2008-09 Game 47: Denver Nuggets vs Charlotte Bobcats Game Thread

January 30, 2009
by Jeremy

Month end at work = pathetically un-insightful preview, but you guys are used to those.

Charlotte has been very respectable lately, even accomplishing something the Nuggets are incapable of doing and that is beating the Lakers at Staples Center.  However, Gerald Wallace suffered cracked ribs and a collapsed lung in that game.  Fortunately he was discharged from the hospital today.

However, the news is not Charlotte coming to town, but Carmelo Anthony returning to the court for the first time since January fifth.  Melo apparently has been working out (he looks pretty svelte in this picture) and reports are his shot is looking as good as ever.  We will see tonight.

Update:  One more quick note.  With the return of Melo J.R. goes back to the bench, and hopefully that means that J.R. can soak up some of Dahntay Jones’ minutes.  Adding Melo and reducing how much Jones we get should be a pretty good recipe for improvement.

Denver Nuggets Game Notes

Previous Matchup:  Game 7 – Den 88 Cha 80

Featured Blog:  Queen City Hoops

Posted on January 30, 2009 at 5:05 pm | filed in Game Preview | Tags: , , — 8 Comments

One Denver Nugget is an All-Star

January 29, 2009
by Jeremy

And it is…Chauncey Billups.  See the complete list of reserves over at Yahoo! Sports.

Congratulations to Chauncey.

The only selection I have a problem with is David West.  It is nearly a crime that West was voted in over Al Jefferson.  Then again we know coaches are not the best judges of ability.  They awarded Marcus Camby the Defensive Player of the Year award when he could not even play one on one defesnse against most of the other centers in the league.

Posted on January 29, 2009 at 5:13 pm | filed in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Offday Offerings – The Honeymoon is Over

January 29, 2009
by Jeremy

First of all, Carmelo will indeed return tomorrow night against the Charlotte Bobcats.

The Honeymoon is over

Please do not take this post the wrong way.  The Nuggets are in first place in their division and that is due to the presence of Chauncey Billups.  He has brought the mindset that every game counts and I think that is the reason why the Nuggets have not lost a game to a sub .500 team since he started suiting up.  Denver still has the problem of playing down to their competition, but not for all four quarters as was the case in the past. 

It certainly appears to me, as an outsider, that he has had a very positive influence in the locker room and from a chemistry standpoint.  Against the Jazz the other night Scott Hastings pointed out how J.R. Smith sought Chauncey out, who was on the bench at the time, to ask him a question during a break in the action.  The players obviously have a deep respect for Chauncey, as well they should.

Chauncey has also brought some good things to the court.  He generally plays very good position defense and is only out of his element when faced up against the quickest of point guards.  (By the way, I thought it was interesting that he was matched up against Chris Paul very rarely last night.)  He is not shy when it comes to directing the offense.  He will direct traffic and work to get Nene or J.R. or Kenyon the ball in a position to score. 

I have written this several times before, but when the opposition cranks up the defensive intensity as the game moves along Denver surrenders to the pressure.  Instead of increasing their offensive effort and determination, they take what the defense gives them which is long jumpers. 

When those times arrive, Denver needs a player on the floor to demand that they change their ways.  The fans continuously clatter for George Karl to call timeout after timeout to remind the players to force the ball inside.  Karl took a timeout early in the third last night and the result was they entered the ball into Nene in the post and he hit Kenyon who cut straight to the rim for an uncontested dunk.  Problem solved right?  Not exactly.  The Nuggets went right back to their perimeter ways.

At that point Chauncey has to be the coach on the floor.  His is the voice everyone will listen to in moments where the Nuggets must respond.  The problem is that in big moments his alter ego, Mr. Big Shot, overpowers the unselfish pass first point guard persona that he has developed over the years of bouncing from team to team.  My biggest problem with Allen Iverson was in big moments he relies only on himself.  I think with AI part of that is from his background.  Life has taught him that he is the only person capable of taking care of himself.  I do not know what is behind Chauncey’s need to rely on himself more than his teammates. 

As I said, we owe Chauncey a great deal for how he has changed this team.  However, that does not mean I will settle for poor decision making and look the other way when the same problem continues to nag this team. 

Judging by the comments after last night’s game I am not the only one to feel that way.

