Denver Stiffs

Keeping a safe distance (Nuggets/Thunder recap)

2009-12-15T05:56:07Z

After a slow shooting start to the game Denver found their rhythm, took the lead and kept the Thunder from ever really being a threat.

This was exactly the type of hope crushing win the Nuggets needed. While the final score (102-93) doesn't indicate a completely dominant performance by the Nuggets, the Thunder were never really in this game after the first quarter. And that's the kind of performance that good teams have against opponents coming from out of town for the second game of a back-to-back set.

Too often this season we've seen the Nuggets give hope to their opponents (especially ones that are not on the Nuggets level) and it's nice to see Denver put on sort of a snoozer, by their standards this season anyway. The Nuggets bench got a bit back on track tonight with some nice efforts from J.R. Smith, Chris Andersen and Ty Lawson.

Smith and Bird each scored in double figures and the Birdman recorded his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds (3 offensive). It was great to see the Bird going strong to the hoop and his best finish came at the 3:45 mark of the second quarter when Billups took the ball towards the foul line and bounced a pretty pass between his own legs right to a streaking Andersen who kept the ball high and threw down a jam over Nenad Kristic. I think Bird went for the strong finish to insure he either made Sportscenter or so he got heavy consideration for the Chris Marlowe special ... the Kuni Lexus Drive of the Game.

It was also nice to see J.R. Smith back on track after a shaky performace against the Suns last Saturday night. As reader TheNoticer pointed out ... Smith wasn't happy after heading to the bench against the Suns, but he made up for it tonight by scoring 19 points. Most impressively, Smith got to the foul line 10 times and was able to convert on 8 of those attempts. I'll forever maintain that with Smith's shooting ability, it's a shame he can't shoot 85% or better from the freebie line.

The starters tonight also put forth a solid effort. Kenyon Martin was a workhorse on the glass, collecting 6 of his 11 rebounds on the offensive end. The Thunder are not the biggest team around, but they work on the glass and seeing Martin's effort just makes me greedy wanting him to come out with the same tenacity every night on the offensive end.

Keeping with good rebounding ... Nene posted 9 boards and got to work on offense as well posting a shooting night of 6-11 for 13 points. When Nene gets going on offense it continues to open up the floor for the rest of the Nuggets. The Brazilian is so tough to guard one-on-one that when he gets going teams almost have to double him and if you have to double Nene your team is in trouble because the big guy can pass the ball and his teammates like to cut to the rim. Nene also got a few dunks in tonight and it's always good to see the "big fella" (Bill Hanz!) get some easy ones.

Speaking of easy ones ... Melo was able to score at will tonight. Melo lost the one-on-one scoring battle against Kevin Durant 31 to 32 respectfully, but his team got the win. I thought the game really started to swing early when Melo made two passes on one possession that resulted in a Arron Afflalo three-pointer at the 5:19 mark of the first quarter. Scott Hastings could be heard on the broadcast saying to himself, "please go in," as Afflalo's three found its mark. That play gave Denver an early 12-11 lead, but seemed to get the team away from one-on-one jump shots and to focus more on moving the ball and eventually getting to the rim.

Billups had a poor night shooting the ball, but he was getting his teammates involved (7 assists) and was active in the passing lanes and overall on defense collecting 4 steals. The task of covering Russell Westbrook didn't prove to be a difficult one for Denver's floor general and that's a good thing because I was pretty concerned that Westbrook could be an X-factor tonight.

Turns out this game wasn't of the exciting brand and perhaps for the team and for us fans that's a good thing for a change. I had just about all I could handle against the Suns in my emotion department and a win like this tonight was again exactly what this team needed.

Random thoughts during the game:

The Thunder have the worst away uniform name plates in the league. Seriously, "Oklahoma City" ... just horrific and don't get me started on their nickname. (Am I still bitter the Sonics are no longer around? Yes! We beat the Sonics in the 1994 playoffs ... not the Thunder!) Funny ... Sonic Boom sounds like Thunder.
Thabo Sefolosha no longer rocks the corn-rows, didn't notice until tonight. Also sort of weird that he's from Switzerland isn't it? I'm not much of a world traveler and I'm probably an idiot for thinking that, but is basketball big in the land of Swiss cheese?
Robert Sanchez of 5280 magazine shows us how Bird styles his hair. With the long hair in the back I propose we call Bird's look the "Mull-hawk" since it's basically turning into a mullet in the back.
With 2 minutes left in the first quarter Scott Hastings said after a Nick Collison dunk that the former Kansas star had speed like a "1928 flatbed ford" ... I'm guessing he probably meant this 1939 version.
After Lawson snuck behind the defense for a wide open layup I finally figured out that if he were a NBA Jam character he'd be those annoying little guys ... the John Stockton NBA Jam type. I loved that game and almost guarantee I'd beat anyone at the original Sega version. Dikembe Mutombo and LaPhonso Ellis can hit 3's on that game!
The reason this game might seem a bit slow paced, a combined 71 free throw attempts. BLAH.

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: David Zalubowski

Game 25 Preview & Thread: Nuggets vs. Thunder (7pm MDT)

2009-12-14T20:58:45Z

Last season the Nuggets won two thrilling games versus the Thunder in Oklahoma City then played two melodramatic games against Kevin Durant and Company in Denver. SB Nation's Mike Prada has both the Nuggets (#6) and Thunder (#4) ranked in the Top 10 on his NBA 'Watchability' Scale this season ... so perhaps fireworks are in order tonight at the Pepsi Center.

The particulars ...

Records:
Denver: 17-7
Oklahoma City: 12-10 (6-6 at home, 6-4 on the road) (key wins: at Detoit, San Antonio and Miami and vs. Orlando)
Injuries:
Denver: Kenyon Martin (dislocated left pinky) is probable.
Oklahoma City: Kyle Weaver (shoulder surgery) and Kevin Ollie (right knee surgery) are both out.

Opposition's Take: Welcome to Loud City

The most important thing that a young team has to learn is how to win the close games. Oklahoma City dropped two thrillers against the Nuggets last season by a combined three points. When the teams matched up on January 2, 2008 Kevin Durant hit the go ahead three-pointer with just 2.7 seconds left on the clock, but Carmelo Anthony answered by hitting the game winning three-pointer in the corner off a Kenyon Martin inbounds play giving the Nuggets a 122-120 win. (Watch it again here.)

The two teams faced off again in "Loud City" just over a month later on February 4, 2008 and the Nuggets once again found themselves down 113-112 with just 17 seconds remaining after a Kevin Durant bucket. Melo took the ball into the teeth of the Thunder defense and somehow hit a runner in the lane with 5.3 seconds remaining and Denver went on to win that one 114-113.

When the regular season series shifted back to Denver for games on March 11th and April 8th I expected more close battles ... well the games were exciting for Denver fans as the Nuggets won each contest rather easily with scores of 112-99 and 122-112. What will tonight's matchup have in store?

Oklahoma City is growing up and they are playing well in close games this season. The Thunder have a record of 4-5 in games decided by 9 points or less and a record of 2-2 in games decided by 4 points or less. Recently however, games involving Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green haven't been too close.

In their last five games the Thunder have either won or lost (3-2) by an average point margin of 13.2 points. The Nuggets on the other hand have found themselves in some tighter games and in their previous five (3-2) they have either won or lost by a margin of just 7.4 points.

The Thunder have a lot of young legs, but they could find themselves a little zapped for energy in the latter stages of the game since they played and lost yesterday to the Cleveland Cavaliers 102-89. Durant (42), Green (40) and Westbrook (34) each logged major minutes against LeBron's squad and that should play a role for the Nuggets tonight. Durant, the 21 year-old forward, boosted his third overall NBA scoring average (28.3 ppg) slightly with 29 points in the Cleveland loss.

Some other Thunder players to keep an eye on tonight:

A touch more on Durant. He's every bit of the listed 6'9'' and his length allows him to shoot over basically any defender. His length also causes his defenders to foul him a lot when they are trying to contest his shot. Durant averages 9 free throw attempts per game and he's hitting a career best 88.3% of them aka 7.9 per game. His first two seasons in the league he averaged 5.6 and 7.1 foul shots per game ... he's starting to learn how to draw fouls and that's not good for anybody assigned to cover him. Durant's three-point percentage has taken a pretty big dip this season as he's shooting just 28% from beyond the arc compared to 42% last year. KD is more of a volume distance shooter this year averaging 4.4 threes a game versus 3.1 attempts a year ago ... quality over quantity every time (not just a lesson that pertains to dating).
Russell Westbrook: The Thunder's second leading scorer averages 16.1 points per game to go along with 6.8 assists. This kid is a blur and thrives when he gets into the lane. I remember thinking last season that when he was going to the rim against Denver the Thunder were going to win the game ... then for no reason Westbrook and the rest of the team stopped attacking the Nuggets and they lost. Fast paced is the best way for Westbrook to play.
Jeff Green: The Thunder's third leading scorer at 15 points per game to go along with 6 rebounds. Green is somewhat of the forgotten man in the Thunder's "Big Three", but he is very dangerous. His overall offensive game is impressive and if Melo doesn't pay attention to him on the defensive end it wont matter how many points Melo can score because Green will negate them with his own points.
Rookie and 3rd Overall pick James Harden: The "Rook" is averaging just over 21 minutes a game and the kid can shoot. He's connecting on 36% of his three pointers and gives the Thunder another offensive weapon with his 9.2 points per game. I remember hearing he put up a 0-10 performance a while ago from three-point land and after looking at his game log it's true. On November 18th Harden went 6-7 from deep in Orlando, on Nov. 20th he went 4-6 from deep against the Wizards and then on Nov. 22nd in Los Angeles Harden posted the atrocious 0-10 stat line from deep against the Lakers. Somebody must have sat him down after that because since that three-game stretch he has been averaging just 2.25 three-point attempts per game.
Thabo Sefolosha: He plays the "Bruce Bowen" role for the Thunder. He's not asked to score a lot, but he is very athletic and can have good offensive nights. Sefolosha though is a good and active defender with a very difficult name to spell a la Dahntay Jones or Arron Afflalo. Why can't "defensive specialists" have easier names?
Nenad Kristic: Another fun name to spell and the Thunder's big man. When Kristic was playing in Russia last season I was hoping the Nuggets would somehow bring him to Denver, instead the Thunder swooped in and brought him back to the League. Kristic was looking like a young star in his early days with the Nets and was averaging 16.4 points and 6.8 rebounds during the 2006-07 season in 26 games, but he tore his ACL that year and has never quite made it all the way back. He's big (7' 240 lbs) and has talent on the offensive end, but Nene should be able to attack him by going strong to the rim.
Serge Ibaka, Nick Collison and Shaun Livingston: Ibaka and Collison form a big man tandem off the bench with Collison possessing decent offensive talent and a knack for being an annoying offensive rebounder against Denver. Livingston has seen more action recently averaging 15 minutes per game and I'm not sure if he got injured earlier in the season as he has 12 games of 0 minutes sandwiched between a little bit of action.

I'm looking forward to this game tonight as I've had it circled on my schedule all season. The Thunder are definitely an up-and-coming team and one that could challenge for a playoff spot this season. The Nuggets are coming off a game in which I commented to my friend in the first half, "this team might implode tonight," and then in the second half, "this could be one of those games that causes the team to rally and come together. They were on the brink of being blown out and somehow battled back."

You had to wonder if maybe the Nuggets had a "players only" type talk at halftime of that Suns game or what was said in the locker room. Yes, there are reports that Denver said they were going to come out and play hard, but I'm guessing the language was a bit more harsh than that.

What will the Nuggets do for an encore? We'll find out soon ...

Sidenote:

Just looking around the internet today and talking with some co-workers, I stumbled upon this Westword blog featuring the Birdman drinking glasses at Arby's. (A little clarity for MattressKing)

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Lance Murphey

10 YEARS OF STIFFDOM: A Decade Retrospective...

2009-12-13T17:04:03Z

Who knew that at the beginning of the '00s - with none other than Dan Issel in charge - that the Nuggets would end up having a successful and often thrilling decade? Here's a look back at the last 10 years of Denver Nuggets basketball...

At the conclusion of the 1990s, the Nuggets were in utter disarray. As documented in detail here at Denver Stiffs, this once proud and respected franchise had been turned into an NBA laughingstock thanks to a lethal combination of ineptitude, incompetence, and ignorance. Between 1990 and 1999, the Nuggets made the playoffs just twice and Nuggets fans were forced to endure seasons with win totals under 40 games eight times (including the lockout shortened 1998-99 season in which the Nuggets would likely have "won" about 25 games had an 82-game season been played out). We witnessed five seasons in which the Nuggets won less than 24 games, and in 1997-98 the 11-win Nuggets won less games than the Broncos that year.

Making matters worse throughout the 1990s, the Nuggets never caught a break. Even though they participated in eight NBA Draft lotteries, twice sported the worst record in the NBA (1990-91 and again after that infamous 1997-98 campaign) and had a bottom-four record five total times, the highest pick they were ever rewarded was third (which Issel promptly screwed up by drafting Raef LaFrentz over Vince Carter, Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowitzki and Antawn Jamison). We missed out on all the game-changing draftees of the 1990s: Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Chris Webber and Tim Duncan. And a freak knee injury sustained by rising star LaPhonso Ellis in 1994 would prove to be the undoing of the Nuggets only good team of the decade: the 1993-94 squad that had just stunned the NBA world by beating the number-one seeded Seattle Supersonics in the playoffs before taking the Utah Jazz to seven in Round 2.

But make no mistake about it, the Nuggets problems throughout the 1990s were self-inflicted. Cartoonish figures such as Peter Bynoe, Bertram Lee, the Comsat "Corporation," Paul Westhead, Bernie Bickerstaff, Allan Bristow and finally, Issel, made every wrong/bad decision possible, leaving the Nuggets organization in tatters until Stanley E. Kroenke rescued the franchise in 2000 with his purchase of the team. Upon arrival, Kroenke made it clear that he wanted to win and win now, and thus set in motion a series of events that produced one of the better decades in franchise history...

