, Go Nugz and Happy Thanksgiving!

Nuggets vs. Nets, Nov. 24, 2009 Game Recap

2009-11-24T23:38:00.003-07:00

We're not #1!

Despite an ominous beginning, the Nugs got it together defensively about halfway through the 1st quarter to break the fragile will of this young Nets team and cruise to their 10th victory of the season in 14 games while leaving the Nets searching for their first victory of the season. I was afraid that the early lead might jump-start the confidence of the New Jersey players after such an awful start to their year, but after the first dose of adversity, their energy level dropped off a cliff. I can imagine after losing 13 games in a row, then going on the road to face one of the NBA's top teams, it can be pretty frustrating once that team heats up and builds a double-digit lead in the first half. All that being said, the Nets have a few nice, young players to build around for the future in Devin Harris, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Brook Lopez. They have a long way to go, but having a solid backcourt and center is a good place to start.

I didn't get to watch the first 3 quarters, but judging by Jerry Schemmel's solid radio commentary, I can make a few observations. One is that it was nice hearing how often Nene was dunking the ball. It's extremely frustrating that a player with so much athletic ability and that is so physically imposing decides to finish so many drives to the hoop with soft lay-ins that are often blocked or just as often missed when there's contact in the lane. Nene is clearly at his best when he's throwing down emphatic jams. Another is that Melo continues to showcase his playmaking ability on fast breaks as well as passing out of double-teams. It's very nice to see and hopefully that aspect of Melo's game continues to develop throughout the season. It's also nice to see Melo continue to be an incredibly efficient scorer, finishing with 27 points on 18 shots tonight, including some incredible drives to the hoop through a variety of Nets players.

While their was a distinct lack of energy in the game tonight, I can't be too hard on the Nuggets for lacking a killer instinct. These guys have to feel for each other, and there's no bad blood as far as I know between any of the players on either team, so it's gotta be hard to really pour it on against a team that's had such a tough start.

The final score was good enough for me, and I'm also pretty happy that the Nuggets most dominating performance of the season so far is still the first game I made it up to the Pepsi Center for against the Lakers and that's all I have to say about that.

Good night, and go Nugs!

Nuggets vs. Bulls, Nov. 21, 2009 Game Nuggetz

2009-11-21T21:41:00.003-07:00

Not a pretty game by any means, but they managed to get it done in the end.

The Nuggets were unsurprisingly sluggish coming out of the gate on the back end of their 5th set of back to back games, but a gutty, strong effort in the second half turned this into a rout once Chicago's shooters went cold from the outside. On to the Game Nuggetz:

10 of the Nuggets first 13 games have been part of a back-to-back set. I'm not sure what the league norm is, but that seems totally unreasonable. It's speaks a lot to their effort that they've managed to win 9 games already with that brutal scheduling.

Early on, it seemed like the Nuggets were trying to play hard, but just didn't have it. They'd run out on shooters, but not really in time to actually challenge the shots.

He still looked lost at times, but Birdman looked to be back to his old form. Getting good results from that MRI must have done wonders for his confidence, which is key for a player that relies almost entirely on his jumping ability to be effective.

Nene, with mixed but mostly positive results, took it upon himself to keep the Nuggets in the game early on. He's looked soft for much of the early part of this season, and still had his moments of weak finishes tonight, but looked strong on the boards and driving to the rim right from the tip tonight.

He looked tired doing it, but when Melo's shot missed the mark a few times early, he drove straight to the hoop and it looked like there was nobody on the Bulls who could do anything about it.

It wasn't until Melo hit a jumper with about 9 minutes left in the 2nd quarter that momentum started to shift. Shortly after, Chauncey knocked down a 3, which thankfully led to his best shooting performance since opening night.

They didn't look to being playing very sharp, but the fact that they started to knock down open shots, and the Bulls went cold, allowed the Nugz to get back in the game heading into halftime.

Keeping with the end of the first half, the Nuggets, with the exception of Melo's passing, didn't do anything to showcase their skills in the second half, but swung the game on pure effort.

The energy expended defensively allowed the Nuggets to run, move the ball on the fast break and get easy buckets.

Teams are starting to figure out Ty Lawson a bit, and it seems like more of his shots are getting blocked, but he's still a very effective point guard when he comes into the game.

Probably the biggest factor in this game becoming a blow out was Big Earl Smith the Third catching fire. You never know when it's gonna happen, you can't count on it, but when ES3 gets it going, it's an immediate 20 point swing in the game.

Mentioned earlier, Carmelo showcased some unbelievable passing tonight. He'll show flashes of this ability in any given game, but the second half tonight seemed to be the longest sustained effort by Melo to get his teammates involved.

Despite how they looked in the 1st quarter, Denver ended up shooting almost 49% from the field which is a minor miracle. Sure ES3 caught fire and Melo and Chauncey hit some shots, but I think the main reason is that their defense and passing led to a whole lot of dunks.

Dunking isn't as easy as it looks in the NBA. I promise.

In Summary:

This game, after the ominous opening, proved that this Nuggets team is not afraid to get down and dirty, fight for rebounds and lose balls, and do what it takes to get the easy points. Defensively, the Bulls just broke down in the second half and allowed the Nuggets to play exactly how they want to play, and the Nuggets' effort on the defensive end, especially Kenyon Martin, remained remarkably consistent with the Bulls scoring 27, 25, 19 and 22 in each quarter.

Nothing happened tonight that makes me think this team is at the top of the championship contender list, but it was a character-proving game with plenty of opportunities to lay down and make excuses, but instead they managed to put their heads down, get to work, and turn this game into a laugher.

Good night, and Go Nugz!

Nuggets' Nuggetz has been re-activated!

2009-11-20T19:34:00.002-07:00

I'm officially taking Nuggets' Nuggetz off of the Inactive List and pledge to give him ample playing time for the remainder of the season.

In lieu of a recap of the triumphant defeat at the hands of a short-handed Los Angeles Clippers team this evening, I've decided that my first post of the season, coming on this, the 20th day of Nuggvember, will be an attempt to sum up my feelings on the Nuggets moves that lead up to this day.

I was afraid that the Nugs' fast and successful start to the season would serve to diminish my optimistic opinions in the eyes (ears? brains?) of the readers, so maybe tonight's performance against LA's Other Team is a blessing in disguise.

Without further ado, my thoughts are as follows: (in somewhat, but not really chronological order)

2009 NBA Draft

Denver Trades Charlotte's 2010 (Lottery Protected) First Round Pick for Ty Lawson

My belief that Lawson will become a great NBA Point Guard is pretty in-line with what everyone who follows the NBA thinks at this point.

His ability to totally change the pace of a game much like Earl Boykins has been much written about, however, the fact that he's half a foot taller than Lil Earl makes him much less of a defensive liability.

Approved.

Denver trades the rights to the 34th pick in the draft, Sergio Llul, to the Houston Rockets for 2.25 million dollars.

Considering the Nuggets past with drafting international talent (with a few exceptions), I think I'll take the 2.25. And let's not forget the fact that he only has 4 letters in his last name, 3 of which are "L".

The only true rumblings of disappointment I heard surrounding this move were about the fact that Dejuan Blair was still on the board. There's no question that Blair is a talented rebounder, and that rebounding is the one area that this current Denver Nuggets roster could improve on the most, but I doubt he would make much of an impact in that area behind Nene, K-Mart and Birdman. I also have trouble believing that a 6'6" Power Forward not named Charles Barkley could be successful in the NBA today.

Approved.

2009 Free Agency and Trade Round-Up

Denver re-signs the Birdman

Priority #1 for Denver this offseason was to get the Birdman under a long-term contract. While some might argue giving guaranteed, long-term $ to a guy with his track record is a mistake, they're probably not the ones who were counting up the receipts from his t-shirt, jersery, tattoo sleeve sales. Birdman is a uniquely gifted player, and one that understands and accepts his role. His past troubles, I predict, will only serve to drive him to become a more successful, team-oriented player. He doesn't have the opportunity anymore to play selfish ball, he's already been given a huge second chance, so I think he's exactly the type of player a team needs coming off the bench in order to win a championship.

Very Much Approved.

Denver re-signs Anthony Carter

It seems most Denver Nuggets fans have grown to despise the contributions of Anthony Carter. He's old, not athletic, doesn't have very good range and really doesn't bring a whole lot to the table. I would argue that as a 3rd point guard, and an insurance policy for Ty Lawson, AC is a great fit. While he's by no means a game changer, he's also a pretty good ball handler who you can trust to take up some minutes with minimal mistakes. He doesn't shoot the ball a whole lot, which is nice, considering the Nugs' firepower coming off the bench. With the emergence of Lawson early in this season, it's not a huge signing, but he'll be nice to have around as a mentor and as a backup option should Lawson hit the "rookie wall" down the stretch.

Approved.

Denver re-signs Johan Petro

Johan Petro rarely sees time on the court, and hopefully won't see much this season either. That being said, I'm still intrigued by his skills. He's a 7-footer who can move at least as well as our old pal Francisco Elson, but I've seen him consistently drain 3-pointers in pre-game shoot-around as well. I don't know if it's a mental thing or what, but it seems like he could end up as a decent back-up big in the league. At the very least, he's 6 extra fouls at the end of the bench. Besides, he's clearly the Nuggets' best French player since Yakhouba Diawara.

Approved.

Denver allows Dahntay Jones and Linas Kleiza to sign elsewhere

Somehow, NBA sportswriters managed to turn this into a negative for the Nuggets. Obviously, many of these writers only truly paid attention to Denver during their post-season run (Dahntay Jones), and their career stats (Linas Kleiza).

Jones, for 90% of the season, was a serviceable role-player who played good perimeter defense and managed not to screw things up until it was time to bring in JR or Kleiza off of the bench for some scoring. It wasn't until he played a handful of games as the Chris Paul/Kobe Bryant pest that he earned his reputation as a lock-down defender. I heard a commentator say over Indiana Pacer highlights that Jones is "making the Denver Nuggets look stupid for letting him go." Ironically, it was the commentator who sounded stupid to me because he thought that Jones' 16 points per game (this season) were somehow missed by the Nuggets. Denver doesn't need another athletic, slashing shooting guard, they need a hard-working, role-playing, decent 3-point shooting guard to take up the minutes until Chauncey or Melo needs a breather and they found one for a whole lot cheaper, which I'll get to later on.

Kleiza, while certainly talented in a few areas, was just as, if not more frustrating than JR Smith. He had the ability to score 40 points if he was feeling it from the outside, he had the size and speed to be a good defender, he was arguably at his best when he would take the outlet pass and drive to the hoop, but for anyone who had watched the entire 2008/09 season, there were very few times that any of that came together. Kleiza was like a black hole when he came on to the floor for most of last season and had a knack for launching 3's in crunch time, despite the fact that he had been cold all year. While he still could develop into a very good NBA player (Denver still retains his NBA rights), he wasn't worth paying a premium for with the Nuggets' current financial situation.

Approved and Approved.

Denver trades for the rights to Arron Afflalo

I liked Afflalo at UCLA, I liked him with the Pistons and I like him even more now that he's on my team. He's basically Dahntay Jones and Linas Kleiza combined as far as his defensive ability, 3-point shooting prowess and athleticism. What I've always liked about Double-A (to borrow a nickname from the boys at Denver Stiffs), is that he just works hard no matter what. He's not putting on a show, he's not playing for a big payday, it seems like the guy just plays as hard as he can at all times. And considering he's taking the place of Kleiza and Jones (and arguably out-performing them) for just a fraction of the price, this move is clearly a no-brainer.

Approved to the highest degree.

Denver trades for the rights to Malik Allen

Ummmmmmm, approved?

Denver signs Joey Graham as a free-agent

Joey Graham reminds me of a smarter, bigger (fatter?), less athletic version of Sonny Weems. Weems was clearly redundant as he was JR Smith 4 years ago and didn't bring much to the table for a team looking for a championship. Graham at least brings a reasonably athletic presence to the bench for when Melo needs a breather or finds himself in foul trouble.

Approved.

Biggest Reasons the Nuggets will Win the NBA Championship in 2009/10

Earl Smith the Third, the 6th Man

From this point on, I will be referring to the player formerly known as "JR Smith" by the name he briefly requested to be referred to as, which is his given name, Earl Smith III. Other possible variations are ES3, ESIII and Big Earl. The reason for this, other than honoring a man's request, is that I want to believe that ES3 has finally become the man and player that we've all hoped for. It's time for the flashes of greatness to give way to some consistency, because if they do, the Denver Nuggets will have by a long shot, the most talented 6th man in the league.