Melo not the only one missing time

Carmelo has been aiming for a return to the court on Friday.  If he does return to play against the Charlotte Bobcats that means the Nuggets will have gone 6-4 in the games he missed.  Playing .600 basketball without a talent like Melo is pretty good.  On the other hand, it was not only Melo who missed those games.  Check out this list:

Miami:  No Daqueen Cook – Seems insignificant, but that game was close with 4:00 left.  Another offensive threat could have made a big difference for the Heat.
Detroit:  No Rip Hamilton or Rasheed Wallace – Denver lost anyway.
Dallas:  No Josh Howard – Of course he sucks anyway, but not as much as Devean George.
Phoenix:   No Shaquille O’Neal – I would have expected the Suns to win that game with O’Neal on the floor.
Orlando:  No Mickael Pietrus – OK, that one is a so what.
Houston:   No Tracy McGrady or Ron Artest – Another game the Nuggets lost anyway.
Sacramento:  No Shareef Abdur-Rahim – Kidding, only kidding.
Utah:  No Carlos Boozer or Andrei Kirilenko – Maybe those two would have helped keep the game closer.
Memphis:   No Darko Milicic – He must have been sitting next to Shareef.
New Orleans:   No David West or Tyson Chandler – Hornets roll anyway.

Looking over that list do you still feel that good about the Nuggets going 6-4?  They only beat three western conference playoff caliber teams in those six wins and all three of those teams were missing former all-stars from their lineup.  To make matters worse out of the Nuggets four losses, three of those teams were missing two significant pieces of their rotation. 

Winning six of ten games was not a disaster, but it was not a great accomplishment either.

By the way, Denver gets Carmelo back, but Charlotte is playing without Gerald Wallace after his torso was pretty much crushed after a hard foul by Andrew Bynum the other night.  The run of injured opponents comes to an end though on February third against the Spurs.

AK-47 under the knife

Andrei Kirilenko is going to have surgery tomorrow (Friday) morning to remove a bone fragment from his ankle. 

The Jazz will be without Boozer for another week or so and Kirilenko will be gone a little longer than that.  That will make for a tough February for the Jazz, although they do play eight of their 11 games at home, but if all goes well with Kirilenko’s procedure the Jazz will be healthy for the final month and a half of the season. 

Eastern Conference All-Star reserves

As good as the east is, pickings are slim, especially at forward.

Center:  Chris Bosh – Sorry Emeka.

Forward:  Danny Granger – I love his game.  He plays D too.

Forward:  Rashard Lewis – A much better all around player than he gets credit for.

Guard:  Devin Harris – Dallas fans better hope they get something good with Kidd’s expiring deal.

Guard:  Joe Johnson – I have always liked his game from the first time I saw him in summer league for the Celtics.

Wildcard:  Jameer Nelson – he is playing at a level even Dick Vitale could not have predicted when he was initially drafted by the Nuggets and shipped off to Orlando.  He gets the nod over Rondo for being a more capable offensive player.

Wildcard:  Vince Carter – I like having flashy players in a flashy game, plus he has not had a recurrence of the “jumper’s knee” injury that caused him to miss time in Toronto.  I think we all expected it might come back after the Nets dumped Kidd and Jefferson.

Eye Witness

Toney Blare was at the Nuggets/Hornets game last night and has a couple of interesting notes from the game that we could not have picked up on over the boob tube.

Posted on January 29, 2009 at 2:20 pm | filed in Random Stuff | Tags: , , — 2 Comments

2008-09 Game 46: Denver Nuggets 81 – New Orleans Hornets 94

January 29, 2009
by Jeremy

Box Score | Highlights

Wow, am I embarrassed to be a Nuggets fan after that big turd they dumped on the city of New Orleans in the fourth quarter.  I cannot communicate how frustrated I am at that performance without using words that I do my best not to utilize.  I guess the best way to express my anger is simply to share that for the first time all season I shut the game off before the end of the game.

In my mind this was a must win game.  I honestly believe there is no way Denver can hope to split the season series now with New Orleans unless the Hornets happen to play the last game of the series without Chris Paul.  Maybe Denver could pull off a win if David West, Tyson Chandler and Peja Stojakovic are all out, but I bet it would be close.

The thing that really scares me about tonight’s game is that the Nuggets proved that they were not mentally strong enough to win.  You can talk all you want about back to backs and how well they ended up doing without Carmelo, but in a game of this magnitude you cannot pack away your brain and lay down like that.  For all the excuses Nugget fans can produce I think the fact that New Orleans was playing without their second and third best players trumps them.