2000-2001 (40-42, no playoffs)

In an increasingly tough Western Conference, the Nuggets remarkably won 40 games but were still seven games off the eighth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves. While a 40-win season would normally be a good thing having come off a 35-win season, team "president", "head coach" and dictator Dan Issel had already mortgaged the Nuggets future by sending away numerous first round picks in order to build that 40-win team.

Non-Stiff of the Year: Antonio McDyess

Coming off a gold-medal winning performance in the Sydney Olympics, McDyess was a stud in 2000-01. The quiet, dignified power forward averaged 20.8 ppg, 12.1 rpg and 1.5 bpg and even made the All-Star team.

Stiff of the Year: Dan Issel

The aforementioned Issel had previously (and foolishly) traded away the Nuggets own first round picks for 1999, 2000 and 2001 - all lottery picks, mind you - and after an assortment of complicated, even more stupid deals, for those picks he essentially brought back Tariq Abdul-Wahad, Kevin Willis (on the very wrong side of his career), Voshon Lenard and Tracy Murray. But that was just off-the-court. On-the-court, Issel was a tyrant with his players and the refs. At one point, his players were so fed up with the way he was treating Raef LaFrentz (a draft bust of Issel's own making) and others, that point guard Nick Van Exel led a player boycott of practice.

2001-02 (27-55, no playoffs)

After years of overpaying for mediocre players and parting with valuable first round picks in exchange for nothing, the wheels finally came off the Issel Administration and the Nuggets fell apart in 2001-02, precipitated by a major knee injury to McDyess that caused him to miss all but 10 games of the season. Prior to the season starting, Kroenke - either sensing that Issel had too much power, was too incompetent or both - astutely hired Kiki Vandeweghe as GM to a five-year contract.

Non-Stiff of the Year: Kiki Vandeweghe

After Issel "resigned" the day after Christmas (more on that shortly), Vandeweghe gutted out the roster and made a controversial move that would put the Nuggets on the path of success they still enjoy today. Knowing the Nuggets were going nowhere with the expensive roster he inherited, Vandeweghe boldly shipped out Van Exel, LaFrentz, Abdul-Wahad and Avery Johnson (another overpayee thanks to Issel) to Dallas in exchange for Juwan Howard, Tim Hardaway, Donnell Harvey and a future first round pick. When the Nuggets eventually met the Mavericks in the 2009 playoffs second round, I detailed how that major trade actually brought the two once dormant franchises together.

Stiff of the Year: Dan Issel

"Go drink another beer, you Mexican piece of shit!" Those nine words - uttered by Issel towards a heckling Hispanic Nuggets fan after a December 10th loss to the Charlotte Hornets - were exactly what Kroenke and Vandeweghe needed to kick Issel out the door. Issel, a Nuggets legend as a player, had built up so much great PR in the community (he still has some...note Woody Paige's ludicrous suggestion that the Nuggets bring Issel back to the organization last year) that he would have been tough to fire otherwise. After serving a four-game suspension, Issel "resigned" on December 26th, 2001 and unfortunately for Issel, things haven't exactly worked out for him since.

Stiff of the Year Runner-Up: Tim Hardaway

Unlike Howard who - knowing playing in Denver would be a brutal, losing situation - accepted the trade to the Nuggets and behaved like a total professional during his time here (it helps when you're getting paid $18.8 and then $20.1 million per season!), Hardaway was a petulant, angry brat who never got over leaving Dallas where he was hoping to gravy train his way into an NBA Championship. After starting 14 games for the Nuggets, Hardaway unleashed his anger on a TV monitor by throwing it onto the floor and getting himself suspended two games.

2002-03 (17-65, no playoffs)

Entering the 2002-03 NBA season, Vandeweghe purposefully compiled the worst roster in modern NBA history in hopes of tanking enough games to win the first pick in the draft (knowing that on the horizon was one of the better drafts in NBA history). The Nuggets starting back court of Vincent Yarbrough and Junior Harrington couldn't crack a 14-man roster the following season, and the rest of the roster was littered with names you already don't remember. Armed with two lottery picks - thanks to a great trade that sent McDyess to New York in exchange for Marcus Camby and the Knicks lottery pick - Vandeweghe drafted Nene and some skinny kid from Georgia, and I'm not talking about the university (more on him shortly).

Non-Stiff of the Year: Jeff Bzdelik

In spite of being dealt the worst hand ever dealt a coach in modern NBA history, rookie head coach Jeff Bzdelik refused to make excuses, worked his ass off and was able to get 17 wins out of our Nuggets. I'd argue that was 17 more wins than they should have had and Bzdelik should have gotten Coach of the Year consideration. The Nuggets were awful talent-wise, but they played harder than their opponent almost every night.

Stiff of the Year: Nikoloz Tskitishvili

Drafted fifth overall out of the Republic of Georgia, "Skita" has since gone down in history as the worst fifth overall pick of all time (and believe me, there have been some bad fifth overall picks). Given ample opportunity to succeed in his first season, Skita - listed at seven-feet tall - shot 29.3% from the field as a rookie. At a game in Los Angeles against the Lakers, I once saw Skita shoot a wide open shot in which the ball hit the shot clock first before getting anywhere near the backboard or rim.

2003-04 (43-39, 1-4 in the playoffs)

A full 10 years after upsetting the Sonics in the playoffs, the Nuggets finally got their act together and Coloradoans cared about basketball again. Unable to shake the Nuggets streak of bad luck with the Draft Lottery, Vandeweghe got lucky nonetheless thanks to Detroit GM Joe Dumars' stupidly drafting Darko Milicic (i.e. Skita 2.0), leaving Syracuse star/stud Carmelo Anthony available with the third overall pick. And with Howard's giant contract coming off the books, Vandeweghe was finally able to spend Kroenke's money. Free agent signees Andre Miller, Jon Barry and Earl Boykins joined Melo, Nene and a healthy Camby. Under Bzdelik's stewardship, the Nuggets won 43 games and put up a respectable fight against the Timberwolves in the playoffs first round. As fans, we were happy just to be in the playoffs!

Non-Stiff of the Year: Carmelo Anthony

For the first time since Alex English last donned a rainbow jersey, the Nuggets had a perennial All-Star caliber player in Melo. As a rookie, Melo averaged 21 ppg and 6.1 rpg while giving fellow rookie phenom LeBron James a run for the Rookie of the Year Award. But more importantly, Melo led the Nuggets back to the postseason in a hyper-competitive Western Conference, whereas LBJ couldn't do the same in Cleveland in the weakened Eastern Conference.

Stiff of the Year: Rodney White

Playing for his next contract after his rookie deal was due to expire in two seasons, White gave the Nuggets next-to-nothing in 2003-04 even though he appeared in 72 games and received 14 minutes of playing time per game. Just a few years removed from being the ninth overall pick to Detroit (ahem...Joe Dumars again), White would be out of the NBA completely after the 2004-05 campaign. But hey, at least he was nominated for the Denver Stiffs Hall of Fame!

2004-05 (49-33, 1-4 in the playoffs)

Wanting to build upon the Nuggets newly found success (and at Kroenke's alleged insistence), Vandeweghe spent the entire 2004 offseason shopping for a big name free agent to bring to Denver. After being turned down by Manu Ginobili and Brad Miller, Vandeweghe panicked and got duped into sending three number one picks to New Jersey for Kenyon Martin in a sign-and-trade deal. K-Mart's price tag? $90 million over seven seasons. Under immense pressure to win more games, Bzdelik and the Nuggets floundered out of the gate, starting out 13-15 before Bzdelik got sacked and replaced by a former WNBA coach (Michael Cooper) who went 4-10 as coach of the team.

Non-Stiff of the Year: George Karl

Inheriting a 17-25 team loaded with talent but without any direction and big egos to boot, Karl's no-nonsense, "my way or the highway" approach immediately turned the Nuggets fortunes around. With only 40 games to work with, Karl guided the Nuggets to a 32-8 record (the best in NBA history after a mid-season coaching switch) and had the Nuggets playing the best basketball in the NBA down the stretch of the regular season.

Stiff of the Year: Kiki Vandeweghe

By acquiring K-Mart, Vandeweghe essentially panicked while throwing away all of the salary cap flexibility he had worked so hard and smartly to cultivate. But worse than that, Vandeweghe was eerily silent while Bzdelik was left to twist in the wind as the Nuggets struggled early in the season. Vandeweghe never publicly defended the one man willing to coach the dreadful 2002-03 roster that Vandeweghe had assembled, and Kiki made matters worse by bringing in Cooper to take over as head coach. The Cooper hire cost the Nuggets a higher playoff seed.

Stiff of the Year Runner-Up: Carmelo Anthony

Melo couldn't stay out of trouble in 2004. First, he was cited for marijuana possession at DIA that his cousin conveniently took the blame for (the old "that wasn't my pot!" excuse). Second, he feuded with Olympic coach Larry Brown in Athens and found himself benched on the 2004 Team USA that embarrassingly finished with a bronze medal. Third - and perhaps the worst/dumbest - Melo was caught on a "Stop Snitching" DVD in which alleged drug dealers explain what happens to people who cooperate with the police. Melo didn't improve much on the floor, either, and found himself (rightfully) in Karl's doghouse early and often.

2005-06 (44-38, 1-4 in the playoffs)

Unable to build off the team's incredible run under Karl to conclude the previous season, injuries ravaged the Nuggets and they limped their way to a 44-38 record. K-Mart and Camby missed 26 games apiece and most tragically, Nene succumbed to the Nuggets power forward curse and was lost for the season with an ACL and MCL tear after just one game. At the time, the Nuggets marketing and PR team spun the season as as success under the guise of "Northwest Division Champs" and that the Nuggets were a three-seed entering the postseason. But this was before the NBA properly seeded division winners who have mediocre records. The Nuggets were such a weak three-seed, that the Clippers purposely tanked games to face them in the first round...and when they got their wish, the Clippers clocked the Nuggets in five games. Oh, and that was the Clippers only playoff series win since becoming the Clippers in 1978. Overall, the season was a mess from from the top down (as chronicled in detail at the time by the Denver Post's Thomas George). Vandeweghe would be let go at season's end and was replaced by Mark Warkentien (and eventually Rex Chapman, too). Dysfunction, egos and injuries had set the Nuggets back a few steps.

Non-Stiff of the Year: (tie) Carmelo Anthony and Andre Miller

Melo and Miller played in 80 and 82 games, respectively, and carried the Nuggets in 2005-06. Melo improved his scoring average by over six points per game and his field goal percentage went up, as well. Miller - the modern day NBA "iron man" even if he doesn't condition well in the offseason - was a steady hand as always, starting in all 82 games and dishing out over eight assists per game.

Stiff of the Year: Kenyon Martin

Recovering from microfracture surgery and frustrated by knee tendinitis, K-Mart was pretty surly for much of the season and was morphing into a locker room cancer. He allegedly didn't get along with coaches or teammates (according to George's article, K-Mart's teammates questioned his commitment to recovery and work ethic) and it all came to an ugly head during halftime of Game 2 at Los Angeles, when K-Mart went at it with Karl and several teammates. K-Mart was benched for the remainder of the game and eventually su spended for the duration of the series.

Stiff of the Year Runner-Up: Reggie Evans

As perhaps a microcosm of the dysfunction and lack of respect for the game that was taking over the Nuggets, "The Joker" grabbed Clippers center Chris Kaman's testicles while fighting for a rebound during Game 1 of the Clippers series.

2006-07 (45-37, 1-4 in the playoffs)

In spite of it being K-Mart's turn to succumb to the Nuggets power forward curse (he would play just two games all season) and losing their first three straight games by a total of five points, the Nuggets would win 12 of their first 21 games with Melo playing the best basketball of his career. That all changed abruptly on Saturday, December 16th, 2006. In New York facing the Knicks (who had embarrassingly beaten the Nuggets in Denver in Game 3 of the season), the Nuggets found themselves up 19 with 75 seconds to go. Karl - alleged by some to want to rub the victory in Knicks coach Isiah Thomas' face (Thomas had recently sandbagged Karl's good friend Larry Brown) - left his starters on the floor, prompting Thomas to send in his "goon squad" and make the Nuggets pay. What began as a hard, unnecessary, dangerous, around-the-neck foul on J.R. Smith by the Knicks' Mardy Collins erupted into a full-scale brawl...culminating with Melo's cheap shot punch on Collins. Melo would be suspended 15 games and Smith 10, prompting Nuggets management to attempt to salvage the season by bringing in super star guard Allen Iverson from Philadelphia in exchange for Miller, Joe Smith and two first round picks. Little did we know that the fun was just beginning.

Non-Stiff of the Year: Allen Iverson

Welcomed with open arms by Nuggets fans and his new teammates, Iverson made an immediate impact on the Nuggets (on and off the floor, in good ways and bad). But with Melo out 15 games, Iverson was able to keep the Nuggets afloat and competitive almost by himself. When Melo and Iverson finally got to play together for a long stretch, the Nuggets reeled off nine straight wins and 10 of 11 to finish out the season strong as the hottest team in the NBA.

Stiff of the Year: Isiah Thomas

In addition to sinking the Raptors as an incompetent vice president, sinking the CBA in a summer as an incompetent commissioner and sinking the Knicks as an incompetent president/coach/alleged sexual harrasser (hell, Isiah was an incompetent broadcaster, too), Isiah would sink the Nuggets season in one fell swoop by commandeering his players to take out the Nuggets starters in that game.

Stiff of the Year Runner-Up: (tie) Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith

Even though Isiah "started it," Melo and J.R. were unable to keep their heads cool and unnecessarily exacerbated an already ugly situation, ruining the Nuggets entire season as a result.