The Treacherous Trio

Speaking of the bench, can any team boast a trio of bench players more exciting than Birdman, Lawson and ES3? I can't think of any. Each one is a unique player that can absolutely dominate a certain facet of the game, and fortunately for the Nuggets, each of those facets is different, so there's hope that these dynamic bench players could even make each other better. I think this is the most overlooked factor in the Nuggets potential success for this season.

MVP

And finally, while I think I believed this all along, I'll admit that it wasn't until reading a few NBA Previews that I realized just how good Carmelo might be this season. Some guys pointed to his unusually poor shooting percentages from last year, some to his experiences on Team USA, but I think that unquestionably, the biggest reason Melo has launched himself into the MVP debate this year is because he finally got a taste. He fought toe-to-toe with the Lakers for 4 games before they shifted it into another gear and went on to all the glory. Carmelo has won at every level and considering where the Nuggets were when he came to Denver, it's hard not to think that just getting them to the playoffs every year was a "win". But getting so close to winning on the biggest stage could only make him hungrier, and judging by the early season performance, he's clearly playing at a different level than he ever has before. In the past, Melo seems to have developed his game as the season progressed, but this year, for the first time, we're seeing him with his entire offensive and defensive repertoire. If the Nuggets win the Championship this year, and I think they have as good a shot as anybody, it will be because Carmelo Anthony wouldn't have it any other way, and he has the perfect cast of characters to take him there.

...

(unless, of course, they have to play the Clippers to get there)

Anyway, I hope this post isn't too late to be interesting, and I hope that tomorrow night's game against Chicago proves to be a more interesting affair than this evening proved.

In addition to Post-Game Nuggetz and potentially Game Previewz for some of the bigger games, I plan on strengthening my position on the Nugz' championship chances by an occasional post titled: "Why (Insert Championship Contending Team Here) Will Not Win the 2009/10 NBA Championship." Creative, I know...

Until next time, good night, and Go Nugz!

Rockjuneber!

2009-06-15T16:43:00.003-06:00

Once again, sorry for the delay in posting, but things are as busy as they get for me at the moment. I'll be posting some behind the blog photos soon to give a glimpse of what life is like for this blogger during the Nuggets offseason.

Fortunately, I've also been too busy to catch more than 2 or 3 quarters of the NBA Finals, so I was happy to have missed seeing the results. Glad to see LA can riot when good things happen in their city as well. Now they just need to find a time to riot when things are just running along like normal.

Now, onto more important topics. ROCKJUNEBER! With the starting pitchers finally starting to show what we expected from them and more (Marquis and Hammel), the relievers showing some consistency and the bats starting to warm up, the team has finally gone on a run that puts them right back into the playoff picture. Another sub-par season similar to last year and all of the goodwill brought on by the 2007 run would have been gone.

The only problem I see is that I'm not sold on Jim Tracy and this is the type of run that could solidify his position as manager. I'm never a fan of retread coaches who weren't terribly successful the first few times around, so I'm hoping this is a different story. Anyway, here's to hoping the Rockies can keep this up!

Question of the week: Would a 110 game winning streak set a new record?

Sorry for the Break

2009-06-03T10:41:00.002-06:00

I apologize for my lack of posting the last few days. The end of the Nuggets season happened to coincide with the beginning of my busiest time of year at work, so I haven't found the time to post very regularly. Once things get into a rhythm at work I'll do my best to get back on the blogging horse, so you'll be hearing from me again soon!

Finals Note: I'm looking forward to seeing how the Laker's bigs respond to Dwight Howard's strong post play. I think that battle will determine the series winner.

Finals Pick: Magic in 7

Postgame Thoughts

2009-05-29T21:41:00.002-06:00

Basketball can be a complicated sport and the difference between winning and losing can come down to a variety of factors.

Game 6 was pretty simple:

The Lakers made their shots, the Nuggets didn't.

I'm going to take some time before I put together some thoughts about the season, but I'll leave you with this:

Here's to the best season in Denver Nuggets history, and here's to seeing an eager, hungry Denver Nuggets team back in the Conference Finals next year ready to take the next step.

Hair to the Throne?

2009-05-29T10:00:00.005-06:00

LeBron may have had the best game we've seen in the playoffs in a long time, but who has the better hair? It's a long-shot now, though still very possible, but if we're not treated to the long-awaited NBA Finals match-up between Carmelo and Lebron, at least we'll have this.

Credit goes to Blaze of Love for the Melo picture in their post on: 8 Reasons the Denver Nuggets are the Most Entertaining Team in Sports.

I saw the Bron picture on espn.com the same day I read that blog post.

I'm ready for a Nuggets win tonight. If they play just as hard as they did Wednesday night, and a little smarter than they did in the 4th quarter, I think they'll be able to send this series back to LA.

Game 5 Recap

2009-05-27T23:02:00.002-06:00

Turned out to be a great game, and a terribly frustrating 4th quarter, but in the end, Los Angeles protected their home court and now it's time for Denver to do the same.

The most frustrating aspect was definitely Carmelo's inability to draw fouls in the lane. You can argue about whether that's due to the Laker's interior length or the referee's decision not to call fouls on contact on drives to the hoop, but as a Nuggets fan, you can probably guess where I fall in that category.

Regardless, the score was tied at the end of each quarter, and the Nuggets put themselves into a position to take another game in LA, but just couldn't hold it together in the 4th. Los Angeles got production from both Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher, and that more than anything else was probably the difference in this game. I can complain all I want, and I plan to, but the bottom line is that the Laker's played harder in this game than they have all series, and they did what they're supposed to do at home, so all I can do now is look forward.

Looking at the box score, there are only a few categories that really stand out after tonight's game.

Fouls - My thoughts on this have already been covered. I thought that the fouls were called fairly evenly, but the way the game was called favored the Laker's style of play.
Blocks - See "Fouls"
Assists - In game 4, Denver was constantly trying to find the best shot. I don't think that mindset changed much, but LA's defensive intensity definitely hurt the Nugget's passing ability.
3-Point % - The Nuggets were actually significantly better here, but still shot worse than 30%. The key is that Denver shot 8 more 3-pointers than LA while both teams were cold from long distance, so that means Denver was relying on something that wasn't working.
FG% - The Lakers shot about 10% better than the Nuggets and that's the first time in a very long time that I've seen that kind of discrepancy for a Nuggets' opponent. This will have to change for Denver to get a win in Game 6.

Overall I'm disappointed, but by no means did this game make me feel as if this series is over. It's going to take another great home effort as well as a complete game in Los Angeles in the possible Game 7, but I still like how this team is playing overall, and I still like the Denver Nugget's chances to advance to the NBA Finals in 7 games.

WCF Game 4 Recap/Game 5 Preview

2009-05-27T10:19:00.002-06:00

That was about as good an NBA game as you can choose to go to.

Everything was on the line, the teams were close for most of the game to keep the crowd interested and the home team warmed up and put it away in the 4th quarter.

Nothing could bring me down that night, not the rain, not the cold, not the alternator that I just had replaced going out on me at midnight on my way back home, nothing.

The best part about it is that I truly believe the Nuggets are the better team now. It's taken 4 games to prove it to me, and things seem to change every game in this series, but the Lakers are a two-man show right now and the Nuggets are a team. Despite the nicknames and the tattoos and the reputations, the Denver Nuggets are playing the way basketball coaches at every level teach kids to play the game. Everybody's passing, everybody's taking care of the ball, players are flying out to challenge shooters and are active on the defensive end. The Nuggets are determined to find the easy shot on offense and make sure there are no easy shots for the Lakers on the other end.

Going into Game 5 tonight, here are some keys that I see:

Junior Swish found some playoff mojo in Denver, can he keep it going in LA?
If JR makes a couple shots early on, watch out, he could be the difference maker. As great as it was watching Kob (that's what I'll be calling him from now on) and Melo duking it out in Games 1 and 2, I would love to see some reinforcements from Denver's bench scorers on the road.
Speaking of Denver's bench, can they keep up the energy in LA?
I'm hoping that the memory of the frenzied Pepsi Center crowd's juice can carry the Denver bench players through Game 5. A couple great energy plays and rebounds could suck the life out of the Staples Center in a hurry when the bench players take over in the second quarter.
Can Melo remember where he left his jump-shot in the Staples Center?
It's got to be there somewhere, because it certainly didn't make it back to Denver. Whether it was his ankle, bad stomach or pressure of leading his team in front of the home crowd, Melo's got to find a way to contribute in order to win Game 5. It would also help if the referees remembered that it's ok to call fouls on the Lakers when Melo drives into the lane. I think they just got bored with it since he gets hacked about every time he enters the paint.

Will the Lakers get any production from Lamar Odom or Derek Fisher?
These are the veteran players that are supposed to lead you when you see some adversity, but Odom has continually turtled in pressure situations and Fisher, who was once a deadly, clutch 3-point shooter, just doesn't seem to have it this year. A big game from either of these guys could quickly tip the scales in favor of the Lakers.

Will LA be able to keep Gasol and Bynum happy in the post?
Both players were chatting up the media about how they need the ball more, and maybe they're right, but maybe their lack of touches had something to do with Denver's ball denial on defense as well. Something tells me Phil Jackson doesn't really appreciate his players discussing his flawed game plan in front of the media.
Will Phil Jackson be able to find his way back to the Middle Path?
All through the Houston series, Phil refused to get riled up about anything. No comments about the officiating, nothing about his team's lack of killer instinct, didn't worry about the extra games effect on his players for the next round and never showed any sign that he thought the Rockets might pull off the upset. That all flew out the window on Monday night. The first time I saw his post-game press conference was in a bar with no audio, but I could tell just by how animated he was that this was a different Phil Jackson. Turns out I was right, which to me is one of the biggest signs that the Nuggets have truly taken control of this series. This is the first time Phil has seemed agitated in a long time and I think that's a good thing for Denver.

Can Chauncey keep Denver cool when they're in a position to take control of the game?

In all 4 games of this series, the Nuggets have had opportunities to take control of the game for good. They've only capitalized on two of those opportunities so far. Will Monday night's win be the tipping point? Instead of waiting for Kob's response, will Denver take charge and put the Lakers away? Personally, I think you'll see the Nuggets respond to the pressure as well as they have this entire post-season.

I don't think there's any doubt that the winner of Game 5 will be well on their way to the NBA Finals, and that there's still a whole lot to learn about these two teams even though we've seen them play each other 4 times in 8 days, so I'm as nervous and excited as ever for this game. I do think we'll see more defensive focus from the Lakers and a clear attempt to get Gasol and Bynum involved offensively early on. They're not going to concede defeat after one beat down on the road. I don't see either team dominating the glass like Denver did on Monday, so I expect that will even out.

The main difference I see coming into this game is that Denver's bench is riding high with confidence after returning to Denver, and I think we'll see them be effective in their time on the court tonight. Birdman was back to being Birdman, JR found his range and even added play-making to his repertoire, Linas the Menace has continued joining in the fun for the first time this season, AC managed to make a shot, which is nice, and the best sign that the Nuggets' bench is firing on all cylinders is that Denver even ran a play for Renaldo "Blankman" Balkman!! In the first half!!

With Denver's bench riding a wave of confidence, and LA's riding a wave of confusion, I think it will be enough for the Nuggets to take control of tonight's game. That being said, I don't think Kob plans on letting this one slip away either. All in all I believe this game will end in anguish of biblical proportions for Kob and his followers as the road teams comes away with a tight victory despite the Black Mamba's near heroics -

Final Score Prediction: Denver Nuggets 104 - LA Lakers 101

Playoff Stache Spectacular

2009-05-24T19:52:00.018-06:00

In lieu the typical game preview I decided to give a Playoff Stache update. More important than the update however, I decided to give a look at what the Nuggets players would have brought to this brilliant idea had I informed them of it in advance of the playoffs. As far as Game 4 goes, I expect the Nuggets to win and I expect them to shoot the ball better as they'll have a little less adrenaline running through the system. I also think you'll see them do everything they can to keep Kobe from getting into the lane. Enjoy the Mustachios!

F

2009-05-23T21:27:00.002-06:00

I kept thinking that the shooting was bound to come along.

It didn't.

I knew the bench would come through, but I didn't know they would be the only ones to come through.

Frustrating night tonight, but the good news is that I don't believe the Nuggets will shoot worse from the perimiter than they did tonight.

If it weren't for the dunks and layups the Nuggets would have only made 14 shots tonight. 14!

There were a few games in the Dallas series where the Nuggets couldn't find their stroke, but instead of continuing to jack up 3's and long 2's, they attacked the rim and got to the Free Throw Line.

As disappointed as I am, I'm looking forward to a big time bounce back game on Monday. There's no way Melo, Chauncey and JR all shoot that poorly two games in a row at home.

That's it for now.

A Dream Fulfilled and A Game 3 Preview/Prediction Posted

2009-05-23T08:45:00.003-06:00

I don't have much time to post a preview today as I'm DJ'ing a wedding today in an hour and 15 minutes under the alias "DJ JD aka The Palindrome", but I wanted to throw up a quick post for a couple reasons.