With two minutes left in the third quarter Anthony Carter was called for a back court violation.  George Karl went absolutely crazy for the first time this season resulting in a technical.  Carter’s response was not as demonstrative as he rolled the ball down the floor away from the refs, but the result was the same as he was called for a delay of game, the Nuggets’ second and thus a technical.  At that point I figured that Denver was either cracking or they would play inspired basketball.  Well, it turns out the call was a correct one and it proved to be the first cracks in the Nuggets’ mental dam break that would occur just a few minutes later.  The frustrating thing is didn’t Carter know he bounced the ball off of his own foot?  He cannot allow himself to pick up the delay of game technical there.   

For most of the night the Nuggets’ offense was inept.  If either J.R. Smith or Kenyon Martin were not going to the basket you could pretty much expect a bad shot to be hoisted up.  I continue to look for Chauncey Billups to take control of the offense and demand a good shot when things start going down the drain and Denver begins standing around on offense.  Instead again he was one of the leading culprits in long range artillery barrage the Nuggets assaulted the basket with.  I wanted to throw my television through the wall when with the Hornets on a 10-0 run Chauncey chose to slowly dribble the ball up the floor and, with Peja on him mind you, launch a three.  The fact that he was clearly not shooting the ball very well, he was 1 for 4 from long range at the time and finished 1 for 6, only exacerbated things.  Instead of deciding to run the offense in an attempt to get a good shoot he switches into Mr. Big Shot mode and becomes a part of the problem.

Name for me another top notch point guard who will take that shot?  Chris Paul never would.  Deron Williams wouldn’t.  Maybe Steve Nash would take that shot, but not as frequently as Chauncey seems to.

The offense was stagnant and lazy and Denver lost this game on that end of the floor. 

Denver’s defense was pretty good for most of the night until they closed up shop early in the fourth quarter.  They forced Paul into a tough shooting night and only three of his ten assists were at the rim.  Most of them came on long jumpers.  The Nuggets did a pretty good job containing Paul coming off of screens.  They switched a little too much for my liking early on, but in the second quarter they stated to play the ball screens more stoutly as Nene was hedging and Anthony Carter did a good job of fighting over and recovering.   They avoided switching as much as possible after the first quarter, but they never ran the aggressive trapping defense that worked so well against Deron Williams and Utah.

We have talked about it before.  When a key player or players are out the team as a whole must step up and fill that void.  The Hornets played intense defense, they fought for every loose ball going to the floor far more frequently than Denver did, they ran their offense and when open shots presented themselves, they made them. 

Sure this was only game 46 of an 82 game season, but we play the regular season to learn things about the teams.  Tonight I did not care for what I learned about the Nuggets. 

Additional Game 46 Nuggets

 

  • The player of the game for the Nuggets was J.R. Smith who had a very good all around game.  He turned the ball over a couple of times too many and took one or two questionable threes, but as I wrote above, he was the only guard who was willing and able to get the ball in the paint and to the rim.  Defensively, he did a very good job chasing Peja around, especially to start the second half.  Peja managed to get away a couple of times when J.R. had to help and he was able to shoot over J.R. when he would post him up, but that is not J.R.’s fault.  He is four inches shorter than Peja.  That is a matchup issue.  I wrote last night that I thought Kleiza played some of the best defense of his career against Rudy Gay last night.  Well, tonight his completely inept defensive performance, which was almost as bad as his offensive performance, forced Karl to keep J.R. in the game to cover Peja. 
  • In my game preview I wrote that the Nuggets had a major advantage with their bench compared to the depleted Hornets’ bench.  I heard Jason Kosmicki on the radio say he expected the Nuggets bench to double up the New Orleans’ bench scoring.  Well, that did not happen.  Denver’s bench accumulated 13 points on 6 for 17 shooting.   The Hornets bench players scored 42 points.  Over three times as many.   And that was including a nightmare shooting night by star sub James Posey who was 1 for 13 and 0 for 6 on threes.
  • The Nuggets did not take advantage of Nene in the second half.  The Hornets decided to double him in the post and instead of dumping the ball in and then forcing the Hornets to scramble to rotate the Nuggets simply stopped giving him the ball in the post.  After the Hornets produced an eight to three run to start the second half Karl called a timeout and designed a play to go to Nene.  The result was a double team and Nene dumped the ball to Kenyon for a dunk.  Easy, but never replicated. 
  • Denver was minus 1 while Paul was on the bench to start the second quarter and ended up being minus 5 while he was on the bench to start the fourth.  In fact the first ten points of the Hornets 14 to zero run that put the game away were scored while Paul was on the bench which is very difficult to fathom. 
  • LK has stopped going to the rim.  He did not take a single shot in the paint tonight.
  • Kenyon needs to stop shooting threes.  The party is over.  I would not be one bit surprised if he missed his next ten or more.  The law of averages is coming for you Kenyon.
  • Dahntay Jones needs to stop shooting jumpers.  Any and all jumpers.  Period.  In fact, seeing as how he is a horrible passer too, he should not have the ball passed to him unless he has a dunk on a fast break.  Just go stand by the coach’s box on offense Dahntay.
  • The Nuggets tried picking up Chris Paul full court with about eight seconds left in the first half and Kenyon was called for a foul as he bodied him up a couple of times.  There was a great shot of Paul twice holding Kenyon’s arm so that he could not pull it back when Martin made contact.  Paul is a crafty little prick.
  • I have thought ever since he was in Sacramento that Peja is a better shooter with someone running at him than when he is left alone.  Then I remembered that he won the three point shootout a couple of times and that no one was running at him then and realized I was an idiot.
  • I got a kick out of how many times Hilton Armstrong stepped in front of Nene right in front of the rim, waited for the pass and then sloughed off dejected after being ignored again.
  • I think James Posey is an overrated on the ball defender.  I thought that when he was a Nugget and I think so now.  Even when Posey was matched up against power forward Kenyon Martin he was unable to keep Kenyon away from the rim.
  • OK, I have changed my mind.  Dahntay Jones is to be ignored on offense no matter how open or easy a shot he has.