2007-08 (50-32, 0-4 in the playoffs)

Entering 2007-08, the Nuggets would finally have a training camp with their full roster participating from the get-go. With Melo and Iverson having ample time to play together, optimism in Denver was higher than it had been since entering the 2004-05 campaign. So high was the optimism, in fact, that Kroenke had over $83 million invested in the team's payroll (second or third highest in the league at the time) and Melo and K-Mart started floating out "60 wins" as a realistic goal. But even with Iverson appearing in all 82 games, Camby playing 79, Melo 77, K-Mart 71 and vast improvements seen in the games of bench players J.R. Smith and Linas Kleiza, the Nuggets weren't able to secure a playoff spot (an eighth seed no less) until the 79th game of the season with a big win at Golden State. As an eighth seed, the Nuggets got worked over by the Lakers in an embarrassing four-game sweep: a series which saw Melo bark at Karl "don't just sit there!" and the benching of Iverson early in Game 3 that didn't go over well. Prior to the Nuggets final regular season game, Melo would get arrested on suspicion of a DUI. It became evident that the A.I. experiment was an expensive failure.

Non-Stiff of the Year: Nene

After being diagnosed with testicular cancer and undergoing surgery to remove his right testicle, Nene remarkably returned to play again on March 27th against the Mavericks, giving the Nuggets a much needed emotional boost that helped them secure a playoff spot down the stretch.

Stiff of the Year: George Karl

Stuck in an admittedly tumultuous and difficult situation, Karl spent much of the 2007-08 sitting on his hands during games while the Nuggets unraveled on the court. While the Nuggets head coach got called for just one technical foul all season (second to last in the NBA), his players finished in the top two in personal fouls, technical fouls, flagrant fouls and ejections. The inmates were running the asylum as Karl's coaching record in Denver got extended to a paltry 3-16 over four years. Karl would later admit to SI.com that "...the last couple of years, I was confused." Watching Karl's Nuggets routinely take nights off that season, so were we.

2008-09 (54-28, 10-6 in the playoffs)

Disappointed with his lack of return on investment, Kroenke gave an edict to management to slash payroll during the 2008 offseason. Camby would be shipped out to the Clippers in exchange for a trade exception, coach and fan favorite Eduardo Najera would not be re-signed, Iverson's contract wouldn't be extended and things were looking grim entering the 2008-09 campaign. But what loomed as a disaster instead became a season of reformation and rejuvenation. Karl came into training camp as "Fiery George" again, Melo won a gold medal with Team USA and learned a thing or two from Kobe Bryant on what an NBA work ethic really is and K-Mart, fully healthy, came into camp with an apology to his coach and teammates and a vow to work harder and play better. With former NBA castaways Chris "Birdman" Andersen and Dahntay Jones added for next-to-nothing (by NBA salary standards) and Nene in real basketball shape for the first time ever, the Nuggets were quietly confident that they had a special season on their hands.

The lone chink in the Nuggets newfound armor would be Iverson who, upset by not receiving a contract extension, showed up to camp out of shape and several steps slow. Remarkably, Nuggets management was able to pull off one of the great trades in Nuggets history by shipping Iverson to Detroit for Chauncey Billups. By adding Billups to a roster primed to take off, the Nuggets would shock the basketball world by tying a franchise record with 54 wins and going toe-to-toe with the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Simply put, it was the greatest full season of Nuggets basketball since the 1984-85 Nuggets made it to the conference finals and hopefully a sign of more good things to come in the decade ahead.

Non-Stiff of the Year: Chauncey Billups

The Denver-born Billups - who had been cast off by Issel years earlier without ever given a fair hearing as a Nugget - immediately proved to be the perfect leader for the Nuggets. Coming off six consecutive conference finals appearances with the Pistons, Billups would make it seven when he led the Nuggets there.

Non-Stiff of the Year Runner-Up: (tie) Nuggets Management and George Karl

After years of placing talent over character, the Nuggets GM "troika" of Warkentien, Chapman and team adviser Bret Bearup had assembled a roster stocked with good character guys and also deserve credit for not panicking after the 2008 playoff debacle. Warkentien would be rewarded with the NBA's Executive of the Year Award, but it should have been shared by all three guys. Karl, meanwhile, turned in one of his finest performances as an NBA head coach while bridging whatever gap had existed between him and his mercurial stars Melo, J.R. and K-Mart.

Stiff of the Year: Allen Iverson

The NBA will soon be announcing their "All Decade Team" and it will be fascinating to see if A.I. makes the squad. One of the greatest players of the decade, Iverson ultimately proved to be a bad fit for the Nuggets and a bad influence on Melo and J.R. This became painfully clear when the Pistons imploded after bringing Iverson on board in exchange for Billups.

Overall, the '00s were a great decade for Nuggets basketball: six straight playoff appearances, two 50-plus win seasons, All-Star players and thrilling performances (how many game-tying and game-winning shots has Melo made?!). And while it would have been nice to see a few more playoff series victories prior to last season, the memories of the Bickerstaff and Issel Administrations are still prominent enough for me to appreciate what's been going on recently.

Fortunately for Nuggets fans, four of our best players - Melo, J.R., Nene and rookie Ty Lawson - still have many seasons ahead of them and hopefully will remain in a Nuggets uniform into the next decade. At the very least, we're guaranteed that the new decade starts out reasonably well and it will be fascinating to see where this franchise is standing in 2020.

Thanks for the memories and Go Nuggets!!

Photos courtesy of AP and NBAE/Getty Images

A tale of two halves... (Nuggets/Suns recap)

2009-12-13T09:03:41Z

So much for the walkover predicted here earlier. And while the Nuggets were able to pull out a victory tonight, trouble is afoot...

"Championship caliber" teams, as the Nuggets are purporting to be, don't find themselves down 13 at halftime to a team that's a) old, b) played the night before, or c) played a tough game the night before. And yet the Nuggets managed to dig themselves a 13-point deficit to a team that was all three of those things.

Thankfully, the Nuggets played like a championship caliber team...at least for the one half that really mattered. The Nuggets took off on a remarkable 18-2 run in the second stanza, bringing the game to an even 77 points apiece to set up a thrilling fourth quarter in which the Nuggets defense finally resembled the D we fell in love with last season.

Kenyon Martin - our defensive "quarterback" as Nate aptly describes him - proved yet again how valuable he is to the Nuggets and how scarily bad we are without him. Broken pinky finger or not, K-Mart must stay on the floor.

But while the ticket holders got their money's worth tonight thanks to a highly entertaining contest, the broader Nuggets Nation must be concerned with the Nuggets lack of focus in first halves this season. They've been able to escape with victories at home (sans the Minnesota debacle), but these lackadaisical first halves are biting them in the ass on the road. Some fans like to say that a W is a W, but tonight felt like more of an escape than a confidence-building victory.

Some observations from the not-so-cheap-seats...

...Carmelo Anthony's transition defense in the first half was atrocious. As my friend Keith whom I was with aptly pointed out, when Melo missed shots in the first half he bitched at the refs rather than getting back to cover his man...leaving Jared Dudley wide open for a pair of easy three's.

...having just watched Steve Nash play in person for the first time ever, I'm a bigger fan than I was entering the game. The guy is absolutely incredible and no Nugget could guard him (except Nene on the very last Suns' drive of the game...phew!). Nash is also an exceptionally good actor when it comes to drawing fouls.

...Chris "Birdman" Andersen's timing is way off. When he retrieves the ball on offense he's a step slow, allowing defenses to collapse on him quickly. And on defense, he's too jump-happy. It's clear that opposing teams have scouted him out thoroughly and he's not surprising anyone this season.

...the NBA's "disciplinarian tsar" Stu Jackson was in attendance. I was tempted to thank him for ruining USA Basketball from 2002 through 2004, but thought better of it and stayed in my seat.

Stiff of the Night (a new feature in my game recaps!)...

...Suns head coach Alvin Gentry. With two seconds remaining, the Suns down two and Melo on his way to the line for two potential seal-the-deal free throws, Gentry decides that's the time to erupt on the referees and get himself thrown out for the (correct) non-foul call on Nene when Nash drove to the rack on the prior possession. Had Melo missed one of those two free throws (very likely), the Suns would have had time to make a game-tying three if they corralled the rebound.

Non-Stiff of the Night...

...(tie) between K-Mart's fourth quarter defense and Chauncey Billups' stellar play in the third quarter. K-Mart's block on Nash near the end of the game may have been the best/signature play of the night.

Photo courtesy of NBAE/Getty Images: Garrett Ellwood

Game 24 Preview & Thread: Nuggets vs. Suns (7pm MDT)

2009-12-12T16:55:08Z

What happens when the two highest scoring teams in the NBA go head-to-head? The Nuggets win in a snoozer because the Suns will be playing the second of a back-to-back...

I've had the priviledge of seeing every MVP from the past 25-plus years play live - Bird, Magic, MJ, Hakeem, Barkley, Robinson, Malone, Iverson, Duncan, Shaq, Dirk, Kobe, LeBron - except one: the Suns' Steve Nash. With me splitting my time between Los Angeles and Denver, Nash and I just haven't been in the same place at the same time. That ends tonight.

Nash has been one of my favorite non-Nuggets over the years. How could he not be? He has vastly improved his game over the years, makes the game more fun for the fans and is fiercely loyal, evident by his stupid decision to re-sign with the going-nowhere Phoenix Suns last summer. I was firmly planted in the Nash-for-MVP camp in 2005-06 and 2006-07 (Nash won in 2004-05 and 05-06, although I thought Shaquille O'Neal deserved it that first year) and wish he was surrounded with better teammates for one more championship run. Steve Nash is one of the many reasons why I love the NBA.

Unfortunately for me and 15,000 or so other Nuggets fans, however, we're not going to see Nash - or the Suns - at their best. They played a tough, down-to-the-wire game against the Magic in Phoenix last night, and presumably flew in sometime very early this morning into Denver. As Nate pointed out in his preview and recap of the Warriors game a few weeks ago, teams traveling east to Denver almost never win (they literally never win, teams coming from the Pacific Time Zone - which Phoenix isn't in - into Denver are 1-18...Nate and I are still checking to see how many years that covers).

Like most games against opponents coming from the west, tonight's game won't be a fair fight for the Suns. And while it will be nice to see a Nuggets home victory, at the end of the day it's the ticket-paying fan like me who gets screwed with a boring game, like the walkover victory over the Lakers earlier in the season.

But for the first half or so when Nash has some energy, he should be fun to watch. What about the other Suns?...

Suns Stiffs

-Louis Amundson: If Amundson were on the Nuggets, we'd all love him. He's from Boulder, he hustles, plays hard, plays tough and frustrates opposing big men into stupid technical fouls. He's like a bigger, more athletic version of Bill Hanzlik. But since Amundson plays for the opposition and when we last saw him he baited our own Nene into a stupid head butt (and as a result, a two-game suspension), we're going to boo him mercilessly tonight.

-Channing Frye: At 6'11" and 245 pounds, Frye is a giant of a man. But while Frye is having a nice rebound season in Phoenix (so would you or I if we played with Steve Nash), he still shoots an abyssmal 44.5% from the field. Remarkably, Frye shoots almost as well from behind-the-arc (an impressive 43.5%) as he does from the interior...and he takes 5.7 three's per game! I see a number of Nene breakout layups tonight off Frye bricks...

-Leandro Barbosa: The "Brazilian Blur" (I always thought that meant something else...just ask anyone who's been to Rio) manages to slip more and more with each passing season. Peaking out at 18.1 ppg four seasons ago, Barbosa's scoring outpit has dipped annually and is down to 11.6, his worst average in six seasons. Barbosa's been banged up with a sprained ankle and won't be playing tonight.

Suns Non-Stiffs (other than Steve Nash)

-Amar'e Stoudemire: Or as we refer to him in Denver - "the second great player that Kiki Vandeweghe passed over to stupidly draft Nikoloz Tskitishvili". After showing up in training camp a bit out of shape, Stoudemire is having a fine season, capped off last night with his game-winning offensive rebound and huge slam dunk while the Magic's Dwight Howard was still on the floor.

-Jason Richardson: Richardson seems to have regained some of what made him so lethal in Golden State. He's also draining three's at an impressive 40.7% clip and is shooting a career second-best 48.5% from the field.

-Grant Hill: Hill's numbers don't wow you and his field goal percentage is down this year, but this guy is still producing. Who knew that after the all the injuries/recoveries that Hill has had to undergo that he'd still be going strong at 37 years old? Hill could have gone the Anfernee Hardaway or Steve Francis route, taken his money and called it a career. But instead, Hill has managed to have a lengthy, more-than-respectable career. He's anything but a Stiff.

Opposition's Take: Bright Side of the Sun

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Paul Connors

Three home tests ahead...

2009-12-12T00:16:28Z

While a 16-7 record after 23 games is nothing to snub your nose at, the Nuggets have alarmingly lost five games to bad teams and haven't really been tested at home yet. Three tests are coming up...

Just when we thought the unacceptable loss to the Timberwolves a few weeks ago was the wake up the Nuggets needed to start playing better, we collectively fear that it may have just been a precursor of more bad outings to come. As I wrote at that time, there's a difference between good losses, bad losses and unacceptable losses. When you're playing the second of a back-to-back on the road against a sub-.500 opponent whose had a day or rest and end up losing (like the Nuggets did to the Bobcats on Tuesday), that's a bad loss. But when you're the team whose had a day of rest and your injury depleted opponent is playing the second of a back-to-bad and you still lose (like the Nuggets did to the Pistons last night), that's an unacceptable loss.

As I wrote after the Wolves loss, these types of defeats come back to haunt you later in the season. If you're scoring at home, the Nuggets were also 16-7 at this point last season en route to a magical 54-game, WCF run. But with the exception of an early season loss to a healthy Golden State team while the Nuggets were undermanned due to the Allen Iverson trade, the Nuggets didn't lose to any sub-.500 teams during those first 23 games. In fact, in 2008-09 the Nuggets would play nearly three-and-a-half months before losing to a sub-.500 team. And this year, they already five such losses on their ledger: at Milwaukee, at the Clippers, home against Minnesota, at Charlotte and now at Detroit. Yikes.

Does this mean that the 2009-10 Nuggets are inferior to their 2008-09 predecessors? It's too early to tell. And it should be noted that the Nuggets have attempted to make up for those five bad losses by winning two games no one counted on them winning: impressively at Portland and at San Antonio.