One is that this could be the #1 game in the history of Nuggets' hoops. I realize we throw around superlatives like crazy these days, in fact, this might be the most superlativest time in history, but I still think that with all the elements involved, this could be the most exciting NBA game ever played in Denver. I had to switch out my ticket for tonight's game thanks to my DJ gig, but I can't even imagine what it's going to be like in the Can this evening. I feel confident that the Nuggets will take care of business. It will be another hard fought game, but I don't think this one comes down to the last shot: Denver 112 - LA 104.

Now on to the second, and most personally exciting reason for this post. A friend of mine directed me to this story in the Denver Post about Linas Kleiza. In my initial post I spoke of my intention for this blog. Above all of the normal things I wanted to get out of this blog was the dispersal of my favorite nicknames that nobody else was using: Linas the Menace and The Blankman (Renaldo Balkman). After seeing Linas the Menace used in the comment section of a Denver Post story online, I was pretty happy, but this... this is a dream come true. An objective completed. It's in print. It may not be my story, but my nickname has been published and I'm hoping that's just the beginning. I suspect it will catch on like wildfire, especially if the Menace's hot shooting continues tonight. I'm glad you could all be a part of this special moment.

I'm the luckiest man in the world!

Any Questions? (WCF Game 2 Nuggetz)

2009-05-22T09:35:00.003-06:00

None from me thank you. The biggest remaining question for this squad was how would they respond to adversity in the playoffs? Very well, thank you very much. There's still a long way to go, but I think it's safe to say that Thursday night's win solidifies Denver's status as a championship contender, and I think we're in for a very entertaining Western Conference Finals.

Much like Games 3 and 4 in the Dallas series, the recaps for Games 1 and 2 in this series can essentially be flippy-floppied.

Carmelo was the most efficient scorer in Game 1, but was outdone by Kobe in crunch time and ended up scoring just a little bit less for the game.

Kobe was the most efficient scorer in Game 2, but was outdone by Carmelo in crunch time and ended up scoring just a little bit less for the game.

Who's the hungriest player on the court in this series? Without question it's Melo. Nobody else comes close. Whichever area he's focused on, whether it's scoring, rebounding, defending or whatever, he seems to will his way to success.

Second place goes to Pau Gasol, whose rebounding and dare I say, tough interior play, is keeping these games from being double-digit losses for the Lakers.

Nene looks like the old Pau Gasol, flopping for fouls, occasionally dominant, but usually confused by the different beast that is NBA Playoff basketball.

Forget the Playoffs, welcome to the 2008/2009 NBA season Linas "the Menace" Kleiza!

Miraculously, the Nuggets were paced offensively, until Melo's scoring outburst, by Linas the Menace and Kenyon Martin. Without their scoring, the Nugs go down by at least 20 early in the first half.

I'm starting to think Mark Warkentein and Rex Chapman decided to assemble this team around the mold of Melo's NCAA Champion Syracuse Orange team with Chauncey playing the part of Gerry McNamara and the freakishly athletic Birdman playing the part of the freakishly athletic Hakim Warrick. Here's to hoping the NBA Finals end with Birdman blocking an attempted 3-point shot.

I have to admit I was absolutely frightened when I realized that both Steve "Jobbed Me" Javie and Dick "I hope he doesn't hurt himself" Bavetta were working this game together. Fortunately each seemed to be favoring one team or the other, so it worked itself out in the end. Apparently sometimes two wrongs do make a right.

I haven't felt my heart beating as fast as it was in the last two minutes of this game in avery long time. I'm not sure if that's a testament to the exciting finish, or to my lack of cardiovascular training, but I'm pretty sure it was the finish.

Gasol and Odom got their share of uncontested putbacks, but this time the Nuggets countered by crashing the glass on their end just as hard.

With the series shifting back to Denver, I expect we'll see a little better production out of the Nugget's energy guys off the bench. So I think Birdman, Junior and AC will all see a boost in the next two games. If anything, I think Kobe will be even better in the Pepsi Center as he seems to revel in quieting rowdy fans on the road, but I do think guys like Ariza, Shannon Brown, Bynum and even the emotionally unsteady Lamar Odom could be affected. So I'm expecting to see the games remain closely contested based on the play of Kobe and Gasol, but the bench play at home will give the Nuggets the overall edge.

And so it begins...

2009-05-21T09:40:00.003-06:00

Through the first two rounds of the playoffs, no teams dominated like the Cavs and the Nuggets. Cleveland barely broke a sweat winning both series' in the minimum 8 games. Denver let their oppponents hang around a couple times, but ultimately posted the largest scoring margin through the first two rounds in playoff history.

You hear a lot about how a playoff series doesn't begin until a team wins on the road. Well I say the playoffs have just begun for these two teams after tasting defeat for the first time early in a series. I haven't followed the Cavs reaction much after their devastating loss, but I've been very impressed with Denver's maturity and professionalism following Tuesday night's last-minute defeat.

This is the first dose of adversity and the first true test of the 2009 playoffs for both of these teams. Cleveland has much more reason to be scared after losing on their home-court, but they also have the best player in basketball, so you can't be too worried. Denver is much more of a wildcard. Many "experts" probably expect a significant drop-off from the Nuggets' Game 1 effort and enthusiasm, but everything I've seen so far the spring tells me that's not going to be the case. Denver lost a game in New Orleans by two that it could have won, they lost a game in Dallas by two that they should have won and now the same thing has happened in Los Angeles.

The only difference this time around is that it happened in Game 1 instead of Game 3 or 4, so if recent history tells me anything, it's that not only will there not be a drop-off, but there will be a significant increase in focus, effort and team-play. Keeping in mind the current opponent is undoubtedly more talented than Dallas or New Orleans, I still see Game 2 as a great chance for Denver to get a win on the road and even their playoff road record at 3-3. A win tonight would be a great way to swing some momentum as the series shifts to Denver where the Nuggets have been unbeatable for over 2 months now. It would make the Lakers think a little more about how many games they've played over the last couple weeks. It would make the Lakers think a little more about how the altitude is going to affect their tired legs. It would be just what the Nuggets need to take control of a series that most "experts" are now ready to hand right back to LA.

If I can see these things, then the Denver Nugget organization can clearly see these things and the players will be well prepared for a game that holds a wild amount of significance for this team. With a couple home games coming before a return to Staples Center, by no means do I think this series will be over if the Nuggets can't pull out a victory tonight, but a win tonight will provide a significant boost throughout the rest of the series and I'm looking forward to watching this team respond to their first real challenge of the playoffs.

I don't see Melo scoring 40 tonight, but I see the bench playing much stronger. Kobe may score 40 again, but I don't see Fisher and Ariza hitting every significant 3-pointer that they take. Gasol, Odom and Bynum may have better offensive performances, but I don't see them dominating the offensive glass the way they did in Game 1 and most importantly, I don't see the Nuggets choking away another chance for victory in Game 2. When the game is on the line, the ball will be in Billups or Melo's hands and if that's the case, I like our chances.

Game 2 Prediction: Denver 111 - Los Angeles 104

WCF Game 1 Nuggetz

2009-05-20T10:42:00.002-06:00

The bad news is that the Nuggets are facing their first series deficit of the 2009 playoffs.

The good news is they outplayed and outmuscled the Lakers in the Staples Center.

Despite the heartbreaking loss, it was very exciting to see the Nuggets control the post in every area other than offensive rebounds allowed. That bodes well for the rest of the series if they can focus on boxing-out as much as they did in the first quarter.
The killer in this game was absolutely the play of the bench, which had been a monumental strength in the two previous series'. The Nuggets' bench players were playing tight and nervous and I don't expect that to continue into the rest of the series.
While Kobe's play is correctly getting the hype it deserves, it was the timely 3-pointers by Derek Fisher that were the back-breakers in my eyes.
How costly were those 3 missed free throws to start the game for Chauncey?
It will be interesting to see how Melo responds to such a dominating, efficient offensive performance. Will he try to keep up his all-around play or will he try to get into a scoring contest with Kobe.
As well as Kobe played, especially down the stretch, I'm basically happy with how the Denver Defender's performed against him. His looks were pretty good, and weren't heavily contested, but there was always a defender nearby and more importantly, he had very few chances to drive and dunk.
How great was it to see Carmelo checking Kobe in crunch time. It made me realize that as great as Kobe is, Melo can guard him pretty well and he has no chance to guard Melo at this point in his career.
The first quarter of this game went about as well as could be expected, especially because Melo was clearly ready and there seemed to be a focus on boxing-out and securing rebounds that was lost later in the game.
I think this is was the first sporting event that I've felt noticeably anxious about that I haven't been directly involved in.
If it weren't for Gasol's offensive boards, the Laker's frontcourt would have been entirely ineffective. I don't expect they'll be dominated like that in every game, but I also don't expect the Nuggets to give up 10 more offensive rebounds than they get in any other game.
A Lakers fan posted in the comments of my series preview that this was the best the Nugs could play and their only chance at winning in LA. I couldn't disagree more. While Melo may have played his best possible game, and KMart was very good, every other player on the Nuggets has a lot of room to improve.
Nene needs to figure out what he did in the first half and do it for the entire game tomorrow night. After a great performance early on, he disappeared, partly due to foul trouble, but that can't be all of it, he needs to keep attacking offensively.
Chauncey racked up the assists early, but I'm not sure he managed an assist in the 2nd or 3rd quarters. When his shot isn't falling, it would be nice to see his assist totals rise a bit.
Overall, despite the loss, I'm excited about what I saw in Game 1 and I'm looking forward to seeing how things go tomorrow night.

In summary and in conclustion, people keep talking about how the Nuggets will respond to the loss, but I'm going to be interested to see how the Lakers respond. That game reminded me of a boxing match where the heavy favorite took some nasty blows early, but managed to win the round. He may be happy that he's gone round 1 under his belt, but he's probably a little surprised by how strong his opponent was. There's clearly going to be adjustments made by each team, but the Lakers have to feel as if they've taken some blows to the body, and I think if the Nuggets play with this kind of effort in every game, the every-other-day schedule will wear down this Lakers team.

Western Conference Finals Preview

2009-05-18T10:36:00.003-06:00

This is how it should be.

As nice as it would have been to take on a depleted Rockets team, keep home-court advantage and sweep through the Western Conference Playoffs as the favorite in every round, this is the match-up the Nuggets needed in order to be taken serious as a contender.

Much has been said of Denver's easy path to Round 3 of the 2009 Playoffs, and about how they have yet to really deal with any adversity, but I think that's more due to the performance of the Nuggets rather than the shortcomings of their opponents. New Orleans was clearly not playing great hoops in the first round, but I would certainly take them in a 7-game series with the tanking Jazz team that took on the Lakers in Round 1. Dallas didn't look up to the challenge against Denver, but had been playing their best ball of the season leading up and in to their first round victory over San Antonio. There's no question in my mind that Dallas would have been able to knock off the McGrady and Yao-less Rockets in less than the 7 games it took L.A.

We've been watching a Denver Nuggets team that has embraced and conquered every challenge laid in their path this post-season, and playing the Lakers will just be the next on the list. I don't doubt the talent that Los Angeles brings to the table. Their front-line is very formidble and it will take the best effort from Denver's big guys to match up with them. Phil Jackson will not be rattled in the way Rick Carlisle was, and will have his team prepared as far as X's and O's. Kobe is easily the best all-around talent in the Western Conference and won't be settling for fall-away jump shots nearly as often as Dirk was, but I think these are the things that will keep this Nuggets team focused.

My biggest worry in the playoffs has been how the Nuggets will respond to their continuing success. All season long, they've been able to play the "Nobody Believes In Us" card, and matching up with the Lakers will allow that to continue for a little while longer. Denver only managed one victory over L.A. in the regular season, but if you look at the line-ups in each of the 4 games, you'll see that one team or the other had somebody significant missing in each game. The season-opener came before the Billups trade and before Dahntay Jones had made his way into the starting lineup; the second game featured Vlad Radmonovic starting for LA and Birdman missing the game for Denver; game 3, Denver's dominating victory came with Bynum sitting out and the final regular season game was played without Kenyon Martin, who is unquestionably the Nuggets' defensive spark plug.

There's no more time for excuses now. It doesn't matter who's hurt, who's tired, who got the better match-ups and who didn't, it's all about showing it on the court. The Lakers have been written into the Finals in ink since the start of the season, and they've been playing as if they believe it's a foregone conclusion so far in the playoffs as well. Denver has yet to fall behind in a 2009 playoff game by more than 11 and has yet to lose a 2009 playoff game by more than 2. I don't expect either of those numbers to stand up throughout this next series, but just as the Nuggets' play has remained consistent, my series prediction will stay the same as I'm looking forward to stealing one of these first two in the Staples Center and continuing the dominant play at home:

Nuggets in 6.