In Depth Make Your Head Spin Game Stats

Pace Factor:  89.1 – Slow.

Defensive Efficiency:  105.5 – Not bad, they should have done better with the Hornets missing West, but they lost this game on the offensive end of the floor.

Offensive Efficiency:   90.9 – The lowest single game efficiency rating of the season surpassing the 92.6 they posted against the Magic five games ago.

Featured Blogs:  Hornets 24/7 | At the Hive

Posted on January 29, 2009 at 2:19 am | filed in Game Recap | Tags: , , , , , , , , — 6 Comments

2008-09 Game 46: Denver Nuggets at New Orleans Hornets Game Thread

January 28, 2009
by Jeremy

Hey look everyone my ESPN colleague John Hollinger agreed to put together the game preview for today.  OK, Hollinger has no idea who I am, but you should check out his Per Diem article for today to get all the key elements of tonight’s matchup between the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Hornets.

Hollinger is very high on both of these teams and his projections call for Denver and New Orleans to finish second and third in the west with very comparable records.  If the seeding holds they would face off in the semifinals and the tiebreaker could determine who has home court and potentially who makes it to the Western Conference Finals.  Thus the final two games of the season series, both in New Orleans, are huge games for both teams.  The winner of tonight’s game will be assured that they cannot lose the season series as they will be up 2-1 with one game left.

I do disagree with Hollinger’s belief that Chauncey needs to play Chris Paul to a draw in order for the Nuggets to win.  Of course Chauncey has to play well, but I think the key to the game is how badly the rest of the Nuggets roster can out produce the other Hornets.  Denver has a big advantage at every position other than the point and small forward (although if Dahntay Jones can play solid defense on Peja Stojakovic that matchup will even up a bit as Peja does little if he is not scoring), including the bench. 

The two players that worry me not named Chris Paul are Hilton Armstrong, who has had two good performances against the Nuggets in limited minutes, and Rasual Butler who always seems to put up big numbers against Denver.  Also, I would also be remiss if I did not mention former Nugget James Posey.  In both of the first two games he hit big threes in the last couple of minutes.  Hopefully he will not have the opportunity to do so tonight.  Even so Denver should be able to control the paint and hopefully as a result, the game.

Denver Nuggets Game Notes

Featured Blogs:  Hornets 24/7 | At the Hive

Previous Matchups:  Game 16 – Den 101 HOH 105 | Game 35 – Den 105 NOH 100

Posted on January 28, 2009 at 3:03 pm | filed in Game Preview | Tags: , , , — 33 Comments

Signs That You May Be A Spoiled Fan

January 28, 2009
by Jeremy

Your favorite NBA team is only a single solitary game out of the playoffs in a very strong conference despite the fact your two best players have missed a combined 47 games and counting and you respond with this and this.

I cannot say I am not enjoying it though.