What's of equal concern to me beyond those bad losses is that the Nuggets haven't really been tested at home. And no, the Lakers game didn't count for much of a test: the Lakers were without Pau Gasol and had played very late the night before.

So I suppose it's fitting that while college students across America prepare and take their final exams right now, the Nuggets at last have three home tests themselves: Phoenix tomorrow, Oklahoma City on Monday and Houston on Wednesday. These three squads aren't lottery denizens like the last two teams that embarrassed the Nuggets, so hopefully we as fans will see a better effort from the boys in powder blue and gold. Most fortunately for the Nuggets, all three opponents will be playing the Nuggets as the second game of a back-to-back. And thus, if the Nuggets don't win all three games, consider the exam failed.

On a side note, I'll be at all three games and can't wait! Who's with me?!

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Duane Burleson

Rebutting Rick Reilly...

2009-12-11T15:58:13Z

ESPN's Rick Reilly - a Colorado native - is the last person who should be opining on Tiger Woods' personal and professional life. And yet he's doing it endlessly anyway. It's time for Rick Reilly to shut up.

I should probably be skewering the Nuggets for dropping a fourth road game against a sub-.500 opponent rather than take on a columnist who rarely covers the NBA. But after reading Rick Reilly’s pompous, unrealistic, holier-than-thou, how-to-fix-your-marriage column directed at Tiger Woods on ESPN.com yesterday, I’ve finally had enough of this Reilly high-horse nonsense that's been going on since Woods crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant two weeks ago. For whatever reason, Reilly has become the self-appointed arbiter on all things in regards to Woods’ – shall we say complicated – married life, and I've been getting progressively more enraged with each Reilly appearance on the subject. You see, not only is Rick Reilly one of the last people who should be publicly advising Tiger on his marital problems (more on that shortly), but all of Reilly’s advice, notably what was written in his latest column, is dead wrong.

Before diving into my rebuttal of Reilly’s farce of a column (titled "An image-rehab plan for Tiger Woods"), let me first state that I have no connection to Tiger Woods whatsoever, nor do I claim to know Rick Reilly personally. However, since the Denver sports and social scene is relatively small, I’ve met Reilly a few times over the years. Being a longtime admirer of his work, a fellow Coloradoan and a syndicated cartoonist, sports animation producer and Nuggets blogger, I figured Reilly might be interested in talking to me the few times we’ve met. But instead, each time I’ve introduced myself it’s been painfully obvious that Reilly – who’s nice for the first 30 seconds you talk to him and then basically ignores you while you stand there – can’t wait for the conversation to end. When we last ran into each other, during a Nuggets playoff game, I attempted to congratulate Reilly on joining forces with Bill Simmons at ESPN.com (I’m a huge Simmons fan) just to see what kind of reaction I’d get. Reilly couldn’t help himself and cracked on Simmons by saying something like: "I don’t know how that guy has the time to write so much. I guess it helps when you just sit around the house watching TV all day." This was typical old media smugness and condescension from Reilly that we bloggers have heard from him before.

So do I like Reilly personally? No, not really. But I respect what he’s done with his career and commend his charitable work (I even donated to Nothing But Nets after seeing Reilly advocate for it on "The Colbert Report").

Maybe my personal thoughts on Reilly color my professional view of him in an unfairly negative way, but from my vantage point he’s completely out of line and hypocritical when it comes to legislating how Tiger Woods should move forward from his infidelity debacle. After all, Reilly, himself a father of three, is on to marriage number two and those of us who live in Denver or spend a lot of time there certainly know he took full advantage of his D-List (or is it E-List?) celebrity status after his own divorce in 2003. Like any of us would do after divorcing our wife of 20 years, Reilly was routinely seen with girls substantially younger than himself before remarrying in 2008. Like most guys who stupidly marry too young – as Reilly did at 25 years old – I’m assuming Reilly had to "sew the royal oats" before settling down again. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that and I bet he had a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

Given all this, why of all people is Rick Reilly publicly telling Tiger Woods how to live his life? Making Reilly's arguments even less credible, not once in his column does he refer to his own past shortcomings as a husband and father. And yet Reilly has the audacity to claim that Tiger has "lost his mind." Lost his mind? Really, Rick?

Moreover, in the column – as if stolen right out of a chick lit fantasy tale – Reilly preposterously proposes, among other things, that Tiger beg for forgiveness on Oprah, skip the Masters (!) and possibly the U.S. Open (!!), spend 24 hours a day on his marriage (that sounds fun), fire his caddy, fire his agent and get some "new friends."

Are you @#$% kidding me, Rick?

Not that Tiger needs my advice either, but never one to complain without offering solutions, here’s what the world's most recognizable athlete should do: get divorced, surround himself with his closest friends, keep caddy Steve Williams as close by as possible, avoid the press (especially hypocrites like Reilly), play hours upon hours of golf and start winning tournaments again.

That’s it.

And while Tiger goes back to work, the Rick Reilly's of the world should join the rest of us in reality and acknowledge that marriage is no longer a viable lifestyle choice for the modern day professional athlete – especially for someone with Tiger’s remarkably high level of visibility. Unless they’re in the Kurt Warner camp whose fear of retribution from Jesus for stepping outside their marriage is bigger than their fear of TMZ, marriage doesn't work for even the average pro star.

Beyond the embarrassment of getting caught fooling around and the lives around you being temporarily humiliated in the process (note I didn’t use the words "permanently" or "ruin"), marriage isn’t even practical for pro athletes on a business level anymore. In the old days, an athlete had to get married to improve his image with sponsors and then fooled around on the side while the press protected him. These days, not only don’t they need marriage for the sake of their sponsors (how many endorsements has Derek Jeter lost out on by being single all these years?), but by getting married they’re setting themselves up to fail as everyone is the media now and outing celebrities is the cheap path to boosting web traffic. I guarantee when the news of Woods’ various affairs came out every athlete north of 40 years old from Michael Jordan to Arnold Palmer thought: "Phew! Thank god the internet wasn’t around when I was at the top of my game! (wink, wink)." And yet Reilly adamantly insists that Tiger go back to the marriage well? What is this; the 1950s, Rick?

This isn’t to suggest that I condone what happened with Tiger (lying is lying, regardless of whom you’re lying to) or that I don’t feel bad for Elin Woods and their two kids, because I feel awful for them. I come from a divorced home and know it’s not easy (and my parents marital problems certainly weren’t on the cover of every trashy women's magazine at the grocery store checkout line...sorry, girls, but it's your magazines that are turning this non-story into a national outrage). So whatever Elin is owed based on their prenuptial agreement, Tiger should triple it – maybe even quadruple it – for the painful public embarrassment he caused her and her family and for lying to her. But if Tiger really does care for her and love her, money’s not enough: he should let her go free rather than commence the Reilly-endorsed charade of saving the marriage through counseling, groveling and skipping golf tournaments. At this point, all that stuff just takes valuable time away from the driving range. Time Tiger will need to win all four majors next year as part of his "Fuck You" tour.

Like many celebrities – Rick Reilly included – Tiger did something really fundamentally stupid long before he cheated on his wife: he got married too young. Clearly Tiger, still a young man, wasn’t ready to stay within the boundaries of the marriage he and Elin agreed upon (some celebrities have open marriages; I suspect this wasn’t one of them). But rather than double-down on stupid by attempting to salvage his marriage only to get caught again (and he will get caught again), Tiger should do the right thing, ignore everything Rick Reilly and other would-be marriage counselors in the media are suggesting and BE SINGLE.

Besides, women dig single dads. Just ask Rick Reilly.

The Curse of Auburn Hills... (Nuggets/Pistons recap)

2009-12-11T03:34:57Z

The best thing that could probably happen for the Nuggets in Detroit would be an empty The Palace at Auburn Hills somehow catching fire and burning to the ground. The losing streak continues as Denver falls to Detroit on some very curse like plays.

I want to take a look at this game from each half … so I’m writing this at halftime. The score is 52-50 Pistons. The Nuggets are allowing Detroit to dictate the feel of this game. When Detroit wants to play slow … Denver is playing in a half court set. When Detroit is getting out and running … the Nuggets offense begins to pick up and play quicker, but they are playing sloppy and turning the ball over. I’m not a fan of letting the other team set the pace, especially when the Nuggets are supposed to be the superior squad. Denver should be imposing their will on Detroit, but things are not going that way right now. If I didn’t know any better I would guess that Denver was the team that played last night, not Detroit and that’s a bad sign on the road.

Charlie Villanueva has 19 points at the half and Rodney Stuckey has 16. Villanueva may as well cut his left arm off because he’s not going to use it … somebody ought to let the Nuggets defenders know this. The positives for Denver’s offense, Melo has 20 points on 8-13 shooting and J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen have 8 and 7 points respectively off the bench.

Billups looked for his shot a little too much in the first half going 1-6 from the floor and notching just 1 assist. The Nuggets tend to let Billups dictate the offense, so if he’s looking for his shot and not looking to set up his teammates the Nuggets take that to sometimes mean that they should shoot the ball every time they touch it.

Detroit is winning the rebounding battle right now 21-19. The Nuggets are doing a decent job on the defensive boards, but there are some guys looking to leak out on the break instead of making sure that the ball has been secured. And speaking off ball security, Denver has 8 turnovers in the first half and that has got to change.

Let's see how the second half plays out ...

Probably two of the most frustrating latter quarters of basketball I've ever witnessed.

A sampling of the frustrating plays:

Tied at 73-73 J.R. Smith has a fastbreak dunk and his double-clutch effort falls shot and he misses the dunk badly.
With just a couple ticks left on the shot clock Charlie Villanueva gets a cross court pass and throws up a prayer three-pointer and sinks it.
With the Nuggets down one late Nene secures a rebound and trys to just hand the ball to Billups, Ben Wallace steps in and steals the ball. Detroit hits a layup going up three.
Melo heads to the foul line with Detroit up 101-98 ... Melo goes 1-2 from the foul line.
With 28.5 seconds on the clock the ball is knocked out of bounds and after a video review Detroit is rewarded the ball.
With just 6.1 seconds on the clock ... Billups gets the ball and hesitates to take the three, takes the ball inside and misses the tying basket badly.
Nuggets lose their 13th in a row in Detroit 101-99.

This is the kind of loss that just stings. The Nuggets might be one of the best teams at wasting special offensive efforts ... Melo scores 40 points and Denver can't find a way to win.

A 2-2 roadtrip may be called good by some, but Denver should have won this game and if anyone would like to head to Detroit with me, rent a wrecking ball, make sure The Palace is empty and then tear that place down ... email me.

Views you can use:

The Nuggets are now 0-13 in Detroit since the 1995-96 season (remember we didn't play in Detroit during the strike shortened 1998-99 season or it could be 0-14).
Billups, 2 and Lawson, 4 combine for just 6 assists and as a team Denver tallies just 14 assists ... that is not going to cut it on the road.
Rodney Stuckey goes for 25 and Charlie Villanueva goes for 27 for Detroit.
Nene once again fails to score in double figures with only 8 points on the night.

The day after:

After thinking about some things this morning I wanted to add a few thoughts ...

Melo's defensive effort throughout the game is back to his old effort levels aka not good. Just noticing a few things like Melo leaking off his man after a shot. The play I'm thinking of in particular is where Melo threw the alley-oop to Joey Graham ... nice play, but if you watch the other end Melo was covering Jerebko and when the shot went up Jerebko went to the rim and Melo went to the half court line. Jerebko barely missed pulling down the board. If we are wondering where all the offensive rebounds are coming from ... this could be one spot to look at.
To harp on Melo's defensive effort a little more ... I recall another play where Melo thought he was fouled and instead of hustling back on defense he commented to the refs and then jogged back and pointed to Arron Afflalo to go ahead and cover 6'10'' Jerebko (who was streaking to the bucket) as Melo took the undersized guard who was just crossing midcourt. Jerebko got the ball and scored an easy layup on Afflalo who was scrambling trying to cover Melo's man.
Nene has lost a little bit of his aggressiveness going to the rim. And the biggest thing Nene is missing out on are shots themselves. Through Denver's first 20 games Nene failed to score in double figures just twice. In the last three games Nene has not posted double figures and Denver is 1-2. And in those three games Nene is averaging just 5 shots a game. Not having your big man involved in the offense is detrimental for Denver.
The Denver backup bigs are not getting the job done. Nene, K-Mart and Bird are all fine. Bird is battling injuries and big men like Bird are never good when they are asked to cover guards out on the perimeter (more on this next bullet). But Joey Graham, Renaldo Balkman, Malik Allen and Johan Petro are not the answer for Denver. Graham has a little offense, but his defense is either over-exaggerated or was never very good to begin with. Balkman doesn't have the size, Allen doesn't have the legs or tenacity to be a rebounder (3 reb. career average) and Petro doesn't have the basketball IQ to get the job done right now. This team was unable to find an adequate big man in the offseason to come in and it's really showing when one of the "Big 3" bigs is unable to go. Denver must address this issue because the depth on the frontline will not get the job done and insurance is always a good idea.
Denver's constant switching on pick-and-rolls has got to stop. The book is out on the Nuggets ... pick-and-roll them to death and you will have offensive success because of the mismatches it'll create. Jeremy of Roundball Mining Company has harped on this point for as long as I can remember and he's correct ... Denver must quit all the switching on defense.
I love J.R. Smith's unselfishness. Unselfish and J.R. Smith? No, it isn't an oxymoron. When Smith gets the ball you can see him working out in his head what to do with it and you can see that one of his primary thoughts when he gets the ball with a defender on him is ... "I'm not open ... who is open." The more Smith I see the more I like.
The Chauncey Billups and Ty Lawson backcourt is not one of my favorites. I like both players, but give Billups his rest. Afflalo and Smith are each too good to be on the bench at the same time and one of them needs to be in the game at all times.