Show Me Your Nuggets!

2009-05-16T12:07:00.003-06:00

A lot of people get frustrated with bandwagon fans. I can see how it might be frustrating when you've followed a team through the bad times, threatening the all-time record for fewest wins in a season, many botched lottery picks, etc., but I guess I have a different take on it.

I haven't been a Nugget's fan for the longest amount of time by any means, but I have been an unwavering fan through quite a few difficult periods. I've watched through the McDyess stints, the Van Exel era, the Bzdelik era (which record-wise was awful, but could be one of the more important seasons in Nuggets' history) and now the Carmelo/Karl era and to me, seeing all the people jumping on the bandwagon is why I kept watching in the first place.

I didn't follow them through the lean years so I could talk to the same 2 friends about the Nuggets for the next decade, I followed them because one day they'd be good enough that I could share my love for the Nugs with everybody in the state, and it appears that day has come.

So I say jump on the bandwagon, there's plenty of room. Go out and get some sky blue and gold apparel, honk your horns, start figuring out what you're going to chant when we're closing out win #4 in the Western Conference Finals and getting ready to see the Bron/Melo Finals showdown we've all been waiting for and most importantly: Show Me Your Nuggets!

Contest #2 > Contest #1

2009-05-14T00:48:00.002-06:00

Real quick before I sign off, I'd like to announce a new contest I will be starting while we await the Conference Finals. I'm hoping to increase the number of entrants in this contest infinity percent over my last one as it is still waiting for its first entrant. This one should be easier. Through email or comment on this thread, I'd like to read the best, most creative options for this fill-in-the blank question:

Mark Cuban was unable to attend Game 5 in Denver because he had previously scheduled __________ in Las Vegas.

(examples: "His offseason vacation" or "An appointment at the Bunny Ranch" or "Mom Sensitivity Training")

Have fun!

Round Deux, Game 5 Recap

2009-05-14T00:13:00.005-06:00

Wow, what a night to be in the Pepsi Center.

Getting past the first round was fun, but there was an unbelievable amount of energy flowing through the Can all through the 4th quarter and well past the final buzzer.

With a record attendance that nearly topped the 20,000 mark, every shot attempt, every defensive stop by Melo or KMart on Dirk, every time somebody entered or left the game, the crowd was ready to erupt and every time it seemed like it couldn't get any better, with it all culminating on Junior Smith's alley-oop pass to KMart for a dunk that gives new meaning to the word "emphatic."

It was an epic journey.

When I say that, I'm not speaking about the game, series or playoff run. I'm not talking about the evolution of the Carmelo-era Nuggets. I'm talking about how I got to the game.

Having purchased the tickets on ticketmaster, I selected the "pick-up at a retail location" option since will-call didn't seem to be an option anymore. Before braving the 2.5 hour drive to Denver, I made sure to look up a few Ticketmaster retail outlets around Denver to give me some options. With traffic the way it was, I managed to get into my usualy parking lot next to Old Chicago at 14th and Market. From there I figured it was a short jaunt over to 16th and California where I thought I'd be able to snag my ticket before heading back to the Can. Much to my surprise, the Denver Visitor's Bureau was all locked up for the evening. This was disappointing as I believed the next closest outlet was at a record store up around Colfax and Ogden. I make the walk up that direction and come to the realization that the record store I walked to was in fact not the record store that was a Ticketmaster outlet. After checking out some street signs, I realize I have a good 15 blocks yet to go. I finally reach Twist & Shout up next to the Tattered Cover bookstore, make my way back to the back cashier and he tells me that since the game has started, my ticket will be at Will Call.

Oh.

I was lucky enough to catch a cab back with a cabby that was a fan, so I got to listen to the first half of the second quarter on the radio anyway and made it into my seat for the last 5 minutes of the half.

Anyway, now that I've rehashed the highs and lows of my evening, I'll try to throw together some thoughts on the series' past and future:

Denver has now taken two teams that played strong in the powerful Western Conference and made them look like fringe playoff teams.

At some point, maybe it's time to give some credit to the Nuggets instead of bashing the other team.

I like the idea of Mark Cuban crashing into a Maverick's halftime huddle giving Will Farrell's "We've got to keep our composure!" speech from Old School.

Speaking of Cuban, it's very convenient that he had a previously scheduled event to attend this evening. I wonder where he'd have been if this game had been played in Dallas.

Regardless of who the Nuggets play next, I would love to see them keep working on consistent defensive intensity. There have been times this series where Dallas has had absolutely no options on offense and times where the Nuggets seem fine with allowing open jumpers. Maybe facing Kobe will be enough to motivate the team throughout the next round.

I'm going to leave it at this for now as it's late and I'll be getting up early to make the 2.5 hour drive back tomorrow, but I'll also leave you with a picture I got from my seat shortly after the final seconds ticked away on the Maverick's 2009 season:

Playoff Stache Update: Game 5 Edition.

2009-05-13T10:58:00.003-06:00

As you can see, the 'Stache is coming along quite nicely. I'm hoping that as the 'Stache fills in, it will mirror the maturation of this Denver Nuggets squad.

Round Deux, Game 5 Preview

2009-05-13T10:45:00.003-06:00

One bright spot coming out of Game 4's loss to the Mavericks is that now I'll have a chance to head to another elimination game at the Pepsi Center this post-season. The Mavs got up for their "revenge" game two night's ago and played with plenty of heart and resilience despite plenty of chances for them to quit in the style of New Orleans.

I think Dallas will come in a focused team, but I don't see them able to match the emotion and intensity of their Game 4 effort. A 3-0 lead allowed a much more relaxed Denver team to finally start hitting their shots from outside, and I see that continuing as they return to the friendly confines of the Pepsi Center with a 3-1 series lead and chance to close out another series in front of the hometown fans.

As heroic as Dirk's performance was in the 4th quarter, I believe JJ Barea's hustle and Brandon Bass' play on offense and defense were the reasons Dallas was able to keep from getting blown out on their home court. That being said, the return on the Birdman will be a defining factor that I expect will return the edge to the Nuggets as far as bench play. It's no coincidence that Dallas was able to produce in the paint the same night Denver's most intimidating shot blocker was sidelined with food poisoning.

I'm getting more excited by the hour as Game 5 approaches and I'll be very happy to be a part of yet another historic victory by this Denver Nuggets team that continues to improve as the playoffs go forward.

Quick Game 4 Recap

2009-05-12T12:24:00.002-06:00

Busy day for me today, so I'll keep it simple: Read all of the Game 3 Recaps and switch the teams around.

Denver was in control of this one the whole time until the final minutes just as Dallas was in control of Game 3. Frustrating loss, but I don't see it affecting the Nugget's dominant ply at home and believe this series will be over by tomorrow evening.

The X factor was clearly the Birdman's absence. I don't think JJ Barea would have been quite so heroic had the Bird been around to swat his drives to the hoop. It could be a reason for Dirk's sudden 4th quarter prowess as well with Linas Kleiza drawing the big German on many 4th quarter possessions.

Here's a question: Wouldn't Balkman be a good option when the team is looking for someone to check Dirk the Jerk and soak up a few fouls?

Round Deux, Game 3 Reaction

2009-05-11T13:02:00.002-06:00

I realize I'm a little late on this, but I haven't been around a computer for a few days so this is the best I could do. Needless to say, I was very happy about the win and the fact that they managed to pull it off while shooting even worse than ever from the outside. I can't believe the Nuggets continue to win games in this series in which they are shooting the ball so poorly.

Here's a few Nuggetz to capture my thoughts on this whole intentional foul fiasco:

Nothing says classy like yelling at a player's mom. Way to go Mark Cuban!
With all the useless whining and screaming and yelling, it's nice to see that some Mavs players know how to handle themselves in a professional manner.
As angry as Cuban seemed about the last second play, he didn't seem to mind that all of Denver's front-court was in foul trouble for nearly the entire game.
If Antoine Wright wants to "intentionally foul" somebody, he should grab him with both arms like everyone else does at every level of basketball.
I've never seen somebody intentionally foul by bumping them with their hips and putting their hands in the air, waving them as if they just didn't care.
Question of the Game: How Did Mark Cuban get a hickey on the flab on the back of his arm?
Question of the Game I'd Rather Not Have an Answer To: How did Mark Cuban get a hickey on the flab on the back of his arm?

Now that that's out of the way, I'm looking forward to seeing a more relaxed Nuggets team tonight that wont take too long to find their stroke from the outside. I can't imagine Dallas will come out firing after such a life-draining ending to Game 3. I respect the way Dirk has handled himself this whole series, and I think he's a great player, but I just don't understand how he disappears at the end of games. I think Dallas will struggle to hang with the Nuggz tonight, especially if the shots start falling as they should:

Final Score Prediction: Denver 112 - Dallas 100

Photoshop Contest

2009-05-08T14:23:00.003-06:00

While somewhat frightened by the prospect of the results, I'd like to challenge anybody with some semblence of digital photograph manipulation ability to create an "If They Mated..." type conglomerate (for those well-versed in Conan O'Brien lor) of Dirk and his foil, Ms. Cristal Taylor. Please attach your submission in an email to NuggetsNuggetz@gmail.com

Round Deux, Game 3 Preview

2009-05-08T14:01:00.003-06:00

It's probably a good thing these teams had 4 days in between games. Incredible foresight by the league to know that Dirk's alleged fiancee would be arrested and Josh Howard's ankle would need some rest. Without those two events, I don't think there's a whole lot more that could be written about this series. Games 1 and 2 followed a nearly identical script. The Nuggets had a few more defensive lapses in Game 2, and their 1st and 2nd quarter dominance flip-flopped, but other than that it was pretty much the same story of a tight game through 3 quarters followed by an embarrassingly dominating 4th quarter by the Nuggets.

I expect to see something different this game, though it remains to be seen exactly what that will be. I keep thinking Dallas will find a way to limit Denver's post production, but that's been very consistent so far, and the Nuggets aren't likely to miss any dunks just because they're playing on the road. I would think that outside shooting would be the main statistic that would change as a playoff series shifts from one city to the other, but so far in this series, Dallas has been the better outside shooting team by a long shot. Unless Erick Dampier finds a way to get rid of the cement blocks on his feet or Ryan Hollins and Brandon Bass bulk up to the point that they can consistently challenge Denver's post players, I just don't see the story changing when it comes to post play.

I believe the "distractions" surrounding the Mavs will only serve to help the team focus especially with as many veteran leaders as there are on the team(JET, Dirk, JKidd, etc.) so I think we'll see a Dallas team hungry to prove themselves in a series in which they've looked entirely overmatched, but until they prove they can flip the script, I just can't see things ending up any different.

While not being much of an X's and O's guy, I think we'll see something new from Dallas as far as defending Nene in a way that doesn't increase the Nuggets' chances of second chances on offense. I think we'll see Denver test out whatever scheme Dallas comes up with for that. I think Dallas will be happy to zone up until Denver's shooters prove they need to do otherwise and I think Denver's shooters will start hitting some shots as the pressure begins to lift from their shoulders. Not having the home crowd will certainly lower the energy level in the 4th quarter for the Nuggets, but in the back of every player's mind will be the two dominating 4th quarters of Games 1 and 2, so there's absolutely nothing that comes to mind that makes me think Game 3 will be much different.

Overall, I guess I'll give Dallas a slight boost thanks to strong fan support and a very good home court record, but I'm going to have to go with another Nuggets victory as they can only stay cold from long-range for so long.

Denver 104 - Dallas 98

National Media Lovin'

2009-05-07T14:43:00.002-06:00

Finally. It took a series of team records and a series and a half of dominating playoff victories, but finally the Nuggets are getting some love in the national media. Both Kenny and Charles are talking about the Nugs as contenders now and I just finished reading the recent articles by ESPN's resident Mavs fan Marc Stein and ESPN NBA numbers guru John Hollinger.

Let's hope the Nuggets players haven't been fueling their playoff fire with a "Nobody Believes in Us" attitude, because people are most definitely believing now.

Playoff Mustache Update

2009-05-07T14:11:00.002-06:00

Considering the long wait between games, I thought I would update the status of my playoff mustache while we're waiting. If I have time tomorrow I'll try to post a Game 3 preview.

Dunkfest 2: Electric Boogaloo (Round 2, Game 2 Nuggetz)

2009-05-05T23:36:00.003-06:00

Excellent performance by nearly the entire team tonight, hell, even Linas the Menace got into the action a bit. It was a somewhat sloppy first half for both teams, an excellent 3rd quarter that was everything I've been expecting of this series and another unbelievably dominant 4th quarter for this Nuggets team. Great to hear the Pepsi Center rockin' on national TV.