Posted on January 28, 2009 at 9:45 am | filed in Random Stuff | Tags: — 4 Comments

2008-09 Game 45: Denver Nuggets 100 – Memphis Grizzlies 85

January 28, 2009
by Jeremy

Box Score | Highlights

The nice thing about playing a team as bad as Memphis is even after mailing in the first 18 minutes of a game against them, you are only down eight.  If Denver plays that badly against a good team they might have been down 20 and in need of a miracle to earn a victory. 

The turning point in my mind was when George Karl decided to implement a trapping defense after a Memphis timeout with 5:51 left.  Whenever Mike Conley came off of a high screen they would jump him and push him back towards mid court.  The defensive energy increased from that moment and the Nuggets started forcing turnovers and getting out on the break.  In the two possessions after they started trapping the pick and roll they had back to back three point plays off of steals, one by Chauncey Billups and the other by Linas Kleiza.

Before that the Nuggets were just going through the motions on defense as they are wont to do from time to time.  They would go through a couple of rotations and then the last guy would be late.  O.J. Mayo started off red hot, just like the first time he played the Nuggets and you could tell early on that not only were the Grizzly players looking to impress their new coach, but they were getting that feeling that they just might be able to keep their nine game losing streak from reaching ten. 

Denver did take control of the game in the second quarter though and there was only one time where I sat forward on the couch a little bit and that was when the Grizz cut the lead down to four at 78-82 with 7:23 left in the fourth quarter.  The Nuggets made sure I could recline once again though as they held the Grizzlies scoreless for the next 5:10 during which time they bumped their lead back up to 18. 

This game does not deserve too much discussion.   After starting slowly the Nuggets matched the Grizzlies intensity and ended up winning the game rather easily.  Hopefully they were able to get the turnovers and bad decisions out of their systems as they will need to put forth a complete effort in order to get a win tomorrow night against Chris Paul in New Orleans.

Additional Game 45 Nuggets

 

  • Do not laugh, but I thought Kleiza played his best defensive game I can remember seeing from him tonight.  He had a tough assignment covering Rudy Gay and did a very good job chasing him around screens and making sure he
  • Chauncey kept the Nuggets in the lead in the third quarter as he poured in 16 of the Nuggets 21 points in the quarter.  It was Denver’s worst individual quarter for points scored. 
  • Wow, was Nene terrible.  He did it all, got into foul trouble, missed free throws, lost the ball frequently, made some very bad decisions, turned it over (eight times!) and missed three of his five shots.  If this is what happens after tying the team record for most shots without a miss in a single game, I bet Nene will pass on ever going 12 for 12 again.
  • J.R. once again led the Nuggets in plus/minus with a +27.  Mayo did get off to a hot start, but I thought J.R. did decent job chasing him.
  • The Nuggets call for the big men to make entry passes into the post more than any other team from what I have seen, and I have seen a lot.  To make things more complicated they ask them to throw entry passes down to the block from the top of the circle. 
  • The seats in the FedEx Forum are a very pretty.  We had a great view of them all night long.  The crowd reminded me of when the Denver Bears AAA team used to play at Mile High Stadium and there would be 1,000 spectators crammed into 77,000 seats.
  • J.R. Smith had another superlative game.  The Nuggets offense was very stagnant to start the game and when Chauncey had to leave the game with his second foul at the 5:17 mark of the first quarter J.R. took over.  He started attacking the rim and really created open shots for himself and his teammates.  Hopefully J.R. can continue his heightened level of play when Melo returns.
  • The officiating was shaky at best.  It was touch foul central tonight in Memphis (none more staggering than the offensive foul call on Billups for bumping into Mike Conley as he made his cut down the lane after passing the ball off to initiate the offense).  Both teams suffered from the plethora of odd calls as Chauncey, Nene and O.J. Mayo had to sit out due to foul trouble.  The only area the refs did a good job in was calling charges.  They called probably seven or eight charges and I thought all of them were good calls. 
  • Memphis did play hard and no matter what the score was they brought all of what they had to the floor.  We should be careful to give them too much credit though as they got Marc Iavaroni fired.

Mindboggling Game Stats

Pace Factor:  101.6 – A very fast pace thanks to the 53(!) combined turnovers.  The previous season high for combined turnovers was game six when the Nuggets, and you guessed it, the Grizzlies each accumulated 22 turnovers. 

 Defensive Efficiency:   83.7 – That is a new single game low topping the 85.9 they posted against, you guessed it, the Grizzlies the first time they played.  A big key to earning such a good rating was their blocked shots.  Denver blocked 15 shots, if you assume that Memphis would make 40% of those shots that were blocked that is another six made shots and 12 more points.  Those blocks also helped hold Memphis to 37.5% shooting, the first time Denver held an opponent to sub 40% field goal percentage since their December 15 game at Dallas.  The Nuggets have now compiled sub 100 defensive efficiencies in each of their previous three games.