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy AP Photos: Duane Burleson

Game 23 Preview & Thread: Nuggets at Pistons (5:30pm MDT)

2009-12-10T17:48:35Z

The Nuggets are in Detroit tonight to take on a Pistons team that is fresh off a 90-86 victory over the 76ers. Denver exorcised a lot of demons last season, but they let one slip away ... tonight they will try to get the job done.

The particulars ...

Records:
Denver: 16-6
Detroit: 9-12 (6-4 at home, 3-8 on the road) (key wins: vs. Orlando, Atlanta and Milwaukee)
Injuries:
Denver: Kenyon Martin (dislocated left pinky (there you go reader KarlSucks)) is out and Malik Allen (flu) is listed as day-to-day.
Detroit: Ben Gordon (left ankle sprain) is questionable after sitting out last night in Philadelphia. Richard Hamilton (right ankle sprain) and Tayshaun Prince (ruptured disc - lower back) are both out tonight.

Opposition's Take: Motown String Music

Click the following video as you read this post ... go ahead ... click it and have a listen. It's a Tom Petty song ...

Why in the world would I start the body of this post off with a classic Tom Petty song from 1994 that was released as a single in 1995 and won the Grammy Award for "Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male"? For the same reason that I'll tell you that in May of 1995 the film Braveheart was released. Also, in January of 1995 the O.J. Simpson murder trial began. On March 27, 1995 Forrest Gump won the Academy Award for "Best Picture."

But the date that should mean the most to Nuggets fans is this one: March 10, 1995. That was the date of the last Nuggets victory in Detroit. Denver won that game 99-88, led by Jalen Rose's 20 points, in front of the fourth largest regular season crowd that year for the Pistons of 21,454.

Denver has come close to winning along the way in Detroit ... like on November 13, 1996 when the Nuggets lost in overtime to the Pistons 95-94 or on March 31, 2002 when Calbert Cheaney scored 22 points in a 86-82 losing effort. But the closest the Nuggets have come to victory in Detroit since '95 was March 26, 2007.

On that fateful day in late March the Nuggets had a 98-95 lead with just 1.5 seconds to play and here is what unfolded:

Rasheed Wallace scooped up a loose ball and hit a 60-foot buzzer-beater to force overtime, then added another key 3 to help the Pistons defeat the Denver Nuggets 113-109 Monday.

The Nuggets appeared to have the game won as they prepared to inbound the ball at midcourt with a 98-95 lead and 1.5 seconds to play.

Marcus Camby's short pass, though, was tipped by Tayshaun Prince, and Wallace threw up a desperation two-handed set shot that banked in as the buzzer sounded.

Even before that Lakers series the Nuggets had a history of bad inbounds plays ...

But the good thing about the NBA is that every season you get another chance. Seems sort of odd that Melo has not been able to beat the team that should have drafted him in their own building. Most guys do all they can to try to stick it to the teams that should have drafted them, but Melo has been unsuccessful in exacting revenge on the Pistons in Auburn Hills.

The Nuggets get their first crack at the $95+ million future of the Detroit Pistons tonight. Of course I'm talking about the two big free agent signings of Ben Gordan and Charlie Villanueva, but the Pistons will probably be without Gordan again tonight as he is nursing a sprained left ankle. So who is going to play for this suddenly new look Pistons team that will be without Gordon, Hamilton and Prince?

Detroit has a couple retreads in the starting lineup with Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins back in blue and red to go along with the excitable Jason Maxiell, Rodney Stucky (the Billups replacement) and Jonas Jerebko. The Swedish second round draft pick Jerebko has worked his way into the starting lineup and is having some success early in his rookie campaign.

In his last three games Jerebko has posted a 17-10, 10-11 and 16-7 point and rebound totals all in winning efforts. The 6'10'' and 230 pounder is going to be very interesting to watch tonight. Charlie V. has been coming off the bench since returning from a broken nose and the hairless wonder will probably be wearing the Rip Hamilton mask again tonight.

The Pistons bench features two former first round busts in Kwame Brown and Chris Wilcox, Wilcox is making $3 million this season and has recorded 12 Did Not Play - Coach's Decisions this season ... pretty good way to spend 3 millon bucks. (Note: Denver is paying Antonio McDyess $3 million this season to play for the Spurs.) The bench also features backup point guard Will Bynum and incredibly skinny rookie Austin Daye who goes 6'11'' and 200 pounds.

If Detroit had health on their side they would be a pretty deep squad, but with a couple veterans out the young guys are getting some good minutes that will come in handy down the road should Detroit be in the playoff hunt in the Eastern Conference (right now at 9-12 they would be the 8th Seed).

If the Nuggets can pull off the win and snap their 12 game losing streak in Detroit then they will finish the roadtrip 3-1 ... pretty good considering a back-to-back was in there. The Pistons might be a little drained from their game last night in Philly and the Nuggets must take advantage of those tired legs. Denver hasn't put together a solid first half on this trip and tonight it'd be nice to see them come out with some killer instinct and tough defense.

I'll be watching Ty Lawson tonight because as Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post reported yesterday:

Lawson's day off.

The Nuggets traveled to Detroit on Tuesday night, but Ty Lawson said Karl let him stay in North Carolina so that the rookie can spend some time with his old teammates and coaches in Chapel Hill, where Lawson led the Tar Heels to an NCAA title last season.

That was a pretty kind thing of Karl to do for his prized rookie and we'll see if the "rook" is focused and ready to go after having some nice leisure time in Chapel Hill.

Injury update:

Thanks to reader Phil H. for finding the Post's story listing K-Mart out tonight. Denver is 0-2 without Kenyon this season and we all saw what happened against Charlotte without Martin. Denver's defense must not allow Detroit easy buckets in the paint and without the defensive "QB" the Nuggets must communicate on defense. The areas where the Bobcats hurt Denver without Kenyon: on the boards, points in the paint and on the pick-and-roll.

Joey Graham's defense got some talk during training camp and he must come with a good effort tonight. If Graham isn't effective, Balkman may see some minutes if Malik Allen isn't able to go and perhaps Johan Petro could see some time although a shooter like Jerebko could pose problems for the Denver bigs.

Views you can use:

Denver's losing streak may have been 13, but thankfully they didn't have to travel to Detroit during the strike shortened 1998-99 season.
Melo's career games in Detroit:
- - 2008-09: Suspended by team.
  - 2007-08: 8-15 shooting, 27 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists
  - 2006-07: 6-19 shooting, 13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists
  - 2005-06: 4-15 shooting, 12 points, 4 rebounds, 0 assists
  - 2004-05: 2-13 shooting, 5 points, 4 rebounds, 0 assists
  - 2003-04: 9-20 shooting, 20 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Carlos Osorio

Golden Nuggets (Links)

2009-12-09T21:59:44Z

Since we're in-between games, here are some links that we thought Nuggets fans might appreciate checking out...

-Yahoo! Sports' Marc Spears (formerly of The Denver Post) writes in length about Nuggets coach George Karl's contract extension situation. According to Spears, Karl turned down a one-year extension over the summer.

-SI.com's Arash Markazi writes about Karl, Roy Williams and the Nuggets organization's affection for rookie Ty Lawson.

-ESPN.com's TrueHoop takes an in-depth look into former NBA referee Tim Donaghy's various claims and attempts to debunk many of them, notably current NBA referee Joey Crawford's alleged preferential treatment towards former Nugget Allen Iverson.

-CBSSports.com's Ken Berger (who wrote a nice piece the other day on Donaghy's allegations in regards to the Allen Iverson/Utah game discussed on "60 Minutes") serves up commentary on A.I. passing over a contender to go back to the lowly 76ers.

-BasetBawful takes a shot at the Nuggets record, claiming we've had an easy schedule thus far.

No K-Mart, no win... (Nuggets/Bobcats recap)

2009-12-09T04:39:42Z

The Nuggets let one slip away in Charlotte. Without their defensive "quarterback" Kenyon Martin, the Nuggets defense gave up too many second chance points and easy buckets in the lane. Down the road losses like this may catch up with the 16-6 Denver Nuggets.

It would be easy to chalk this loss up to the team being tired and playing the second night of a back-to-back against a well rested home team, but the Nuggets inability to close out quarters, rebound and share the basketball all played a role in tonight's 107-95 loss more so than fatigue.

Last night after the Nuggets game I was able to catch the HBO replay of the middleweight fight between Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez. The fight was basically a slug-fest that came down to the last man standing. After the fight it was anyone's guess as to who the judges would give the fight to, but one thing was for sure ... it was a very close bout. The bloodied and battered Williams (who was knocked down in the first round) waited anxiously, but I felt Martinez would earn the win ... one score came in 114-114, another 115-113 and the final score ... 119-110 in favor of Williams. How was Williams able to steal such a close looking fight? Well, he did all the little things that boxing judges tend to like ... he was aggressive forcing the action and always came back after a flurry by Martinez. The Bobcats basically did the same thing to the Nuggets ... each time Denver made a run and tried to take control of the game Charlotte would answer right back and was the aggressor tonight.

The Bobcats utilized another boxing trick against the Nuggets as they were able to "steal rounds" or in basketball terms ... they finished quarters extremely well. In the first quarter Denver made a nice run to get back into the game, but Charlotte at the 1:58 mark with a 22-21 lead went on a 7-5 run to finish the quarter up 29-26.

In the second quarter at the 2:03 mark Denver was up 49-43, but gave up a 11-0 run before the half and Charlotte went into the locker room up 54-49.

In the third quarter at the 4:24 mark Denver was up 65-61, but gave up a 17-10 run and Charlotte was up 78-75 heading into the fourth.

In the fourth quarter at "winning time" at the 5:56 mark and the score tied 87-87 the Bobcats finished the game with a 20-8 run and finished off the Nuggets.

So, Charlotte utilized four runs to end each quarter and outscored Denver in the above mentioned paragraphs 55-23 ... ouch. I think I may have mentioned it in a recap before, but I believe that Pepto Bismol may have had a hidden sponsorship in tonight's contest ... upset stomach ... diarrhea.

Another area in which Denver shit the bed tonight ... rebounding. The Nuggets missed the roughly 8 rebounds per game that the athletic Kenyon Martin provides. Gerald Wallace terrorized the Nuggets on the glass, he grabbed game high 16 boards (5 offensive) and just seemed to want the ball more than anyone else on the floor. Wallace got to a lot of misses that Martin can usually corral ... ones high above the crowd. Martin's replacements Renaldo Balkman and Joey Graham were able to replace 6 rebounds for the Nuggets tonight, but Charlotte outrebounded Denver 43-35.

On the offensive boards the Bobcats were able to get to 33% of the missed shots on the Nuggets end by grabbing 14 of the possible 42 boards on the Nuggets end. As much as I hate to second guess rotations, I almost wanted to see Johan Petro get a little burn because I think his size would have been a different matchup than going small and trying to let Balkman and Graham go up against the athletic Wallace (on the glass anyway). But I'm sure that Petro would not have made the difference ... but like in the NFL, you always want the backup QB if your starter is struggling ... that is until the backup actually comes in.

Now to the area of the game that I like to focus on ... sharing the ball. The Nuggets recorded just 11 team assists tonight. Denver did not do a good job of getting each other the ball. J.R. Smith led the team with 4 assists as Billups, Lawson, Melo, Afflalo and Graham combined for the other seven. Those are horrific numbers for an NBA team that plays its best basketball when they are sharing the ball and getting out in transition.

I'm still not totally sure why when the Nuggets face good defensive teams and are unable to hit their usual shots that they seem to revert to one-on-one basketball, but they do and it rarely results in wins. The 2-16 performance from beyond the arc didn't help either. I also think both teams may have combined for well over 600 missed shots in the paint tonight.

Denver in their six losses now has stinkbombs to three teams that were under .500 at the time they played them (and one to a team that is now under .500 in the Bucks). The Nuggets now head to Detroit for a game on Thursday with the retooled Pistons ... a place that Denver has had a lot of trouble winning.

Another one gets away and Denver is now 0-2 when K-Mart is unable to play.

Views you can use:

George Karl is now 20-19 versus Larry Brown.
Joey Graham had a nice third quarter going 3-4 from the field in the period. Graham was 3-3 in the third and then decided to take a "heat check" shot from the corner. Here is what I wrote when he took that fourth shot, "The heat check is the dumbest shot in basketball. You're telling me that after working hard to get open three times that it's a good idea to chuck up an off balance, rushed and contested shot? Why would that ever work? The "heat check" should be called "the cooler.""
Nene can't have offensive games like he did tonight ... he finished 3-6 for 8 points, but basically owned Tyson Chandler whenever he got the ball. When the Nuggets don't work Nene into the offense the entire team struggles.
Bennett Salvatore is a shitty ref. Check this picture out. At the 2:15 mark of the fourth quarter the score was 95-91 Bobcats ... Melo set up position on the top of the block with Stephen Jackson trying to front him, as Billups was making a move to the baseline (using Melo as a shield), Jackson did his best Manu Ginobili and flooped to the floor (pretending Melo's left arm chopped him in the throat ... Salvatore (on the baseline behind Melo) bought the play hook, line and sinker for Jackson and called an offensive foul on Melo. So, instead of Billups driving to the hoop basically alone and maybe cutting the lead to 2 ... Charlotte takes over and pushes the lead to 97-91. I'm not saying that play changed the game, but it is just funny that refs get suckered into these plays on a nightly basis. What could have been an exciting ending in Charlotte instead turned into another boring ending in the NBA. Oh and Salvatore got a little more involved in the game after that by calling technicals on both Melo and Billups. Melo's came because Stephen Jackson drove and spun right into Melo and threw up a wild off balance shot ... Salvatore gave Jackson the bailout call and set Melo off. I know the Nuggets get their share of calls, but with all the ref scrutiny opened up by Tim Donaghy ... we are all watching with more of a mindful eye.

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Chuck Burton

Game 22 Preview & Thread: Nuggets at Bobcats (5pm MDT)

2009-12-08T21:22:09Z

Denver boasts a 2-0 record on their current roadtrip with impressive second half efforts against the Spurs and 76ers. The Nuggets mission now is to continue with their impressive effort in the second-half of this four game road swing, starting tonight against an up-and-down Bobcats squad.