On to the Nuggetz:

I started watching this game part-way through the 1st quarter when the score was tied 14-14 as I was busy being dressed up as the Monopoly Man's evil twin and chased around by 20 6th graders demanding I return their brownies. All part of the job as an educator I suppose.

Dirk got his points again, but he seems entirely unable to score any points against Denver's post players. He's got an ugly shot to begin with, but it seems to get uglier as the game goes on, and more importantly, it stops going in.

With apologies to Nene, who had a great first half, JR Smith was the reason the Nuggets went into the second half with a lead. He settled a little too much for his outside jumper for my liking, but once again he showed off his all-around play and decision making. Other than his terrible shot that lead to Jason Kidd's half-ending 3-pointer, JR was spectacular.

It was very disappointing to lose Josh Howard for the game, he's a solid player and I would have loved to have gotten to see him battle with Melo. Hopefully the long break will get him enough rest to make another appearance in this series.

I've been very surprised at the Denver defensive approach this series so far. They have shown absolutely no desire to fight through screens and seem content to switch out and play out the rest of the shot clock with those match-ups. Other than an equally surprising switch to zone early in the 3rd quarter, this has been the base defense and somehow has kept Dallas out of the paint for the most part.

One area I'd like to see Denver improve in as they head into Dallas is defensive focus coming out of timeouts. I didn't keep track, but it seemed like every time Dallas came out of a time out, they got an easy hoop or free throws.

JJ Barea seems completely uncomfortable out there in this series. Denver's guards are quick enough to stay with him, and the bigs are too intimidating in the post for him to even attempt a shot in the paint.

I think I would have reacted in exactly the same way Kenyon Martin did when Ryan Hollins was cupping his pectorals. The commentators seemed convinced that Hollins was holding him up, but I'm pretty sure KMart would have been just fine without the Purple Nurple perpetrated on him by Hollins.

The Nuggets seemed to lose defensive focus in the second quarter and for much of the third. It's amazing that they manage to hold on to these leads when they give Dallas so many easy buckets in the middle of the game.

Other than a couple bursts of 3 pointers, the Nuggets continue to be cold from the outside. It's a testament to their aggressive offensive play that they're able to stay-in, and even dominate these games at certain points with very little production coming from 15 or more feet out.

The Mavs' bench should be happy with how they played tonight. They were badly outplayed in Game 1 and were one of the reasons it was such a dominating performance by the Nuggets, but tonight, the Mavs' bench had the energy level and production that should be expected out of them.

If I weren't emotionally tied to either team, I would consider tonight's 3rd quarter the best ball of the series. Both teams were going to their bread and butter and were successful. The Nugs were attacking and pounding the ball into the paint and the Mavs were moving the ball around the perimeter and hitting open shots.

There were times tonight when the Nuggets seemed content with not challenging Dallas' shooters and it seemed like every time that happened, the Dallas player nailed the shot.

Every time these two teams have moved into a fast-paced transition-style game, the Nuggets seem to pull away. I don't know if it's the athleticism or what, but I think the Mavs only hope is to slow the game down. I realize that's not how they like to play, but I just don't see them having any chance to match Denver in the transition game.

Every single one of the Denver Nuggets should be proud of how they played in the 4th quarter. It seemed like on every possession, somebody new was stepping up to make a great play, from AC, to JR, to Melo, Birdman and everyone else.

AC is quietly having a great postseason. He's doing everything we could hope for from a backup point guard.

Gutty performance by Melo in every sense of the word. Clearly in pain, Melo was not afraid to do the dirty work tonight. Whether he got it or not, Melo was in the paint fighting for rebounds and fighting through defenders on his way to the rim.

Least believable comment of the night: "It's Really Funny." This is what PJ Carlissimo said in response to the promo for Meet the Browns. Maybe he really is a big fan, but I just don't believe it.

When the Nuggets went on their 16-2 run to start the 4th quarter, they only took one shot from more than 15 feet out. It was a miss from just outside the foul line by Carmelo. Maybe Denver should just give up on jump shots until Dallas proves they can defend the paint.

Somebody should tell Ryan Hollins that his team was losing a playoff game by 17 points when he celebrated his emphatic dunk.

If the game had ended with 4 minutes remaining, my final score prediction would have been very good. Turns out, my final score prediction was not very good tonight.

As impressive as they've been playing and as much respect as the TNT crew is showing this team, I don't think I'll be content until the national broadcasters learn how to pronounce Linas Kleiza's name.

Final Nugget:

Another impressive 4th quarter performance by the Nuggets and another impressive playoff victory. Normally a team can expect to shoot the ball a little worse when they head out on the road, but I don't think that's possible for this Nuggets team. I expect that they'll actually be a little looser on offense as they head into Dallas as they wont be pressing to impress the hometown fans. The main thing I'll be watching for is if the defensive intensity is there when the crowd isn't there to back them up. They did it in New Orleans, so there's no reason to think they wont be just as focused as they head into their first road games of the second round, but I'm still not totally sold. I don't think Dallas will fade in the 4th like they have in Denver once they get back to their home court, so it'll be important for the Nuggets to jump out to a big lead if possible to take the crowd and confidence out the arena.

Round Deux, Game Duex Preview (Rhymes intended)

2009-05-04T23:09:00.002-06:00

Before I begin, I would like to hereby upgrade Dirk's foul on Sunday to a type two Flagrant Gesticulation penalty and fine him 25,000 Deutsche Marks. Enough said on that subject.

After a surprisingly dominant performance by Denver in the paint on Sunday, I feel like the Nuggets will be loose enough for the shooters to warm up a bit on Tuesday night. That being said, I expect to see Karl test the waters with Nene in the post early on to see if he still has the attitude he showed in the second quarter of Game 1. It will be interesting to see what Dallas decides to do defensively against Nene as Erick Dampier might as well have just set up a table and started signing all of the Nene posters he's soon to be featured on.

As far as Dallas' response, I think we'll see a team that's less likely to settle for the long jumper in Game 2. While they're very talented from long-range, a team just cannot expect to win 4 of 7 games when they're taking the majority of their shots from more than 15 feet out. Rick Carlisle pointed to the foul disparity, and if I could, I would point to the Points-in-the-Paint disparity as a response. You're not going to get calls when you're settling for jump shots, and I don't expect the Mavs to do so quite as often in Game 2.

I'm also looking forward to seeing how Denver decides to guard Dirk in Game 2. Despite his early success, he was clearly flustered by the end of the second quarter. I don't know if they'll decide to play him loose again, allowing for the fallaway jumpshots, and switching on screens allowing for the mismatch, but I have a feeling Dirk's going to see a lot of different looks as this series progresses. I think that the penalty assessed to KMart today will only serve to motivate him more, and I'd love to see him come out and play just as hard as he has throughout the postseason, especially when he's matched up against Dirk.

Overall, I expect to see a very different game on Tuesday night. I think Denver will test out the paint offensively, but will ultimately find more success with the outside shooting, and I think Dallas will be far more aggresive on both ends of the court as well as much more disciplined with the ball. I don't think we'll see the dominace of Game 1, but I do think the swagger and home-court success will continue as the Nuggets take a 2-0 lead into Dallas: Denver 104 - Dallas 96

Round Deux, Game 1 Nuggetz

2009-05-03T16:19:00.003-06:00

Wow. We could be watching something really special here. The energy, agressiveness, and attitude that the Nuggets are showing right now are unprecedented as far as anything I've seen before and the scary thing is that I think that as well as they're playing, they're just going to get better as each guy gets another playoff game under his belt. If they can keep their focus as well as they did in the first round, this series could be over faster than most people, myself included, thought.

On to the second half and final Nuggetz:

Dallas came out firing in the 3rd quarter and seemed like they wanted to push the pace of the game. Both teams are comfortable playing a fast-paced game, but neither really got a chance to play that style in their first round matchups against San Antonio and New Orleans.

Initially the Nugs seemed flustered by the increased pace, but it didn't take long until they took over, seemingly driving in for layups and dunks at will.

While the scoring played out much like I thought it would in the second half, it came in a surprising way. I thought for sure the Nuggets shooters would heat up and provide some separation, but Denver continued to pound the paint and find success there.

Denver has played aggresive defense regardless of how the officials have been calling the game. I love that they don't seem concerned with drawing fouls early in the game. Even if it hurts the offense, it has to be frustrating and disheartening for the opposing teams to have to play against a team that attacks so relentlessly on defense.

The Mavericks simply cannot stop the Nuggets in the paint. They have the shooters to steal a game or two, especially at home, if a player or two go off from 3-point range, but I just can't picture a team that is so overmatched in the post pulling out 4 wins.

At one point in the 4th quarter, Hubie Brown said, "We're seeing Denver at their best right now." I couldn't disagree with that statement more for these reasons:

Denver was absolutely horrible shooting the ball from the outside today. According to ESPN's shot chart, Dallas sank 22 shots from 15 or more feet out to Denver's 11 in this game and 5 of Denver's 11 makes came in the 4th quarter with the game already well in hand.

If Dallas hadn't been so hot from outside, this game would have been over much closer to halftime. They were sinking a ton of shots from the perimiter, many of which were well-contested by Nuggets defenders.

The Nuggets missed 11 Free Throws tonight and were out-rebounded by 7.

JR didn't put up the numbers that he has in the past, but I would argue that this was his best overall game of the playoffs so far. He was energetic on defense, drove to the hoop and only settled for long-range shots occasionally. If only he didn't shoot 1-5 from the charity stripe.

Carmelo was extremely patient tonight. He was pretty much a non-factor offensively until the second half, but he ended up with 23 points on 7-10 shooting, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. That's a line I'll take from him any day of the week.

Another Nugget with some excellent scoring efficiency was Nene who ended up with 24 points on 13 shots. Nene looked winded throughout the Hornets series, so seeing his intensity today bodes very well for the Nuggets chances to keep this run going.

Enough cannot be said about the Nuggets front-court trio of Nene, KMart and Birdman. Their energy was without a doubt the catalyst for this victory. They all seem to want to out-do each other defensively and that energy carried over into Nene's offensive dominance today.

I'm left feeling pretty much exactly how I felt after the Nuggets' victory over New Orleans in the first game of Round 1. I think Cautious Optimism is still the best way to describe it, but as they proved to me against the Hornets, the Nuggets can stay focused and I'm moving further away from the "Cautious" side of things and more towards the "Optimism." Denver's dominance in the paint was a total surprise to me, and I hope it can continue through Game 2 and into Games 3 and 4 as they head to Dallas.

Game 1, Round Deux Halftime Thoughts

2009-05-03T14:59:00.002-06:00

Dirk certainly started off hot, but if all he shoots is fallaways for the whole game, I feel good about that. Interesting that Kenyon hasn't locked onto Dirk though, kind of surprising.

Erick Dampier has looked totally lost. Denver's frontline is just too athletic for him.

Offensively, the Nugs look really tight. The only points they're getting are in the paint so far.

Kenyon's hip-check/forearm shiver on Dirk was pretty nasty looking, but that's the type of thing that's going to get into Dirk's head and also seemed to give Kenyon an energy boost too.

Interesting to see LK enter the game so early on. All I can think is that George saw how the refs were calling the game and decided to use up a few fouls with Linas the Menace.

Glad to see Josh Howard back out on the floor. You hate to see a team lose one of their top guys in the first game of a best of seven series.

I'd like to officially welcome Nene to the 2009 Playoffs! This could be the match-up that wins it for the Nugs.

Dirk's antics are reminiscent of Tim Duncan's non-call incredulance and WoManu Ginobili's flailing limb approach to basketball. No sir, I don't like it.

This first half reminds me a whole lot of Game 5 against the Hornets. The Nuggets are keeping themselves in the game by keeping the Mavs out of the paint, and attacking the basket offensively. Once those shots start falling, the Nugs could put a little room between them on the scoreboard.

Round 2 Preview

2009-05-02T12:21:00.002-06:00

With the opening game of Round 2 quickly approaching, I figured it was time to weigh in with my thoughts heading into this series. There's no question that the Mavericks are playing their best ball of the season right now, and combine that with the fact that all 4 of Denver's wins in the regular season came in hard-fought, exciting games and I think this could turn into a great series. On the other hand, going into the final week of the season, I was absolutely sure that the Mavericks were the best match-up for the Nuggets and I tend to still feel that way, and here's why:

Two of Dallas' 3 main scoring options happen to match up against Denver's two best one-on-0ne defenders with Dahntay Jones checking Jason Terry or Josh Howard and Kenyon Martin taking on Dirk.

When Howard is in top phyical condition, he has a chance to frustrate Carmelo a bit, but I don't think he's hitting on all cylindars at the moment, and the ones he is hitting on should be focused more on scoring during this series. Regardless, The Mavs don't seem to have anybody who can match Carmelo's speed and size.