Offensive Efficiency:  98.4 – The Nuggets actually shot the ball alright making 44.4% of their shots and 39.1% of their threes, but their season high 27 turnovers just killed their efficiency.

Featured Blog:  3 Shades of Blue 

Posted on January 28, 2009 at 1:32 am | filed in Game Recap | Tags: , , , , , — Comments Off

2008-09 Game 45: Denver Nuggets at Memphis Grizzlies Game Thread

January 27, 2009
by Jeremy

The Memphis Grizzlies are in the midst of a league worst nine game losing streak.  Even the Washington Wizards only have a three game losing streak.  They will have their third head coach in their last four games as Johnny Davis filled in for two games while newly hired head coach Lionel Hollins could psyche himself up enough to jump onboard a sinking ship.

The only thing that worries me is that the Grizzlies will put forth a strong effort to welcome their new leader.  Denver has done a great job of not taking the bottom dwellers of the league too lightly and the only loss to a sub .500 team this season remains their defeat at Golden State in the fourth game of the season which was after they acquired Chauncey BIllups, but before they could get him in uniform.

The reports out of Memphis (thanks to TrueHoop for the link) are that Hollins wants Mike Conley to once again play a major role in the offense as he has been marginalized by the play of O.J. Mayo. 

Should the Nuggets start Dahntay Jones and J.R. Smith together the two of them will be responsible for guarding O.J. Mayo and Rudy Gay.  I would probably assign Rudy to Dahntay and let J.R. try his luck with O.J.  Mayo does not shoot very many free throws and plays more of a perimeter game.  He has not shot more than six free throws in his last 19 games and he has nearly as many games where he played 30 or more minutes without shooting a free throw (two) as he has games with more than four free throws (three) during that span.  I trust J.R. can hang with Mayo without getting into foul trouble.  Likewise Gay does not get to the line much.  In his 11 January games he has six games where he has shot either zero or one free throws and he has attempted more than five only once. 

As long as the Nuggets play with the defensive focus and intensity they brought against the Jazz on Sunday night they will be just fine tonight.

Offensively Denver has advantages all over the floor.  Chauncey is too much for Conley.  J.R. can score on anyone.  Nene should be able to blow by Marc Gasol at will and Kenyon should be able to overpower and out-quick Darrell Arthur. 

The Nuggets did have a monkey wrench inserted into their travel plans though as their plane experienced mechanical problems delaying their departure from 2:00 PM yesterday until 9:00 PM.  As a result they cancelled their shoot around this morning.  They still got into Memphis before they would have if it were a back to back night so I do not think the flight delay will cause much of a problem.

Denver Nuggets Game Notes

Featured Blog:  3 Shades of Blue

Previous Matchup:  Game 6 – Den 100 Mem 90  

Posted on January 27, 2009 at 1:48 pm | filed in Game Preview | Tags: , , , , , , — 23 Comments

Offday Offerings – When a Surprise is not a Surprise

January 26, 2009
by Jeremy

The Nuggets are flying high right now after downing the Utah Jazz, but no one is higher than Nene today.  Both Denver papers have hey, look at how well Nene is playing stories (the Rocky version by Dave Krieger can be found here and for the Post version by Mark Kiszla click here).

Apparently no one remembers this, but Nene showed us what he could do back in 2007.  From February through April he posted very similar numbers (look at his splits for those months, they are amazing).  Then in the playoffs Nene battled Tim Duncan practically to a draw in the Nuggets five game dismissal at the hands of the Spurs. 

Now I am not saying he is the same player today as he was in 2007.  Clearly Nene is much more polished and efficient than he was then.  His touch around the rim has improved greatly as has his jumper.  But for people to act like his play is a revelation that came out of left field is either ignorant or they are being disingenuous to try to play up an angle.

Denver and the All-Star game

I am probably going to take some serious heat for this, I cannot vote Carmelo Anthony into the All-Star game.  I think he has just been too inconsistent.  His shooting percentage is comparable to his first two seasons in the NBA, which is not good, his rebounding has leveled off after last season’s increase and his assists have dropped off from where they were earlier in the season.  Add in the fact he has missed a quarter of the Nuggets’ games and I just cannot put him on the team.

Who would I fill the rest of the Western Conference team with?  I am glad I asked.