The particulars ...

Records:
Denver: 16-5
Charlotte: 8-11 (7-3 at home, 1-8 on the road) (key wins: vs. Atlanta and Cleveland)
Injuries:
Denver: Kenyon Martin (dislocated left little finger) is a game time decision. X-ray following the game came back negative. Malik Allen (flu) is listed as day-to-day and was inactive last night against the 76ers.
Charlotte: None to report.

Opposition's Take: Rufus on Fire

The Nuggets will be playing their 7th back-to-back match of the season tonight in Charlotte where they will look to improve their 4-2 record on the second night of the sets. The Bobcats are well rested and last played December 5th when they beat Philadelphia 106-105.

The first intriguing matchup tonight boils down to two old friends ... Larry Brown vs. George Karl: The Carolina Boys. Karl has the early advantage because he gets to use/brag/drool-over UNC alum Ty Lawson while Brown is having to play a Duke Blue Devil, rookie Gerald Henderson. I'm sure some friendly conversation will take place with the rookies being the subject.

But Henderson isn't even the best Gerald on the team, that honor belongs to Gerald Wallace. The 6'7'' Wallace is leading the NBA in rebounding with 12.2 boards per game ... just ahead of Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard (12.1). When Wallace isn't pulling down boards, he's scoring. The ultra-athletic forward is the second leading scorer for Charlotte with 15.6 point per game.

Charlotte's leading scorer? The recently acquired Stephen Jackson with 17 ppg. The "I don’t want to be a role model. Being captain was overrated to me, anyway. You don’t do anything but go out before the game and talk to the refs. I don’t want to do that, anyway," Jackson will be playing in his eleventh game with the Bobcats and after dropping his first three games with the team, Charlotte is a respectable 5-2 with Jackson on board. But it's worth mentioning that one of those losses (Dec. 4th) came in New Jersey against an 0-18 Nets squad.

Another thing the Bobcats have in common with the Nets ... they are the second lowest scoring team in the league at 89.4 ppg just ahead of New Jersey (87.6). The trade for Jackson was essential because the Bobcats needed somebody to come in and take some of the scoring load. Many people thought the scorer coming in before the season was going to be Allen Iverson, but Charlotte chose to wait and trade for Jackson and his three-years and over $27 million left on his contract after this season.

In another salary dump move the Bobcats traded for Tyson Chandler. Yes, the same Tyson Chandler who has never developed a reliable offensive move other than the alley-oop and can't seem to stay healthy. Chandler has missed two games this season, but can still be a big time rebounder when healthy and the Nuggets must not allow him to be a factor on the boards since they'll already be worrying about Wallace.

A couple other interesting names that jump out ... Boris Diaw and Raymond Felton. Diaw is a versatile forward who can go into attack mode on offense unless you play him physically and K-Mart is the perfect cover for that. Felton is Brown's UNC connection at point guard. Felton isn't going to shoot lights out, but he does possess decent basketball IQ and will try to get into the lane where he can set up teammates or get himself in the scoring column.

If this game gets out of hand then there is a chance you might think you're seeing double. Joey Graham's twin brother Stephen plays for the Bobcats, but most likely wont see any action until garbage time or if one of the wings gets into serious foul trouble early.

Joey on the other hand saw some action last night as Melo was struggling to find his rhythm against the 76ers. Several comments in the game recap last night mentioned seeing Melo in a foul mood before, during and after the game ... some readers witnessing this from their living room and a couple seeing it first hand at the game. And reader BrianD pointed out the following sentence from the game story in the Denver Post:

After the game, Anthony slipped out of the locker room without talking to reporters, a rarity for the normally cordial star.

The Nuggets will definitely need a solid effort from Melo tonight if they expect to beat a Charlotte team that is loaded with wing players and keeps their opposition right around the 90 point mark. I'm sure I wont be the only one watching the body language and effort coming from Denver's superstar and the league's leading scorer.

The Bobcats are an up-and-down team and the Nuggets must make sure the Bobcats stay down tonight.

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Gregory Smith

Are NBA games fixed?...

2009-12-08T07:24:05Z

Now that Tim Donaghy is talking, so are NBA fans worldwide. And the question on everyone's mind (except Lakers fans) is: are NBA games fixed? What if I told you: sort of, but the problems with NBA refereeing can go away with three simple solutions.

Watching disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy's interview on "60 Minutes" last night, here are my reactions - as a fan of a small market team - to Donaghy's four most debated allegations. At the end I'll give my very simple solutions to solve the many problems - all legitimate whether you believe Donaghy's honesty or not - that Donaghy has brought to light...

Based on insider information, including referee crews, Donaghy could pick the winner 75-80% of the time.

This one I believe 100%. I've talked to a number of people affiliated with the league in the past who have told me that if they could bet on games (rightfully illegal if you work for or with the NBA), they'd be right over 75% of the time. Think about your own workplace for a moment. Think about all the secrets, off-the-record and under-the-radar information you know about everyone around you. Now transplant that to the NBA, and if you were a league employee of any sort (coach, player, trainer, ref, etc), you'd know all kinds of details that the average gambling fan would never know - ranging from personal problems with the players and coaches to ref biases to health issues unreported. It's the very definition of "insider training."

Certain referees have biases - good or bad - against certain players and coaches.

I was beside myself in shock to hear this one! (I'm being sarcastic in case you didn't pick up on that.) As my stepfather would proudly say: "No shit, Sherlock". I've often written on this blog that the fundamental problem with NBA refereeing is that they ref the player and not the play (borrowing that line from my Lakers fan cousin Paul). This has been going on since the NBA's infancy and will forever continue. This is also why I can't stand players who whine with officials because I believe it exacerbates the problem. At the end of the day, refs are human beings and if they're getting barked at constantly by the same player (read: Smith, J.R.) and perhaps in an inappropriate manner, the refs will inevitably - even if it's just subconscious - screw the player with bad calls.

Even though he bet on games that he was refereeing, Donaghy didn't let that influence how he called the game.

Even though the FBI claims that this statement holds up, I'm still not buying it. As part of their "Outside the Lines" piece on this whole Donaghy fiasco, ESPN's Scott Van Pelt probed Donaghy a bit further on this one but Donaghy is standing by his statement. I just can't imagine a degenerate gambler unable to resist blowing the whistle here or there to favor a bet he made, especially in garbage time.

The NBA has a star system and refs are told to call games a certain way to ensure big market teams led by big stars end up victorious.

There's no question that the overall NBA benefits from having its big market teams and big stars competing in June every summer. That said, I've never thought that the NBA can outright fix games through their officials but rather, can "nudge" outcomes in certain directions. I've also never bought that an edict comes from NBA commissioner David Stern's office to call games in one way or the other, but do think that it's implied as to how a game should be called among the refereeing fraternity. (If a memo was sent from NBA headquarters to officials to sway games in a specific direction, don't you think one would have leaked out by now? Just ask Tiger Woods how well secrecy via digital communication goes over in 2009.)

We've seen a "star system" time and time again since the NBA's inception (mostly benefiting the Lakers recently and Michael Jordan's Bulls in years past as current examples) and as a Nuggets fan, I've learned to live with it. I've always believed that when you're playing a team like the Lakers or the Celtics and it's in the NBA's best interest for them to win, it just means you - as the small market team - have to have a better game plan, play harder, avoid mistakes and keep your mouth shut with the refs. Make no mistake about it: the Nuggets didn't lose to the Lakers in the 2009 Western Conference Finals because of bad officiating. Bennett Salvatore didn't throw two errant inbounds passes for Denver or light up the Nuggets like Kobe Bryant did in the first half of Game 6 to seal the series for Los Angeles.

But what about the 2002 Sacramento Kings, you ask? The Kings didn't lose the 2002 WCF to the Lakers due to bad officiating either, but certainly lost one key game, Game 6, due to horrendous officiating that swayed the Lakers victory (I'm sorry Lakers fans, but the 15 foul shot disparity is too great to ignore). But whomever ref'd game Game 7 didn't miss the numerous free throws - 14 missed freebies in total on 53% FT shooting - that cost the Kings that series. Now Game 7 of the 2000 WCF with the Trail Blazers is a different story. That was a blatant example of the NBA aiding and abetting the Lakers to victory. The free throw disparity was Lakers 37, Blazers 16: an abomination that the NBA should forever be embarrassed about.

So if you're scoring at home, I'm buying about half of what Donaghy is saying...but already knew/assumed most of that stuff about NBA refereeing in the first place. Which brings up the main argument against Donaghy's accusations: that he's feeding into a preconceived stereotype about NBA refs that all NBA fans - sans myopic, moronic, rose-colored-glasses Lakers fans - already believed was true anyway. In other words, he's throwing fuel on an already simmering fire.

To top things off for Nuggets fans, several of our players - former and current - have been in the eye of this Donaghy storm. During the "60 Minutes" interview, they replayed a Nuggets/Jazz game from January 6th, 2007. A game in which Donaghy claims that the refs were essentially out to get Allen Iverson for having berated referee Steve Javie. Donaghy asserts that Iverson got hacked routinely and calls weren't made and that Iverson was called often for "palming" (i.e. traveling) more frequently than normal as retribution for Iverson's behavior towards Javie. Before you leap to conclusions, read CBSSports.com's Ken Berger column debunking Donaghy's claims about this game, citing that Iverson took more free throw attempts than any other player and was the victim of just one blatant non-call on Mehmet Okur.

The second Nugget whose name came up today was Chauncey Billups, whom Donaghy - in that "Outside the Lines" piece - claims is disliked by some officials. I'm not surprised, actually. Billups may be a great leader, great community member and great player (yes, yes and yes), but he's a whiner. And so is Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, Kenyon Martin and before this season, you could throw Iverson, Marcus Camby, Dahntay Jones and Linas Kleiza onto the All-Whining Team, too. Maybe I watch the Nuggets too much to fairly compare their constant complaining against the complaining of other teams, but other than the Spurs and Kobe Bryant, are there bigger whiners with the refs in the NBA than our Nuggets? Hence why we haven't gotten a lot of favorable calls over the years, and I've mentioned this ad nauseum on this site in the past.

But back to the title of this column: Are NBA games fixed? Sort of, but not in a way that a good game plan can't overcome (Lakers/Blazers Game 7 is an extreme example that I've had trouble finding a duplicate of). If I thought NBA games were fixed or premeditated in any way, I wouldn't give the NBA a nickel of my money for tickets and merchandise, and certainly wouldn't spend the hours I devote to covering the Nuggets and the NBA with this site.

That said, Donaghy has a lot of valid points that must be addressed and I just so happen to have solutions to the three main problems that have made NBA refereeing a running joke as of late.

Solution #1: Referee "stats" must be made transparent and available

How is it that I know how many times Ty Lawson gets his shot blocked per game but don't know how many times Bennett Salvatore calls traveling per game? Or how many times Dick Bavetta calls offensive charges per game? Or how many times Bavetta calls offensive charges against the Nuggets specifically at Pepsi Center vs. on the road? Long ago suggested by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and recently proposed by ESPN.com's Bill Simmons, we MUST have transparent statistics for referees. The NBA claims that it keeps detailed records to review their refs. If this is true, where are these records and why aren't they online for everyone to see? Moreover, I suspect many NBA teams (hopefully including the Nuggets) keep their own internal "ref stats" so they can make the necessary adjustments when facing a Salvatore vs. a Bavetta vs. a Javie, etc. Make these stats public already, dammit!

Solution #2: Disallow players from talking to officials

I hate to legislate emotion out of the game like the NFL does, but if you want to know where referee bias comes from, it comes from interacting with the players too much. Players like Chauncey and Kobe may be perpetual whiners, but there's a method to their madness: they figure that by annoying the shit out of an official for three-and-a-half quarters, they'll get a call their way (or in Kobe's case, multiple calls) when the game is on the line in the fourth quarter. I'm not sure how the NBA would institute this and it would take a while to adjust to it, but if you made barking at officials an automatic technical foul and eliminated the ref/player relationship altogether, we might finally see refs call the plays and not the players anymore. (But don't take my word for it, watch George Karl and former NBA referees tell you themselves in this ESPN "Outside the Lines" piece that aired when the Donaghy story broke last year. Kudos to Denver Stiffs reader Big Mickey D for hunting this down!)

Solution #3: Add more referees and rotate them more sporadically

I was in the minority of NBA fans who wanted to see the replacement refs. In agreement with Simmons, I've long believed that NBA refs are too old, too short and (now clearly) too biased to fairly officiate games. Putting Donaghy's allegations aside, do you really think Dick Bavetta can call an honest game anymore? He's been around way too long. But assuming the NBA isn't going to pull a "Logan's Run" on aging officials, let's at least add more young, tall, and preferably former players to the referee ranks and have more referee crews. This way, the Bavettas and the Salvatores ref specific teams less than they do now, disabling whatever bias they have from eating away at a chunk of a team's season. (Remember when Dan Issel coached the Nuggets and Javie refereed our games it was all but assumed to be a loss? Come to think of it, whenever Issel coached a game during his second stint with the Nuggets we should have assumed the loss.)

As bad as the Donaghy story may be for the integrity of the NBA, I believe in the long run it could be the wake up call the NBA desperately needed. But don't forget the power and the voice that we have as fans because remember, we're taxpayers. When you buy that NBA ticket, NBA league pass, Nuggets workout pants (like I bought today during NBA.com's 20% off men's apparel sale), bobble head dolls, jerseys and so forth, it gives you the right as a taxpayer to voice your opinion when those who collect our hard-earned money (from David Stern to Dick Bavetta) aren't being transparent and earnest with us. All we as fans ask for is a fair fight and the least the NBA can do is prove that it's always a fair fight....even if the Lakers have appeared in half the NBA Finals ever played (I'm just saying).

The NBA should listen to what Donaghy is saying, listen to us and change their ways. It will only make the product we already love much more believable and transparent. Why is that a bad thing?

(I'll be printing this email and mailing it in letter form to David Stern's office tomorrow.)