Despite the fact that the regular season games were close and that the post-season is a different beast, I don't think you can overlook the fact that the Nugget's managed to close out all 4 games against the Mavs with wins.

Erick Dampier is the type of player that can have a dominant night on the glass one night, then appear as though he's asleep for the next four games. I don't think he'll be able to match the energy that Kenyon and Birdman bring. When the Nuggets are doing their job on the boards, they're tough to beat.

With the limited minutes that Linas the Menace and Blankman have been seeing, I think it's safe to say that the Nuggets' depth hasn't even really been tested thus far in the post-season, and should it be tested this series, I think the bench will come through.

With all that being said, I don't think the Nuggets will run away with every game quite like they did against New Orleans, but I still believe they have enough match-up advantages to make their way into the Western Conference Finals. Denver in 6.

Stop the Press! I Have Received a Media Alert!

2009-05-01T17:27:00.002-06:00

I received an email today informing me of a promotion that Qwest will be running to give away two courtside tickets to Sunday's Game 1 against the Mavericks. Instead of keeping this information to myself in hopes that nobody else finds out about it, I figured that since I'm apparently a member of "the media" I should pass this along to my faithful readers. So mom and dad, this is for you:

FANS EMBARK ON “TICKET QWEST” FOR DENVER NUGGETS PLAYOFF TICKETS

Qwest to Give Away Two Courtside Seats Through Twitter Treasure Hunt

DENVER, May 1, 2009 – Fans searching for seats for Sunday’s Denver Nuggets playoff game now have a chance to win them through a Twitter treasure hunt from Qwest.

Beginning today, to win the tickets, fans must follow “@ticketqwest” on Twitter, where they will see a stream of clues to find the tickets, as well as clues for a code word to claim the tickets.

These clues will culminate on Sunday, May 3 at noon, when Rich Karlis, Qwest Sponsorships director, will be at a fixed location in downtown Denver with four tickets for courtside seats to that afternoon's game. The first two @ticketqwest followers to find Karlis and tell him the code word will each receive two tickets and be escorted into the game immediately. Karlis will be identified by a bouquet of big, blue balloons.

To join the fun, follow @ticketqwest on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ticketqwest.

Winners must be at least 18 years of age. Total prize value is $866. Tickets are not transferable and each set of two tickets will be awarded to individual, separate parties.

I'm not sure whether to be more excited about the tickets or about the possibility of meeting Rich Karlis. Either way, this sounds neat. I like it.

Mustache May/Playoffs Mustache.

2009-05-01T10:57:00.002-06:00

Here's the first edition of my celebration of Mustache May. Should they agree to it, I'll add some examples of my co-workers contributions. It's really a lot more full in person. I swear. I hear the camera subtracts 500 follicles.

Round 1, Game 5 Nuggetz

2009-04-30T09:21:00.002-06:00

While I don't think it's going to crack my top 5 all time sporting events attended list, it was still great to be a part of such a rockin' crowd at the Pepsi Center. Everything's kind of a blur, but I'll do my best to piece together some Game Nuggetz from last night's series clinching win.

The energy of the crowd was great, but the sophistication seemed to ebb and flow throughout the game. I was particularly impressed when you could hear the crowd buzz get louder and louder as the shot-clock wound down on a New Orleans possesion in the first half. It's one thing to cheer after the shot-clock violation, but even the crowd is finding this team's defensive intensity as exciting as the alley-oops and 3's at the other end.

In my Game 4 recap, I mentioned that I thought this game could go one of two ways, either a close, back-and-forth affair, or a Nuggets rout. It turns out it went both ways.

The Nuggets D kept them in the game in the first half, which is particularly impressive considering how poorly they were shooting the ball early on. It was only a matter of time before they warmed up, and when they did about halfway through the third quarter, it was over.

More than just the team defense, Kenyon Martin's overall play kept the game close in the first half. Without his smothering defense and above-the-rim antics, the Hornets may have been able to give themselves a bit of a cushion heading into the second half.

It took 5 games, but Carmelo finally realized that Peja "To do more than shoot" Stojakovic was guarding him in this series and proceeded to dribble around him for some easy buckets.

It was neat the first time somebody started a "We Want Dallas" chant halfway through the 4th quarter, but a little unnecessary to continue to try to start it every 45 seconds for the rest of the game. The last thing we need to do as fans is get this team looking ahead. They've done a great job of focusing on every posession, so let's try to keep it that way.

People were happy after the game, but I think the bar has been raised. While winning in the first round was an important landmark, it seems like everyone around this franchise knows what this team is capable of, and is excited for the challenges that lay ahead in these playoffs.

I'm hoping that Mark Cuban will see my recent Mustache May post and take it as a Blogger's challenge. Let's see what you got Cubeman!

That's it for now. Just wanted to get a few of my thoughts out there early in the day. More to come...

A Dream Fulfilled...

2009-04-30T02:42:00.003-06:00

A trip to the second round of the NBA playoffs? No.

A match-up with a team we swept in the regular season for a chance to go to the Western Conference Finals? No.

Hometown Hero Chauncey Billups leading the best Nuggets team I've seen in my lifetime? Again, no.

With a single minute and 4 seconds remaining in the game, my wildest dreams came true.

I was delighted to have seen Ryan Bowen enter the game with just under two minutes left, but it wasn't until that magical 1:04 mark that my heart filled with joy.

Balkman vs. Bowen.

Blankman vs. Captain Intangible.

The Showdown.

The Representer in the Pepsi Center.

They did not disappoint.

Within seconds, Ryan Bowen was running around like a newborn faun still getting used to its seldom used legs as he crashed into a confused Birdman and was called for a loose ball foul.

Balkman, on the other hand, managed to fill up two slots on his stat line with a single wide-open, beautifully airballed 3-point attempt. The slots of course being Field Goals Attempted and 3-Pointers Attempted.

The truth is though, the end-of-the-bench MVP honors for the game will not go to either of them. They were both outdone by the remarkably energetic play of Johan Petro. He grabbed a board, drove hard to the hoop to draw two free throws, both of which he made and also managed to notch a blocked shot. Well done, mon ami.

As it's now nearing 3AM and I've done my best to work off the caffeine I consumed to help me with my drive home, I'll leave you with one tidbit regarding the other 47 minutes of this glorious game: Thanks for keeping us in this game in the first half K-Mart!

Best Games I've Attended

2009-04-29T10:21:00.004-06:00

This being the first NBA playoff game I've been able to attend this season, my anticipation and excitement has been growing since I woke up this morning. I'm hoping I can add tonight's game to the following list.

I've been to some significant Nuggets games during the Carmelo Anthony era including:

Carmelo Anthony's first game playing together with Allen Iverson, which turned out to be a fun, alley-oop filled drubbing of a Pau Gasol-led Memphis Grizzlies team. As soon as I heard about the AI trade, I figured out when Melo's first game back would be and bought the best ticket available. The Nugs won by 17.

The Northwest Division clinching game during the 2004/05 season against the Sacramento Kings. The Nuggets won this game by 20 points.

Denver's first home NBA playoff game in a decade which was played against Kevin Garnett's Minnesota Timberwolves, a game which the Nuggets won by 21. This game is easily in my top 5 sporting events that I've attended thanks to the energy in the crowd and resounding victory. The rest of my overall top 5 would probably include these:

All of the Colorado Rockies games leading up to the 2007 World Series starting with the regular season ending Arizona Diamondbacks series.

The Miracle in Michigan game in the Big House with a press pass that allowed me to watch the game with the Sports Illustrated camera man immediately to my left.

The Colorado Buffaloes 62-36 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

John Elway's comeback victory over Warren Moon's Houston Oilers in the 1991/92 NFL Playoffs.

I'm hoping that by the time I get back home after tonight's game I'll be able to make another notch on my significant sporting even belt and figure out where to put the Nuggets latest 20+ point playoff victory on my list. Who else is ready for our first second round appearance in 15 years?

Prediction: Denver Nuggets 111 - New Orleans Hornets 89

Statement of Intention: Mustache May

2009-04-28T19:54:00.002-06:00

I hereby state my intention to shave my facial hair in to some form of mustache upon the clinching of a second round berth by the Denver Nuggets or the first of May, whichever comes first. Furthermore, I intend to continue growing said mustache at least until the end of the Denver Nuggets 2009 playoff run. Pictures will be included along the way.

My Nugs Dun Grown Up Before My Eyes (Round 1, Game 4 Nuggetz)

2009-04-27T21:15:00.003-06:00

Before I get to the Game Nuggetz, I think it's important to note that this is easily the best game I've ever seen the Nuggets play. I am a fairly young man at the ripe age of 28 and have only been following the Nuggets for about half of that time, so I don't exactly have the historical perspective, but I think there's a good chance that we just witnessed the greatest game this franchise has ever seen. I realize it's a first round playoff game, but tying the all-time record for winning margin in a playoff game in a series that was supposed to be competitive is just ridiculously above anything else I can think of happening in Nuggets' history. Unbelievable.

Now on to the Game Nuggetz...

Apparently the Nuggets figured out the secret to playoff success: score 2 points every time your opponent scores 1 point.

The Nuggets role players are stealing all of the attention of the Hornets coaches, players and fans. While the crowd is busy booing Dahntay Jones and Anthony Carter, Melo and Co. are busy carving them up on offense and defense.

The Hornets tried to play physical early in this game, but it's obvious that the Nuggets were so far in their heads that they had absolutely no chance from the tip. I've never seen so many airballs by the home team in a playoff game, which is especially surprising considering that Peja and Rasual Butler had been shooting so well coming into this game.

This being the first game of the series I've been able to watch and listen to, I'm having a hard time deciding whether to believe Scott Hastings or Chris Paul and the New Orleans crowd as far as the performance of the referees.

Speaking of the referees, is it me or does Davey Jones look completely lost every time the camera shows him. I'm not sure he knows where he is or what he's doing. Somebody should help him out.

If it weren't for the free throws in the second quarter, The starters may have been able to sit out the entire second half. The Hornets went well over half of the quarter without hitting a single field goal.

Sign of Maturity - First Half edition: Jumped out to a huge lead on the road after one quarter and still managed to outscore the "surging" Hornets in the second quarter.

I just took the time to purchase a ticket to Game 5 in the middle of devising this blog post and will brave the 4-5 hour round-trip drive and sleep deprivation on Thursday for a chance to see this team officialy take the next step.

This is the first game that Melo really looks completely comfortable playing playoff hoops. He's driving, hitting his jumpers, rebounding, finding open teammates and playing aggresive, opportunistic defense. This could be the beginning of a new Melo.

Sign of Maturity - Second Half edition: The Nuggets came out determined to re-establish their physical presence in the second half. The referees were calling the game tighter at both ends, but that didn't deter the Nuggets defensively and they also stayed aggresive offensively, attacking and getting to the line, so once their shots started falling again, it was over.

Well... more over than it already was anyway.

Chauncey absolutely lives for the Dagger 3-pointer. Pulling up for that 3(turned out to be a 2 with his foot on the line) is his bread and butter. I'd like to see the stats on his 3-pt. percentage immediately following a turnover.

Dahntay Jones - his D is getting the press it deserves - Did Chris Paul play tonight? - but he took advantage of every chance New Orleans gave him on the other end, every one of those 12 points were essentially bonus points for the Nugs.

This game looked like it was a 1-seed taking on the play-in 16-seed in the NCAA tournament. Totally dismantled in every aspect, physically and mentally.

Sign of Maturity - Bench edition: When the Nuggets bench was emptied, they followed the lead set by the rotation players. Focus on D, drive aggresively and look to set up teammates on offense.

The first 50 point lead of the game brought to you by: Johan Petro with about 7:15 to play.

Sign of Maturity - Post Game edition #1: Denver has now outscored New Orleans in 14 of 16 quarters including all 12 quarters in the 3 dominant victories. This team is not going to let up regardless of the score/situation.

Sign of Maturity - Post Game edition #2: Denver has now held New Orleans under 25 points in all but 3 quarters in this series and has yet to give up a 30 point quarter. That is some consistant defense folks.

Sign of Maturity - Post Game edition #3: Carmelo's post game interview with Maya Starks showed that he was clearly hungry for more. In years past there's no question that Melo would have looked giddy walking off the court after a 58 point playoff win, but this team is different. This team wants more. I don't think anything less than a Championship will be good enough to satisfy them with the way they're acting on and off the court right now.