Center:  Al Jefferson – I really want to put Nene here, but the fact is he is the third option on offense for the Nuggets and Jefferson has been carrying the Wolves since he arrived. 

Forward:  Dirk Nowitzki – Dirk has been amazing even while this franchise crumbles around him.

Forward:  Pau Gasol – Another spot to consider Nene and Melo for, but Gasol’s offensive versatility is a huge key to the Lakers’ success.

Guard:  Chauncey Billups – I have more moments cursing a decision by Chauncey than I expected to when he first arrived, but his arrival has made the Nuggets a more serious team on and off the court. 

Guard:  Brandon Roy – When you watch him play you swear you could do a better job guarding him than whoever Roy is abusing, but that is just because Roy makes it look so easy.  He is the heart and soul of the Blazers.

Wild Card:  Kevin Durant – He has been amazing (look at his splits in December and January) and if you do not want to see him play on this stage, I have to question your sanity.  Plus this team is missing a swingman without Melo.

Wild Card:  Tony Parker – Gosh I wanted to put Nene here, but I just couldn’t.  I am even willing to risk seeing his annoying wife with her doofy puppy-dog-looking-at-a-rubber-ducky-squeeze-toy look on her face over and over again during the game.

Your Top Seeded Denver Nuggets?

George Karl has not given up on catching the Lakers.  I may not agree with him, but his aim high attitude sure beats the I hope we can split these four games and as long as we win ten games this month I will be happy attitude we have heard so much of in the past.

Why the Washington Wizards Suck

This is from Ben at Blazer’s Edge (of which I become more and more convinced is the best team centric blog around) who was fortunate to watch the Wizards attention to detail, or lack thereof, before they faced off with the Blazers last week.

It’s difficult to imagine a team caring less about winning or playing the game the right way than the 2008-2009 Washington Wizards.  

It started with the most lackadaisical warmup routine I’ve seen this year, starring an assistant coach who was practically begging Nick Young to focus for 5 seconds so he could hit at least 1 15 foot jump shot out of a series of 7.  In the co-starring role: 7 footer Javale McGee, who, while practicing complex crossover dribble moves on the perimeter unguarded, was challenged by a teammate to make a 3 pointer for $100.  He attempted to take up this bet but, before he could launch a shot, found himself running across the court to track down the ball that he had managed to dribble off of his own foot.  

This scene was followed minutes later by another Wizard firmly declaring, “male sperm swim harder than female sperm.”  

Later, the crowd was treated to Deshawn Stevenson, who had scratched himself from tonight’s contest due to lower back pain, shimmy-dancing in his seat (through the pain?) during multiple timeouts.

The Wizards committed 27 turnovers, most of them unforced; many were taken the other way for uncontested dunks.  They scored 31 points in the first half.  They demonstrated a practiced ability to hit meaningless jumpers during garbage time (from the middle of the 3rd quarter on) so that the game wouldn’t look like a complete embarrassment in the final box.  

Thank God the Nuggets still have two games against these guys this season. 

Posted on January 26, 2009 at 5:43 pm | filed in Random Stuff | Tags: , , , , — 2 Comments

More Thoughts from the Thrashing of the Jazz

January 26, 2009
by Jeremy

Additional Game 44 Nuggets

 