Photo courtesy of NBAE via Getty Images

Homecoming spoiled... (Nuggets/76ers recap)

2009-12-08T02:57:56Z

The Nuggets are all business and this bodes well for the duration of the season. The 76ers - with or without Allen Iverson - are a mess.

Early in the third quarter, this game was shaping up to be a mirror of prior Nuggets regular season disappointments in emotion-packed games. But thanks to a little patience and fantastic point guard play by both Chauncey Billups and Ty Lawson, the Nuggets were able to shake off an awful night by Carmelo Anthony and crush the 76ers at home.

Like many of you I'm sure, I couldn't be prouder of this Nuggets team. I'd argue that this game combined with the wins at Portland and at San Antonio are the most significant/meaningful of our 16 wins thus far. These three games are showing us that when the Nuggets comport themselves as professionals and don't let the emotions of the moment get to them on the road, they're lethal. Not only do we have the Western Conference's second-best team residing in Denver, but if the Nuggets can win road games even when they're shooting poorly overall and Dick Bavetta is one of the referees, we might be rooting for the NBA's second-best team right now.

Did I mention that we've won 16 games?!

On the other end of the "success" spectrum, we have the lowly 76ers and their newest acquisition, Allen Iverson. First off, it's not fair to judge the Iverson comeback experience based on tonight's game. He hadn't played in an NBA game in over 30 days and has never been known to work as hard off the court as on the court, so he has some serious on-court conditioning to do. That said, Iverson was more than several steps slow on both ends, and Billups and Lawson basically embarrassed him. Moreover, the 76ers collectively were a mess - even when the going was good on the floor. They're not comfortable playing with each other and were routinely unsure of what to do with the ball. There's a reason why these guys have lost 10 straight. (By the way, I just heard Brent Barry on NBATV refer to Iverson needing to adjust to the "76ers system" - ha! - the 76ers have a system? Eddie Jordan coaches this team, right?)

But while the 76ers imploded the Nuggets capitalized during a furious third and fourth quarter rally during which we witnessed a 22-3 Nuggets run. Billups in particular was spectacular tonight en route to a near triple-double. He sensed Melo was forcing it (more on that shortly) and that his Nuggets teammates were caught up in the emotion of the night, evident by an inordinate number of turnovers, bad shots and sloppy plays in the first half. Billups was the coolest head on the floor. Shocking, I know.

And for the third straight game in a row, Lawson was integral to the Nuggets victory (we could have done without his second three-point attempt, but hey, he's a rookie). Not only did Lawson blow by Iverson a few times, but he dished out some big assists, somehow managed to yank down six rebounds and had a huge block on "The Answer". When asked after the game if guarding Lawson was like guarding his younger self, Iverson laughed it off and said "he's like lightning." Indeed.

Melo, meanwhile, had his worst game of the season and frankly, I'm glad his streak of 20-point games is over. Hopefully in the games to come on this road trip, Melo will go back to letting the game come to him rather than push his way into a 20-point outing. Melo was clearly forcing it from the opening tip and Nuggets coach George Karl deserves credit for keeping Melo on the bench during the Nuggets rally. It's not a big deal in the long run, it just wasn't Melo's night.

As often happens with these over-hyped games, this one turned into a bit of a snoozer. As long as the Nuggets are on the right side of a snoozer, I'll take another one of these any day of the week.

Photo courtesy of AP: Matt Slocum

A.I.'s career comes full circle (Game 20 Preview & Thread: Nuggets at 76ers)

2009-12-07T03:58:44Z

When assessing the Nuggets schedule back in October, who knew that they'd cap off their first quarter of the season with a game rife with so much intrigue? As Kenny Smith said on last Thursday's "NBA on TNT" pregame show, Monday night's Nuggets/76ers game is a "shut-the-door, tell-your-wife-and-kids-to-leave-you-alone" type game. I wonder why...

I still have my Allen Iverson Nuggets bobble head doll displayed prominently atop my bookshelf alongside a basketball autographed by the 1989-90 Nuggets (which my friend Justin claims ruins the value of the actual basketball), a framed collection of the Nuggets 1981-82 Topps card set and a few more "Nuggets" of memorabilia. I loved Iverson when he played for the Nuggets and love that he's back in the NBA. But of course - and perhaps amazingly - I love that he's not a Nugget anymore.

Make no mistake about it. When the Nuggets acquired Iverson on December 20, 2006 in exchange for point guard Andre Miller, power forward Joe Smith and two first round draft picks, I was elated. Like many Nuggets fans, I was convinced that the Nuggets overwhelmingly got the better end of the deal and were going to contend with the Lakers for the Western Conference crown for years to come. I remember my friend and fellow season ticket holder Dan sending an email around to a bunch of us Nuggets fans proclaiming "basketball dynasties follow me wherever I go!" (he had just moved back to Denver from Los Angeles at the time).

Upon arrival in Denver on a very snowy night in December, it appeared as though Iverson gave us more than our money's worth as ticket-paying fans: he hustled tirelessly, never stopped moving, played hard, took big shots, made big shots and kept the Nuggets afloat as they had been ravaged by suspensions to Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith after the "Madison Square Garden Melee" brawl. With Iverson leading the way, the shorthanded Nuggets finished a respectable 7-8 during Melo's 15-game absence (although the Nuggets did suffer an embarrassing, one-sided home loss to Miller's 76ers during that stretch) and in his first 50 games as a Nugget, Iverson averaged 24.8 ppg, a career second best 45.4% shooting from the field along with 7.2 apg and almost two steals per game. Almost immediately, Iverson was cementing his status as the second best shooting guard to ever wear a Nuggets uniform behind David Thompson and ahead of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, another undersized shooting guard who technically started at point guard like Iverson.

When Melo returned from the suspension, I too thought we had a new Nuggets dynasty on our hands that would match the Alex English/Fat Lever Golden Era of Nuggets basketball. But after playing just five games together, Iverson would be beset by injuries that knocked him out of eight of the next nine games. With 31 games to go, Melo and Iverson would finally pair up for 30 of them (Iverson rested in the final game). For the first 20 of those games, the Nuggets lost 11 but ended up finishing strong - hence head coach George Karl's statement to me that "they always put together seasons" - winning nine straight games and 10 of their final 11. Their reward? A first round playoff exit won easily by the eventual champion Spurs, even though the Nuggets stole Game 1 in San Antonio.

Entering the 2007-08 season with both Iverson and Melo healthy (and no pending suspensions!), the talk around the Mile High City was of a 60-win season and a deep playoff run. But as much as we loved watching Iverson play, something just wasn't right with Nuggets basketball while the diminutive superstar was in town, and we couldn't quite put our finger on it. Even with a healthy Melo, Marcus Camby, J.R. Smith, Linas Kleiza and Kenyon Martin, the Iverson-led Nuggets almost missed the 2008 playoffs entirely, squeaked into an eighth-seeded matchup and were swept - embarrassingly - by the Los Angeles Lakers in four walkover games. Worse, the Nuggets were either first or second in the league in personal fouls, technical fouls, flagrant fouls and ejections that seasons. It all came to a head during Game 3 of that Lakers series when we witnessed Melo publicly barking at Karl and Karl benching Iverson for the fourth quarter. It was ugly. Dave Krieger's column at the time went as far as referring to Karl as a "zookeeper", noting that the Nuggets had run amok on their head coach.

(On a side note, I had the misfortune of being in attendance for both Games 1 and 2 played in Los Angeles and I'll never forget the expression on Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke's face during those games. In both contests none of the Nuggets - Iverson included - showed up to play and the Lakers never broke a sweat en route to two straight blowout wins. Sitting just a few rows above the Nuggets bench, Kroenke stood there stoically throughout both games as if he was thinking: "This is what I just spent $83 million on?! This?!!")

Perhaps we were blinded by Iverson's undeniably solid effort on the floor, because many of us - me included - never faulted him for the Nuggets shortcomings. But the evidence was right in front of us. Along the way to that playoff sweep, anyone who followed the Nuggets in Denver had heard the rumors about Iverson's off-court partying, the alcohol-on-the-plane story was routinely brought up on Denver sports radio and we heard the whispers about Iverson influencing Melo and the younger, more impressionable J.R. in all the wrong ways off the court. We've even learned since that Iverson was granted special permission by the Nuggets to skip some practices (kudos to Denver Stiffs reader GottaLoveMelo for finding this). As Iverson's tenure in Denver went on, it was clear that he was indeed a leader - but not the kind that the Nuggets brass, coaching staff and us fans had hoped he would be. And nothing made Iverson's inability to lead the Nuggets in a positive fashion more clear than that playoff sweep combined with what has happened since his departure (and replacement by Chauncey Billups, the definition of a true leader).

Little did we know that on December 20, 2006, with all the optimism that swept into Denver upon Iverson's arrival, that we wouldn't revive the glory of the English/Lever Golden Era until Iverson left...less than two years after acquiring "The Answer", no less.

But while we've moved on to better times in Denver, Iverson's career has floundered mostly due to his own mishaps, making it even clearer that he was greatly at fault for the Nuggets struggles during his time in Denver. Since leaving Denver for Detroit in the Chauncey Billups deal (a trade I argued was the fourth-best in Nuggets history, but might now be considered third), Iverson has been petulant, selfish, angry and downright stupid. In Detroit, where he was in theory playing for his last big NBA payday, Iverson just couldn't keep his mouth shut, griped about coming off the bench and was essentially asked to stay away from the team for the remainder of the season and into the playoffs. Had Iverson just been a professional in Detroit, he wouldn't have had to spend all summer scrounging for another job in the NBA only to find the lowly Memphis Grizzlies as the only team willing to sign him because he was the owner's wife's favorite player (that's not a joke, by the way...welcome to professional basketball in Memphis!).

Lucky to score the gig in Memphis, Iverson was petulant there, as well. Missing the first few games of the season and recovering from a hamstring injury, Iverson immediately bitched about minutes and coming off the bench again. After a mere three games in a Grizzlies uniform, Iverson had left the team "for personal reasons" (always a bullshit excuse that franchise PR guys attempt to sell the media on while they work out trades and/or releases of players) and eventually was released prompting the most phony "retirement" this side of Brett Favre.

Good fortune - perhaps! - has smiled on Iverson, however. With 76ers point guard Lou Williams breaking his jaw and due out for eight weeks, the 76ers were suddenly in the market for a guard. Oh, and being third-to-last in league attendance had the 76ers in the market for a star guard. So in the irony of ironies, Iverson will be returning to the franchise he carried, killed for, fought with, demanded to be traded from, complained about, you name it, by re-appearing in a Philadelphia 76ers jersey on Monday night against none other than our Denver Nuggets. (And making things even more serendipitous for the NBA, Iverson plays the Pistons just two nights later.) What should have been a regular season walkover win for the Nuggets over the struggling 76ers, losers of nine straight, has become must-see-TV. This will be a hard fought game as Iverson's teammates - new and old - will desperately want to win in his debut which is sure to be a sellout, as well.

Even though I think Iverson is selfish and never want to see him in a Nuggets uniform again, I can't help but root for the guy. I'm a sucker for his game and I applaud him for always being true to himself, faults and all. And his tearful, heartfelt press conference last week was proof that the passion for basketball still burns inside this former superstar (only two seasons removed from averaging 26.4 ppg, as Melo astutely pointed out last week). But putting his individual passion aside, Iverson remains a conundrum for organizations, coaches and teammates. He's a diva, pure and simple, and likes to play by his own set of rules. Has Iverson finally had enough humble pie to make a real go of it with the 76ers and rescue them from their woeful ways? It's possible, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The Wachovia Center tomorrow night (an early start for Denver fans, 5:05pm MDT on Altitude and NBATV) will be filled to the brim with emotions. It should be noted that our Nuggets haven't played well recently in these types of emotion-heavy regular season games: they lost to the Knicks in their return to Madison Square Garden after the brawl, lost at home in Miller's debut as a 76er after the Iverson trade, lost in Philadelphia in Iverson's return there as a non-76er for the first time and lost to the Pistons twice last season - at Detroit and in Denver - after the momentous Iverson-for-Billups trade. Like most of those aforementioned games, I suspect tomorrow night's contest against Iverson will go down to the wire and could end up being one of the more exciting games of the season.

It will be great seeing "The Answer" lace up his sneakers on an NBA court again. It will be even better if the Nuggets can remind him why they're much better off without Allen Iverson.

SCOUTING THE 76ERS...

76ers Stiffs

-Elton Brand: I used to love Brand and still believe he was cheated out of two All-Star appearances simply because he played for the Clippers. But Brand should have stayed with the Clippers instead of screwing them at the behest of his egomaniacal, has-been agent David Falk, and signing with the 76ers. Since joining the 76ers, Brand has ruptured his Achilles tendon and has returned this season to average a career low 12.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg and 44.6% shooting. Karma - as they say - is indeed a bitch.

-Samuel Dalembert: Armed with an $11.4 million contract that goes up to $12.4 million next season, Dalembert's 6'11", 250-pound body can muster only 6.0 ppg, 7.5 rpg and he's "shooting" a career-low 43.8% from the field.

-Jason Smith: I probably shouldn't pick on one of the few players ever from a Colorado-based university to make it to the NBA, but Smith is a Stiff...and not just because he's white (although it admittedly helps). This seven-foot Colorado State alum is making only 41% of shots and grabbing just under three rebounds per game. Huh? How can a seven-footer play 15-and-a-half minutes a game, shoot 41% and grab just three boards?

76ers Non-Stiffs

-Louis Williams: As predicted in my fantasy preview, "Lou" Williams was having a fine season before fracturing his jaw bone, averaging 17.4 ppg on a most respectable 49.7% shooting to go along with 5.1 apg and almost two steals per game. Unfortunately for Williams, things could get weird upon his return if/when Iverson refuses to cede minutes at the small guard spot.

-Andre Iguodala: The "other A.I." is shooting a career low 42.2% from the field but is still a dangerous scorer and a well-rounded player, averaging career highs in rebounding (6.9 rpg), assists (6.0 apg) and steals (2.1 spg).