Thoughts on Wednesday night's Game 5: Obviously I'm very, very excited for the chance to see the Nugs advance to the second round on the Pepsi Center court, but I do have some reservations heading into Game 5. Tonight, the Nuggets proved that they have matured, they have grown into a team that is playing for a championship and playing to win together as a team, so I'm no longer worried that they'll come out of the gate unfocused, I'm much more worried about all the pressure that's about to build up over the next 48 hours. This is exactly what they've been playing for all season, a chance to win a playoff series on their home court, a chance to get the first-round-exit monkey off Melo's back, a chance to show the world that they're no longer underachieving and that it's time to think of the Denver Nuggets as serious championship contenders. If the first few shots go down for the Nuggets, I think Game 5 will be over in a hurry, but if those butterflies creep in, I think it will turn into a game much like Game 3: A hard-fought, back and forth, heavy-weight fight, the only difference being the location, and I think that will be enough to swing the 4th Quarter tides in Denver's favor. Regardless, Chauncey's leadership will be just as, if not more important in Game 5 than it was in Game 1. But right now it's time to sit back and soak in the beauty of this historically dominant and record-breaking performance by our emerging, maturing and finally contending Denver Nuggets.

Quick Note: Based on the box scores, it seems that Ryan Bowen is inactive for this series or at least he has been for these games. This is a very disappointing development as I was hoping that in a game like this I would get to see one of my favorite ex-Nuggets get some minutes and show off his all-intangible, no discernible skill game. I think it goes without saying that the balance of this series has been severely tipped in the Nuggets favore by whomever is responsible for the inactivity of Ryan Bowen.

Gone Fishin'

2009-04-27T11:00:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the absence this weekend, I was without TV, Internet and Technology availability as I was being trained in Wilderness First Aid. The weekend did not go without work on content for this blog however as the videos I post will be sure to show.

Tonight will be my first opportunity to watch a playoff broadcast, so hopefully it will allow for a more in-depth analysis of the game. Let's hope for a good one!

Now how many other NBA bloggers out there are willing to post footage of their own hoops skillz?

Round 1, Game 2 Nuggetz

2009-04-22T23:14:00.006-06:00

Final Score: Denver 108 - New Orleans 93
Denver leads series 2-0

I know a lot of people thought the Nuggets had the potential to run away with this series fairly quickly, but did anyone see things opening with 2 blowout wins? I definitely didn't.

As happy as I am with the performances so far, I'm still a little nervous about how the team will respond when Chauncey cools off. If Chauncey cools off that is.

Due to the strange hours that I work and the spotty radio reception in the small mountain town where I reside, I was forced to take in Game 2 by the friendly interface of ESPN's GameCast. While it clearly cannot provide the emotion of watching the event live, I was treated to a few emotionally uplifting and deflating entries like this: "JR Smith enters the game, JR Smith misses 20 ft. jumper, JR Smith called for foul."

Fortunately, JR redeemed himself in the 4th Quarter by logging this entry after hitting several 3-pointers in a row: David West Offensive Foul (JR Smith Draws the Foul). Just as I was about to make a note of JR seeming to be one of the few Nuggets who have yet to show a huge jump in maturity during this first round series, he managed to make a notch in the other column.

One other GameCast Nugget that helps underline the maturity Melo has shown so far was this: "Carmelo Anthony blocks Hilton Armstrong's Layup." It happened right at the end of the quarter no less. I think it's clear that Melo is very focused and will not be satisfied with an early playoff exit this year.

Weird stat-line for Melo tonight as well. His shooting was great, and he replaced his lack of rebounds with a plethora of assists, but I find it hard to believe that he wasn't fouled a single time during the course of this game. I wish GameCast had Game Log entries for things like: "Missed call by Violet Palmer," and "Bad call by Violet Palmer."

A quick glance through his Game Log for the season shows that Melo only played in 3 games without attempting a free throw. One of those games was the one he left with an injury after 14 minutes and the other two were against Boston and Cleveland.

Could have gone without the 3-point shooting contest between Chauncey and JR late in the 4th quarter. Fortunately for the Nuggets, the Hornets decided to participate in the contest as well, so it didn't really help or hurt either team all that much.

We have yet to see a big-scoring game from Nene, we have yet to see JR loosen up to the point he was at to end the regulary season and we have yet to see Johan Petro fill up the fouls column on the stat sheet, so there's still a lot of potential hiding on this Nuggets roster.

Favorite stat of the series so far:
The Nuggets have outscored New Orleans in all 8 quarters of the series, and have only allowed the Hornets to score more than 25 in a quarter once so far.
Most disappointing stat of the night:
Renaldo Balkman - DNP - Coach's Decision
Ryan Bowen - DNP - Coach's Decision

It's going to be exciting to see how the Nuggets respond to being fully in control of a playoff series for the first time in a long time as they head into New Orleans. They didn't quite come out of the gate defending as well as I had hoped (The Hornets were shooting about 50% after the 1st quarter), but they threw the shackles back on David West and were a couple of Peja hot streaks away from a 30+ point victory in this game. I think this team is focused and will see the road game as something to rally around and challenge themselves with in Game 3. I'm not 100% sold yet, but if Chauncey keeps shooting like he has been, maybe I won't every have to find out how the Nuggets will respond otherwise.

P.S. - I'd like to call attention to the fact that I did pretty well on my first widely public score prediction for a game. My guess: 106 - 98, Denver wins | Actual score: 108 - 93 Denver wins.

P.P.S. - Thanks for the memories Dikembe, maybe the Nugs will finally have a playoff image to replace yours when all is said and done this season.

Round 1, Game 2 Preview

2009-04-21T20:57:00.002-06:00

I think we're going to find out a lot about how these playoffs are going to play out for this team in the first few minutes of Wednesday night's game. Like I said in my Game 1 thoughts, a Nuggets team that comes out looking like they still have something to prove and that they're going to do it on the defensive end will be a huge departure from the Nuggets teams we've known over the past decade. I'd like to see the Nuggets continue to take more pride in their stops than in their jump shots. A few early defensive stands followed by some easy buckets in the paint at the other end, and the Nuggets will already have a decisive edge in the mental battle of Game 2.

Speaking of the mental battle, any time you have a coach who is more concerned with the match up between his superstar point guard and another team's defensive shooting guard that occasionally cracks 20 minutes per-game, than he is with the fact that his team was manhandled in all aspects of the first game in a playoff series, I think it's safe to say you're in a good position heading into the next game. I think that Byron Scott is making a huge mistake by playing up the physical play of Dahntay Jones. The last thing he needed to do was give the Nuggets a reason to re-focus defensively, and I think that's exactly what he did. Had I been in his shoes I would have done nothing but praise everything about the way the Nuggets played in Game 1. The Nuggets are team, even after the arrival of Uncle Chauncey, that struggles in games that don't offer some sort of challenge and now, thanks to Scott's comments, the Nuggets have a reason to want to get another big, physical victory in Game 2.

This isn't saying that if the Nuggets don't jump out to a big lead with a defensive focus, that they have no shot to win the game or the series, but I'll feel a whole lot better about the chances of watching Melo play into June if they prove that they can keep up the intensity they showed in Game 1 throughout an entire series. My cautious optimism could give way to sincere optimism by the end of the first quarter tomorrow night, and I think there's a good chance that will happen.

I still don't expect a sweep and I think there will be a lot to learn by seeing how they respond to their first game on the road, but I'm feeling good about what I've seen so far and I'm expecting the focus to continue into tomorrow night, even if the ridiculously hot shooting does not.

Game Prediction: Denver 106 - New Orleans 98

Round 1, Game 1 Nuggetz

2009-04-20T10:46:00.004-06:00

Cautious optimism. That's what I'm left feeling after Game 1. The Nuggets showed a lot of maturity in how they stayed defensively focused in a game where Chauncey couldn't miss. The old Nuggets probably would have let the Hornets creep back into it once they got a big lead and started looking for highlight reel dunks and ally-oops, but there's just a little bit more focus with this group. Could be the arrival of Uncle Chauncey, could be 5 early post-season exits in a row, either way I'll take it.

I'm sure this is covered in depth in every game recap, but the Nuggets dominated on a night when their two most consistent offensive weapons down the stretch (JR, Melo) had some serious butterflies. It was good to see Melo get a couple hoops both driving and pulling up late in the game, hopefully they'll settle into a rhythm now that Game 1 is out of the way.

Melo showed the same growth that he had early in the season grabbing his 7 boards early in the game. As much as Chauncey has helped change the mindset of the team, when Melo is aggressive on the glass, things seem to go well for the Nuggets.

Speaking of rebounding, Nene showed more life on the glass than he has in months, which bodes well in a series where the only physical rebounder on the Hornets (Tyson Chandler) is still recovering from an injury. The 14 rebound differential in the game can definitely be chalked up to the pride that Nene and Melo seemed to be taking on the boards.

If you look at the shot-chart by quarter, you'll see the Hornets' shots moving further and further out as the game progresses. This can be attributed to the defensive contributions of the front-court trio of Nene, Birdman and KMart. The more frustrated the Hornets got by the physical interior play, the more they settled for outside jumpers.

JR made nearly every shot that he took from inside the arc and missed every shot he took from 3-point range. I hope he looks at that and tries to be aggresive offensively in game 2. JR's 3's don't seem to start falling until he really gets into the flow of the game, and that never totally happened last night.

Nice quiet night from Linas the Menace off the bench. It's nice when he can play a game with a few dunks and a few long-range tries with lots of hustle mixed in.

The only thing that stands out to me as a negative looking at the box score is the turnovers. It's easy to forget about the necessary areas of improvement after a blowout win in the first game of a series, but the Nuggets racked up quite a few turnovers early in this game, which could spell disaster if the shots aren't falling.

I'd like to see the Nuggets try to establish some offensive post-presence early in Game 2. Now that Nene has showed some of his mid-season rebounding form, maybe it's time to get him back into some of those 8 for 10 and 12 for 15 shooting nights too. They need to attack Chandler while he's still trying to regain his confidence. I'd like to see Chandler show up on a few Nene posters before this series heads down to New Orleans.

Looking forward to Game 2 I will be very interested to see how this Nuggets team responds to such a huge victory. They handled themselves extremely well on the court last night, but now let's see how they do after a few days of hearing the media fawn over their performance. If a focused, defensive-minded team comes out of the gate on Wednesday night, then I think it's safe to say we've ushered in a new era of Nuggets Basketball and there's a good chance that we'll finally see a team that's able to live up to the level of talent on the roster. On the other hand, if we see a team trying to re-capture the hot shooting of last night with a little more focus on getting their points than stopping the Hornets from getting theirs, then I think it's safe to say there's still some room for growth. Regardless, Game 2 will be very telling, and like I said before, I'm cautiously optimistic that by this time on Thursday we'll be able to officially welcome a more mature version of the Denver Nuggets than we've seen in a long time.

edit:
I almost forgot the most important stat comparison of the night:

Renaldo Balkman: 3 Minutes Played
Ryan Bowen: DNP - Coach's Decision

If that keeps up, I don't think the Hornets have a chance...

Series Thoughts After the First Games

2009-04-19T22:36:00.002-06:00

In order of appearance:

Boston Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls
Game 1 Score: Bulls 105, Celtics 103 OT

Impressive win for the Bulls even with KG out for the C's. I don't know if they can keep it together long enough in a 7 game series to pull of the upset, but it remains to be seen exactly how Boston will be affected by the loss of Garnett. I see this being a hard-fought series that, much like the first game, goes down to the wire in 7, with the Celtics moving on to the next round.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons
Game 1 Score: Cavs 102, Pistons 84

Based on the first game, it would be pretty easy to call for a sweep. LeBron just would not accept anything less than domination. I'm not totally sold on the idea that the rest of the series will go this way though. King James is out to prove that he has the killer instinct of MJ, and it was clearly in full-effect on Saturday night, but I'm going to wait and see if that edge sticks around during the doldrums of the 7 game series. Regardless, I'm still picking the Cavs in 5.

San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks
Game 1 Score: Mavs 105, Spurs 97

A bit of a surprise here. I knew that losing WoManu would pretty much kill the Spurs chances of getting to the finals, but I thought they would still be able to handle the Mavs pretty easily. There's still a long way to go in this series and I suspect Timmy D. and Co. wont be too happy with their performance in Game 1. I think this is another series that will go down to the wire and I think the Spurs professionalism and business-like attitudes will prevail in 7.

Portland Trailblazers vs. Houston Rockets
Game 1 Score: Rockets 108, Blazers 81

I always hear about how important previous post-season experience is once the playoffs come around, but I never thought it would make that much of a difference. This game changed my opinion on how the series will turn out far more than any of the other series' game 1's. All the momentum that Portland had built up over the last couple weeks of the season is essentially gone at this point and they're really going to have to regroup fast to get back into this one. I still think Portland is a more talented team than Houston, so I think they'll pull off a couple wins, but if the Rockets continue to take care of business like they did in Game 1, then I don't think they'll have a whole lot of trouble moving on to the next round. Rockets in 6.