  • J.R. Smith set the tone for the game right off the bat as he attacked the rim over and over.  Both in transition and off of a diagonal screen and roll where J.R. would receive the ball well beyond the three point line on the left side and get a pick from Nene.  From there he simply penetrated as deep as he could and most of the time the result was either a pretty finger roll or free throws.  He also netted a couple of assists, one on a kick out to Chauncey for a three when the Utah defense did collapse on J.R. in the lane and the other a nice dump off to Nene for a layup.  He then dropped in a couple of jumpers for good measure just to prove to the Jazz that he was unguardable. 
  • Sadly, as good as J.R. was on offense he was just as bad on defense.  I briefly mentioned in my original recap that Utah is just a difficult team for J.R. to defend against because he gets lost in screens and does not have the understanding of how to ensure he defends from the inside out.  Utah runs their offense so well they will get open shots, but you need to bottle up the lane and eliminate the uncontested layups that Utah is so adept at earning.  J.R. was responsible for guarding Kyle Korver for a short time in the second quarter and needless to say I was scared to death.  The result was a couple of wide open threes in about a minute and a half.
  • Denver did a good job of keeping their energy up in the troublesome third quarter.  They did allow the lead to fluctuate in the second half, but the Jazz would never get closer than ten points after Chauncey started the second half with a three to put Denver up by 12.  The key to that was the Jazz just could not get the job done on defense.  The Nuggets probably did shoot a few too many jumpers in the quarter, but they also were able to get the ball inside much more than they have in recent games.  The Nuggets scored 12 points in the paint in the third quarter, and that is not including free throws, which I believe count as points in the paint if the foul occurs on a shot attempt in the lane.  Denver outscored the Jazz 31 to 26 in the third quarter and it could have been more had they not missed nine free throws.
  • Utah did a good job of slowing the Nuggets’ offense down in the first half by switching to a 2-3 zone.  The Jazz switched to the 2-3 early in the third quarter at the 8:57 mark.  Denver scored 14 points in the next three minutes and the Jazz were back to man to man at the 6:00 mark of the third.  Nene was able to get inside for a couple of layups and J.R. hit two of his three long bombs during that stretch and Jerry Sloan pulled the plug.  At that point I thought Utah was out of bullets.  They knew that they could not stop the Nuggets from scoring and they were faced with a 19 point deficit.
  • I hope Melo never gets hurt again because I never want to see that butt ugly jacket he wore tonight again.  Maya Stark, the Altitude sideline reporter had the dig of the night as she asked him if he got it from Doug Moe.
  • Dahntay Jones was called for his third foul with 9:39 left in the third quarter.  He earned his fourth foul with 9:20 left in the third quarter.  He looked to the bench and communicated to George Karl that he wanted to remain in the game.  On the very next play after getting beat on the dribble by Deron Williams Jones purposely sticks his left foot out and trips Williams.  Did he already forget he had four fouls?  It was a mindless play and hopefully Karl remembers that Jones cannot be trusted to stay in the game with foul trouble in the future.
  • The Nuggets had a couple of defensive breakdowns on inbounds plays in the second half.  The first occurred at 8:16 in the third quarter.  Utah ran Brewer off of a double screen and J.R. did a good job of keeping up with him, then Deron Williams came behind him off the same double screen.  Williams came off clean, but neither Nene nor Kenyon reacted to help out.  They both just stood there.  Chauncey was covering C.J. Miles who had inbounded the ball to Williams.  He had to come off and help stop Williams from driving to the rim.  Miles snuck in behind Chauncey and Williams passed off for a thunderous dunk.  Kenyon did lunge at Miles, but it was after he caught the ball.  I have no idea how anyone can just sit there and watch the other team’s best player get the ball in position to score and decide to just watch.
  • At 5:14 of the third quarter Utah ran Kyle Korver off a screen to the ball side and he caught a pass and drained a ten footer.  Chuancey was defending on the play and even though he did not get any help from Nene who should have stepped out to challenge the shot clearly took responsibility for the basket.  At the 4:34 mark Utah was once again inbounding the ball from the baseline, this time from the left side of the basket, and Chauncey was once again guarding Korver.  This time he fought through a double screen and was right with Korver forcing Utah to go to the second option.
  • Korver typically kills the Nuggets in transition and the player who was most aware of where Korver was on the break was Kenyon.  On a couple of occasions Kenyon prevented Korver from getting an open look on the break.
  • Kleiza made the first beautiful pass of his NBA career at 11:00 of the fourth quarter.  He got a loose ball, drove the lane and dumped a little drop off pass behind Okur’s back to Nene.  Nene was fouled by Millsap and missed the shot, thus no assist for LK, but it was encouraging to see him pass the ball at the rim to get someone else a better shot.  By the way, Kleiza has recorded zero assists 21 times this season in 44 games.
  • Chauncey credited the chance to get some practices in with the Nuggets’ success and improved defense.   He said it was the first time they had the chance to get in a few practices since he arrived.  Hopefully the defense will continue to build off of this performance. 
  • Talking about Nene’s franchise record tying most shots taken without a miss Chauncey said, “I will never go 12 for 12 because I am going to shoot until I miss.”
  • I was a little surprised that after the game Sloan seemed to be making excuses citing the refs, the back to back and their injuries.  He was sounding a lot like George Karl last season.
  • There is a report that Andrei Kirilenko may have to go under the knife to fix his sore foot.
  • It seemed like there were a couple of occasions were Deron Williams tried to take over the game and get Utah back into it.  He attacked the lane and made a couple of nice plays both times, but he just did not get a lot of support from his teammates.
Posted on January 26, 2009 at 12:08 pm | filed in Game Recap | Tags: , , , , , , , , — 3 Comments

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