-Thaddeus Young: Young has found his way on to my fantasy team roster for the second year in a row. He's solid, not spectacular but good for 15-17 ppg and about four or five rebounds.

Opposing Take: Liberty Ballers

Photo courtesy of AP: Michael Perez

Nuggets / Iverson featured in "60 Minutes" Donaghy Segment

2009-12-07T05:12:19Z

Nuggets / Iverson featured in "60 Minutes" Donaghy Segment

It's fitting that on the eve of the Nuggets facing off against Allen Iverson, Iverson's time in Denver was featured on "60 Minutes" during their interview with disgraced former NBA referee Tom Donaghy. A must see.

Changing of the guard at the Alamo (Nuggets/Spurs recap)

2009-12-06T04:39:10Z

On a night where things didn't seem to be going the Nuggets way ... they found the will to pull out a win in San Antonio 106-99.

Beating the Spurs is always special for the Nuggets ... especially when the win comes in Texas, where everything feels just a bit bigger. Melo led the way with 34 points in 42 minutes of play and the Nuggets needed every one of his 14 makes. The game was physical and quick paced and when two good teams meet ... the intensity finds a way to play a big role. Perhaps the biggest role of the night belongs to Ty Lawson as George Karl trusted and played the rookie during the key stretch of the game and Lawson responded with clutch foul shooting, layups and staying with Tony Parker (who terrorized the Nuggets in the paint all night).

When the game got underway I was very surprised at the pace in which the Spurs wanted to play. The quick pace of the game caught me off guard, but San Antonio played well at an accelerated rate and started taking the ball inside and making easy buckets on the Nuggets. As the game wore on I began to wonder why the Spurs, who scored easily inside, started taking three-pointer after three-pointer ... they finished 7-21 on the night from deep.

The Nuggets on the other hand were 4-9 from deep and didn't take a lot threes at they found success taking the ball right into the heart of the San Antonio defense. Denver has the type of team that can get to the rack with regularity and it was very pleasing to see them play to their strength.

Reading SBN's Spurs blog Pounding the Rock earlier in the day it was mentioned that the Spurs would be playing with a sense of urgency because of a tight division race. Denver matched the urgency as they have their own goals in mind (home court in the playoffs). And the Nuggets with the win earn the best start through 20 games in team history.

The Nuggets bench, that features just a typical three player rotation, keyed the win as J.R. Smith and Ty Lawson scored 17 and 11 points respectively. I can't really say enough about Melo's offense tonight ... he was making a variety of shots and found nothing but net on multiple occasions with a hand in his face. Again without Melo's performance Denver does not win this game.

Views you can use:

-Nene played very well against Tim Duncan and took the ball to the rim and finished with either hand going 6-10 from the floor for 12 points. Somehow he didn't get to the foul line ... and he somehow also finished with just 1 rebound.

-The Nuggets won the game despite just 13 team assists.

-Kenyon Martin led the Nuggets with 13 rebounds as the Nuggets won the rebounding battle 38-31.

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Bahram Mark Sobhani

Game 20 Preview & Thread: Nuggets at Spurs (6:30pm MDT)

2009-12-05T13:30:12Z

When the majority of folks think of Tim Duncan they think of a future Hall of Fame power forward who could be considered one of the best to play the position. Me? I think of the constant whining and the two playoff series losses that Duncan and the Spurs earned against the Melo-Era Nuggets. With the Spurs struggling early ... perhaps there is finally a changing of the guard in order.

The particulars ...

Records:
Denver: 14-5
San Antonio: 9-7 (8-3 at home, 1-4 on the road) (key wins: vs. Dallas, at Houston )
Injuries:
Denver: None to report.
San Antonio: None to report.

Opposition's Take: Pounding the Rock

Somewhat of a bitter start to this preview right? Well, while there are valid rumblings of a Nuggets vs. Lakers rivalry brewing ... I have never relished more in beating another team in the NBA than when the Nuggets can take out the Spurs. San Antonio has played the game the "right way" for years with solid defense, balanced offense and killer instinct at opportune moments. The Nuggets "style" lends itself more to a free flowing offense, a risk taking defense and some key hit-or-miss moments.

The styles of play couldn't be more opposite of one another as most basketball purists love the Spurs and despise what the Nuggets represent.

Before the start of the season the national media kept having to change their pants anytime anyone brought up the Spurs because they surely got a bit too overexcited at the prospect of Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess playing together. With star power like that to go along with role players George Hill, Matt Bonner, George Mason and underrated rookie DeJuan Blair the Spurs suddenly (on paper) were vaulted ahead of everyone out West, aside from the Lakers, to challenge for a spot in the Finals. But the key ... on paper. So far, the Spurs have underwhelmed because of injuries, injuries that should be expected with such a veteran squad.

Through just 16 games Manu Ginobili, 32 years-old, has missed 5 full games (only 7 minutes in another), Tony Parker, 27, has missed 4 full games (just 11 minutes in another) and Tim Duncan, 33, has missed 2 full games. Duncan has been pretty impressive in the 14 games he has played in averaging 18.4 points (21.4 career) and 11.1 rebounds (11.7 career) and is coming off being named the Western Conference Player of the Week.

Nuggets' fans can share the frustration of seeing a player on the decline as Chauncey Billups hasn't quite looked as good as he did last season and the same thing might be going on in San Antonio. The resurrection of Duncan thus far could be attributed to good health, but big men with the kind of miles that Duncan have are not long for playing well into their 30's at the same levels they once enjoyed.

I would have been much happier had the Nuggets been able to upset the Spurs in either the 2005 or 2007 playoffs, but Denver was not the better team then. The Nuggets can go a long way proving that they are the better team now by earning an impressive road win in Texas tonight. Things wont be easy as the Spurs have been playing much better at home (8-3) than they have on the road (1-4). The Spurs also have some young fresh legs in Hill and Blair that will act as rejuvenation machines for the veterans with their fiery play.

Make no doubt ... the Nuggets know this is a statement game. I expect the Spurs to be ready, coming off a home loss to the Boston Celtics Thursday night (Dec. 3).

If there is going to be a changing of the guard than what better time to start then now?

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Follow me on Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Darren Abate

Welcome back, Birdman?... (Nuggets/Heat recap)

2009-12-04T07:02:06Z

I'll happily take the Nuggets being on the right side of a blowout any day of the week. But it's extra special when the blowout comes during a fair fight.

Before we recap tonight's events, it should be noted that I - Andrew - is covering tonight's game and not my partner-in-crime Nate Timmons. So while blowout wins for our Nuggets tend to come on Nate's watch, let's hope my recent spate of jinxes has begun to reverse itself!

The other blowout win I covered recently was when the Nuggets clocked the Lakers a few Fridays ago. But as I alluded to at the time, that game wasn't a fair fight. Not only were the Lakers playing shorthanded, but they had to fly into Denver in the middle of the night coming off the late TNT game the Thursday before. (It should be noted that the Heat playing at the Lakers tomorrow won't be a fair fight for the Heat whatsoever. Tonight's game against the Nuggets started a half hour late, the Heat will have to travel to L.A. in the middle of the night and the Lakers have been off since Tuesday. Have I mentioned that the Lakers schedule is a fucking joke yet?)

Unlike that Lakers victory we can gloat for a while about tonight's conquest. The Heat had no excuse to show up flat: they're healthy, had plenty of time to acclimate to Denver altitude, had more than one day's rest and had confidently beaten the Trail Blazers in Portland on Tuesday. The Nuggets are just a hell of a lot better than their South Beach counterparts, and it showed.

I don't know about you, but I thought the story of the game tonight was the continued - and desperately needed - resurgence of Chris Andersen. For the second game in a row, the Birdman reminded all of us why I started the "Bring Back Birdman" petition last season: blocking and altering shots, grabbing big rebounds, finishing around the rim and generally wreaking havoc - in a good way - inside. And his bench mate J.R. Smith also brought back the energy and production that made the Nuggets bench so special last season. Now the question is whether or not they can replicate this production on the road. I've always felt like if the Birdman and J.R. are solar panels, then the Pepsi Center crowd is their sun.

Tonight's victory might also send a more profound message throughout the NBA than the Lakers victory did. What does it say to the rest of the league when Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups shoot horrifically (and indeed they did, even as Melo eeked his way to the 20-point plateau for the - gulp - 19th straight game!) and yet the Nuggets can still beat a playoff caliber team in a walkover? It says we have balance and when we play the game the right way, look out.

A few observations that I'm sure most of you noticed, too...

...you have to love J.R. dishing out a season-high six assists. Imagine if he starts embracing the pass?

...under the radar, Arron Afflalo is finding his role with the Nuggets and is becoming a major contributor. I couldn't be happier having him on the Nuggets.

...I was thrilled that George Karl picked up at technical foul early in the game when he sensed the Nuggets sluggishness, and even more thrilled to see Kenyon Martin hold his coach back by embracing him. But I have to admit I was a little disappointed that Karl didn't get himself kicked out alongside K-Mart when K-Mart got tossed in the second half. Given that the game was clearly over anyway, I'd have loved to see the two of them walking out the tunnel together a la Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains in Casablanca.

...for those who watched the Celtics/Spurs game beforehand, are you as frustrated as I am that the Nuggets didn't draft DeJuan Blair when they had the chance in the second round? Even though the Nuggets were able to sell the draft rights to their second round pick (Sergio Llull) for a record price, they were being penny-wise and pound-foolish by passing on Blair (along with 28 other teams). Blair is yet another example in a long line of slightly undersized but gutty, tough power forwards who kicked ass in college and yet NBA teams routinely pass on (just a few off the top of my head: Carlos Boozer, Paul Millsap, Jason Maxiell, Leon Powe and Glen Davis). Damn I wish Blair was in a Nuggets uniform right now. I just can't shake it.

14-5. Pretty damn good. A few more victories like this, and the home loss to the Timberwolves will prove to be a wake up call, and not a trend.

Go Nuggets!

Photo courtesy of AP: David Zalubowski

Game 19 Preview & Thread: Nuggets vs. Heat (8:30pm MDT)

2009-12-03T19:23:24Z

I probably should have titled this Game Preview: "Nuggets vs. Dwyane Wade (8:30pm MDT)"...

In team sports, it always seems easier to avenge a recent bad loss than replicate an easy win. We (unfortunately) witnessed how the Nuggets were unable to replicate an easy win by losing at home to the Timberwolves just days after whipping them in Minneapolis. So let’s hope the theory holds true on the good side; that the Nuggets learn from their loss at Miami a few weeks ago, make the necessary adjustments and beat the Heat at Pepsi Center tonight.

In Miami on November 6th, the Heat dealt the Nuggets their first loss of the young season thanks to a balanced effort (and perhaps some late night South Beach action by a few Nuggets players the night before the game…I’m just guessing). By the game's end five Heat players had scored in double digits, while the Nuggets sluggishly eeked their way to a mere 38 halftime points and only 88 total. Prior to that game, the Nuggets were averaging almost 54 points per game by halftime. Throughout that game, most of the Nuggets looked like they were stuck in mud as they were slow on their defensive rotations and – before making a too little/too late run at the very end – shot poorly from the start (hence the South Beach partying inference again).

Tonight it’s the Heat’s turn to be sluggish and get caught off guard. But this is a dangerous team and they’ll have had almost two days in Denver to acclimate to the altitude before tipoff. The Heat kicked off their four-game Western Conference road trip by winning impressively at Portland on Tuesday night, overcoming a 20-rebound/four-block night from Trail Blazers center Greg Oden. In that game, three Heat players - Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley and Quentin "Traded Four Times in One Month" Richardson – each scored at least 20 points and shot 50% or better. With the Nuggets playing at a frenetic up-and-down pace lately, don’t be surprised if three Heat players go for 20 again.

Of all the Nuggets home opponents this season, I'd argue that only two were meaningful - the Jazz and the Lakers. Count the Heat as meaningful opponent number three and frankly, I'm glad. The Nuggets need to start getting tested by better teams and the fans deserve to see better competition for their high ticket prices.

Sizing up the Heat…

Heat Stiffs

-Daequan Cook: Now a three-year vet, Cook's minutes are down to an all-time low and he's shooting horrifically from the field at 29%.

-Joel Anthony: At 6'9" and 245 pounds, you'd think Anthony could make more than 42.4% of his shots and grab more than the 2.4 rebounds he gets per night. You'd think...but then you'd realize he's a Stiff.

-Shavlik Randolph: Deserves a permanent spot on the Stiff List for three reasons. 1) His name is Shavlik. 2) He went to Duke. 3) His name is Shavlik, he went to Duke and yet had the audacity to comment on gays in the NBA when the news broke of former NBA player John Amaechi coming out of the closet. Said Randolph at the time: "As long as you don’t bring your gayness on me I’m fine." Real classy, Shavlik.

Heat Non-Stiffs

-Dwyane Wade: Having another MVP-caliber season, Wade is again single-handily carrying the Heat back to the playoffs. While Wade probably doesn’t deserve to win the overall MVP, he’s unquestionably the most valuable player to his team. The Heat would be Nets-worthy without him.

-Mario Chalmers: 10 ppg and almost a handful of assists per night isn’t too shabby for a former second round pick making less than $800,000 a year. Like we’re seeing with Ty Lawson in Denver this season, Chalmers is further proof that leading a winning team in college transfers to success in the NBA.

-Jermaine O'Neal: If you can forget for a moment that he's making $23 million this season (!), the 14-year veteran (!) is actually having a decent season. Relatively healthy for the first time in years, O'Neal is shooting a career high 56.1%, averaging a respectable 14.5 ppg to go along with 8.2 rpg.

-The Heat in the 2010 free agent sweepstakes: Including O'Neal's $23 million, the Heat will be shedding themselves of $51 million worth of payroll at season's end. If they can convince Wade to stay, Miami will be a major player in the free agent market being that they one of the NBA's more attractive destinations geographically.

Opposing View: Peninsula is Mightier

Photo courtesy of AP: Wilfredo Lee