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Utah Jazz
Game 1 Score: Lakers 113, Jazz 100

This game started out just about how I thought it would with the Lakers seemingly cruising to an easy victory in Game 1, and likely continuing that momentum into a sweep of the struggling Jazz. While they never really challenged to win the game, I think that the fact that the Jazz showed some signs of life in chipping away at the Lakers' lead proved that they could still possibly steal a game. Lakers in 5.

Orlando Magic vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Game 1 Score: Sixers 100, Magic 98

When I first started thinking about this game I wanted to write about how the Sixers are a team that could give the Magic a run, and that maybe the Magic just won't be able to dominate after plugging Rafer Alston in for Jameer Nelson, but then a single picture changed my mind. ESPN.com had a picture of Andre Iguodala celebrating his game-winning shot with Reggie Evans and Donyell Marshall. While I respect both players and loved watching Reggie play when he was with the Nuggets, I just don't see the Sixers competing in a 7-game series when they're throwing the likes of Evans, Marshall, Ratliff and Dalembert at the most dominant center in the league. I could be wrong, but I think Superman bounces back. Magic in 6.

Atlanta Hawks vs. Miami Heat
Game 1 Score: Hawks 90, Heat 64

Wow. As far as I can remember, nobody has ever accused the Hawks of playing dominant defense. I know they're much improved this year and have had a great season, but I didn't see this kind of domination anywhere in their playoff futures. The media loves D-Wade and with the Hawks history, this was a series that seemed ripe for an upset, but I think those thoughts can be safely discarded into the nearest recycling bin now. Wade was killing himself all season long just to get Miami here and if he can't will them to any semblence of competetiveness in Game 1 of the playoffs, then I don't think the Heat have much hope here. Atlanta in 6.

Denver Nuggets vs. New Orleans Hornets

(to be continued)

Playoff Preview: Balkman vs. Bowen

2009-04-17T19:52:00.003-06:00

With the better portion of a week standing in between the final games of the regular season and the opener of the Nuggets-Hornets series, there will be no shortage of articles and blogs breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of the teams. So instead of getting into all of the details and comparisons, I will be focusing on the match-up that I see as the most important to revealing the true strengths of the contending teams: Renaldo "Blankman" Balkman vs. Ryan "All-Intangible" Bowen. So without further ado, the breakdown playoff preview that you have all been waiting for.

Basic Stats:

Balkman - 6'8", 208 lbs., 53 games,14.7 minutes/pg, 5.0 points/pg, 3.8 boards/pg
Bowen - 6'9", 218 lbs., 21 games, 12.8 minutes/pg, 2.8 points/pg, 1.1 boards/pg

Despite the lack of size, the Blankman clearly outperforms Mr. Bowen in almost every other statistical category. This doesn't come as much of a surprise as Bowen does not excel in things such as "doing things on the court that are tracked statistically" and "getting into games." Regardless, I felt as though a statistical comparison was called for in this case.

Advantage: Balkman

Intangibles:

Balkman - Do not underestimate the power of the hair. While it may seem like this category is pretty stacked in favor of Bowen, Balkman's hair is unquestionably intimidating for any opposing players. The main negative on this side is that Balkman could fall asleep at any moment on the court or on the bench. I'm pretty sure I've seen him doze off during post-game interviews with Julie Browman.

Bowen - I refer to Bowen as All-Intangible because he has absolutely no discernable skill set, and yet positive things seem to happen while he's on the court. The nature of this category provides little opportunity for me to express this phenomenon in statistics, so you'll just have to trust me if you've never had the opportunity to see him play as a part of your team. In addition, Bowen provides the rare opportunity for a professional basketball team to have the equivalent of the college, walk-on senior that the crowd always cheers for when he comes into the game during a blowout.

Advantage: Bowen

Actual Contributions to any Given Game:

Balkman - The Blankman is very inconsistent due in large part to George Karl's insistance that it's ok to yank his minutes around from game to game. When he gets consistent minutes, Blankman almost always contributes heavily on the defensive end, on the offensive boards and in the emphatic slam-dunk categories, the first two of which are arguably weaknesses of the Nuggets. Balkman has a realistic chance of helping the Nuggets take a game over in this series.

Bowen - If Ryan Bowen is in the game, it could potentially mean one of three things:

One of the Hornets front-court is injured or in foul trouble, which could spell doom for the Hornets.
The Hornets are hitting on all cylanders and are now convinced that the Nuggets have no shot at winning the game.
The Nuggets are hitting on all cylanders and the Hornets are now convinced that they have no shot at winning the game.

Being that two of those options don't bode well for the Hornets, I think this decision is clear.

Advantage: Balkman

With all of this analysis in mind, the picture becomes a little more clear and helps me make my bold prediction that unfortunately falls in line with most of the "experts'" predictions:

Nuggets in 6

My Favorite Huge Loss of the Season

2009-04-15T23:02:00.004-06:00

I tried to be disappointed. I really did. Every time I refreshed the page and saw that Portland had pulled away a little further, my first reaction was to try to act mad. I just couldn't do it. My mind kept going back to that Dallas/Houston score and I couldn't help but smile.

In a season that began with most NBA "experts" picking the Nuggets to be on the outside looking in at the playoffs, they managed instead to secure the second seed in the West and home-court advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Nobody believed it could happen. Nobody believed Nene or K-Mart could stay healthy. Nobody believed Chris Andersen could be an effective player off the bench after serving a mysterious two-year suspension. Nobody thought Melo could forget about his numbers and focus on the wins. Now the Nuggets will have to take it a couple steps further and get to the place that very few people believe is possible: The Western Conference Finals and a chance to play for an NBA Championship. (Not to mention the chance for me to collect on the ridiculous 40-1 odds I received on the Nuggets winning the Championship in Vegas just two weeks ago.)

Sure there's a lot that still has to happen in order for the Nuggets to reach that level, but if Dirk can throw down a 30-15 the same night Jason Kidd notches his second triple-double of the season to help the Nuggets secure the second seed, then I believe a nice playoff run for them is not all that far fetched.

Though before we get into too much prognostication and anxiety over the possibilities that lay ahead in the post-season, I think it's time to look back on the first season since Melo came into the League that the Nuggets could arguably be considered overachievers.

Thanks for a great ride this season and I'm looking forward to another month or two of watching the Nuggets prove the "experts" wrong.

Additional Game Nugget

2009-04-14T12:04:00.002-06:00

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post:

Nuggets Starters +/-:

Carmelo -4

K-Mart -3

Nene +10

Dahntay Jones -7

Chauncey +5

Nuggets Bench +/-:

JR +23

Birdman +25

Linas the Menace +32

AC +19

Just thought that was interesting, it's nice to see the bench pick up the starters on an off night.

5 Quick Nuggetz from Denver vs. Sacramento 4/13/09

2009-04-13T23:26:00.004-06:00

Due to the nature of my job, I was unable to watch this game on the television set, but fortunately the box score provided plenty of interesting tales to make for some quick commentary, so without further ado, tonight's 5 Game Nuggetz:

Clearly there is a secret to beating the Kings. A secret to beating the worst team in the league you ask? Can it really be that much of a secret? Play average basketball? Don't melt down? Nay, the answer is quite clear: Score 118 points. In the Nuggets 3 victories over the Kings this season they have scored exactly 118 points. Had they scored that many in their only loss to the Kings, they would have been victorious by 4 points. The numbers don't lie folks.

JR Swish, JR "Don't Call Me Junior" Smith, JR Sizzle, any of them will do for tonight, but none of them will quite capture the brilliance of JR when he lives up to his immense talent. Now I only wish his shot selection wouldn't be the same when the shots aren't falling. Let's just hope that now that JR has surpassed Abdul-Rauf's 3-Point record, he continues to stand during the National Anthem. Apparently, nothing can derail a sharpshooter's career faster than a slap in the face to Ol' Glory.

Single-digit turnovers (9), double-digit blocks (10), double-digit steals (10). Those numbers tend to lead to victories, let's keep this up in Portland. Despite keeping this game embarrassingly close for most of the way, at least they came away with a victory in a classic trap game against the worst team in the league sandwiched between games on the road against the top team in the west and their closest division rival.

Why can't Houston make things easy on the Nuggets? It seems like everybody that's chasing the Nugs blows out their best competition and struggles to close wins against non-playoff teams. Houston has won their last five games, including 10+ point victories over Portland, Orlando and New Orleans and a 4-point win over Golden State. Portland has also won their last 5, including wins over the Lakers and Spurs. At least Utah is playing nice; Out of the 6, 7 and 8 teams in the Western Conference, the Nugs probably match up the worst against them, so it's nice to see them playing their way into a matchup with the Lakers.

Congratulations to the Nuggets on wrapping up the Northwest Division title. I was sad that I couldn't be there like I was the last time they clinched the division, but I'm hoping there will be pleny of opportunities to celebrate into late-May and June.

10 Quick Nuggetz from Denver vs. LA Lakers 4/9/09

2009-04-09T23:28:00.000-06:00

It's frustrating watching Johan Petro get big minutes in a game like this. At least he showed some signs of life with a nice dunk.

Despite the lack of acknowledgement from the TNT broadcasters, the Nugz showed that they can hang with the Lakers in LA even in the second game of a back-to-back.

Both sides of Linas the Menace came out tonight, though fortunately he gave up on shooting the 3 other than a shot clock buzzer beater in the 4th quarter. A quick glance at his shot chart shows that he didn't make a single shot from outside of the paint, including his two missed free throws.

The officiating was very frustrating, it seems like every time these teams play, the officials call the game extremely tight.

On that note, Steve Javie is either fluent in Portuguese or Nene has learned some powerful words in English in order to get T'd up that quick.

Good to see Dahntay Jones getting up in Kobe's grill a bit. Could have gone without the 3 quick fouls in a row though.

Solid game from Kobe tonight; his shot was on. The Nugz had done a pretty good job on Kobe this season up until tonight.

Andrew Bynum looked pretty good in his first game back, but keep in mind that the Lakers are the worst match-up in the league for the Nugz when Kenyon, Birdman or Nene are out. Just too much size on the low post and that showed tonight.

Carmelo showed some signs of getting that killer instinct back driving to the hoop. It's got to be frustrating for him when the officials are calling a tight game and he can't get a call with three Lakers slapping at his arms as he's looking to lay the ball in.

Best sign of the night: When JR "Don't Call Me Junior" Smith knocked down that huge three at the end of the first half, there were no theatrics. It seems like something might have clicked for him and he's a little more focused on winning than looking good.

Nicknames

2009-04-09T16:38:00.000-06:00

While I have been an avid follower of the Denver Nuggets for years and fairly well versed in the ways of the Internet for quite some time, I never had any real desire to begin blogging about my beloved Nuggets. Never, that is, until I realized that a blog was clearly the best way to disseminate my great ideas for some of the Denver Nuggets bench players.

So, because it is the reason for the existence of this blog in the first place, I decided that despite the fact that the Nuggets are on the precipice of clinching the division title, clinching home court advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs, and proving to the NBA and ESPN that they are for real tonight with a HUGE game against the extremely hatable Los Angeles Lakers team, I will initiate this blog with a post regarding nicknames.

I hereby submit the following options to the general blog reading public for examination and immediate implementation into any and all Denver Nuggets related conversations:

Linas Kleiza - Linas the Menace (But pronounced more like Minas.)

-I realize this nickname is awkward in its written form, but I can assure you through extensive personal experience that it is very catchy and fun to say. It is also the nickname that I've been using the longest and have been hoping the most that it becomes part of the general Denver Nugget fan lexicon. It also helps that the Minas can be both a menace to the opposing team when he's hitting his 3's and driving hard to the basket as well as a menace to the Nuggets when he keeps launching up bad 3 pointers despite the fact that he hasn't made one in a month.

Renaldo Balkman - Two options:

1. "The Blankman" - This option is for those of you well versed in early nineties movies starring former members of the "In Living Color" television show. I think it fairly well encompasses the Blankman's blue-collar work ethic on the glass and on defense as well as his ability to disappear to the end of the bench at George Karl's whim.

2. Renaldo "Blockman" - This is for those poor souls who are not fortunate enough to understand the movie reference that was made in the previous option. It still emphasizes Blockman's defensive abilities albeit in a much less fun way.

Thanks for reading and I hope that if anybody is actually reading this and finds it entertaining, useful, informative or any combination thereof, that you will continue to follow this blog as I attempt to post on topics you may also be interested in like, "the games," "analysis," "the playoffs," "why kobe bryant fails at being a human being," "the fact that this is the most exciting season to be a Nuggets fan in many years," "the fact that I somehow got 40-1 odds on a Nuggets NBA Championship bet while at a conference in Vegas," and a whole lot more.

Go Nugz!