Denver Stiffs

George Karl's treatment diary...

2010-03-17T05:28:14Z

George Karl's treatment diary...

Nuggets head coach George Karl, his partner Kim and their young daughter Kaci Grace are keeping a running diary of Coach Karl's experiences as he undergoes painful, difficult and trying radiation treatment to eradicate the neck and throat cancer he's afflicted with. I encourage all readers of Denver Stiffs to check in on Coach Karl's story and lend their support to Karl and his family.

Going through the motions... (Nuggets/Wizards recap)

2010-03-17T05:19:32Z

The Nuggets tried their hardest to play down to the level of their competition tonight. But it's pretty tough to play as poorly as the Wizards do, and thus the Nuggets walked away with their 46th victory of the season.

To think that the Nuggets could easily win their 50th game before April even begins is surreal. As good as last season's Nuggets were, this season's incarnation is better...even with the injuries and their nasty habit of sometimes - okay, almost always - playing more like their competition than their true selves.

That nasty habit reared its head again for three quarters and change tonight, as the Nuggets found themselves mired in a low-scoring affair that unfortunately resembled a WNBA game. On the Nuggets side of the basketball, it seemed as though Carmelo Anthony was the lone Nugget giving a full effort for all of his 42 minutes. His teammates - and his Wizard competitors - were clearly gassed and flat having played last night.

Since Nuggets head coach George Karl missed his first road game on February 25th due to undergoing throat and neck cancer treatment, the Nuggets have played a startling 12 games in 20 days, including four back-to-backs and seven road games. The Nuggets record during this stretch? Try 9-3 on for size. So while it may frustrate us to watch them play poorly for quarters at a time, it sure is hard to argue with the results.

The View from the Not-So-Cheap-Seats...

...when Karl first walked onto the floor, the early arriving crowd went berserk and gave him a well earned standing ovation. Then, a few minutes later, the Nuggets PA announcer formally welcomed Karl back and Karl received a second rousing standing ovation. In addition, the crowd was littered with fans holding up "We Love Coach Karl" and "Get Well Soon Coach Karl" signs. It was good to see Nuggets fans at their best and you could tell Karl was touched.

...Wizards assistant coach Don Zierden and actor Wallace Shawn (of "Princess Bride" fame) had to be separated at birth.

...the staff from Deer Creek Middle School who performed heroically in the face of a madman shooter in late February were honored before tipoff...by getting a photo op with referee Dick Bavetta. With honors like these, who needs...

...the Wizards Al Thornton - who I thought could be a potential stud when he was a Clipper - looks heavy and out of shape. That didn't stop Thornton from pestering Melo all night on the defensive end.

...Andray Blatche looks great. He's a legit 6'11" and could be an All-Star someday. He killed the Nuggets tonight before going down with a nasty ankle sprain.

...who the hell is Alonzo Gee? I had no idea who this guy was until he hit that amazing half court buzzer beater at halftime.

...Anthony Carter played great, but you had to love his transition pass to Kenyon Martin during the second quarter. (That's supposed to be a joke. You see, K-Mart was on the bench in a suit and...oh, nevermind.)

...as noted above, no one on the Nuggets worked harder than Melo tonight. Melo was mixing it up in the trenches on offense from the opening tip onward and just had a "we're not losing this game" look in his eyes all night. I can't say enough about Melo's effort tonight.

...Chauncey Billups had two amazing passes in traffic during the third quarter - one to Nene and one to Joey Graham. Unfortunately, neither Nene nor Graham could finish at the rim.

...curiously, neither Renaldo Balkman or Chris Andersen were present with their teammates on the bench. At some point, I need to get to the bottom of why some Nuggets do and some Nuggets don't join their teammates during games when injured. And no, I still won't accept the "they're getting treatment in the locker room" at 9pm at night excuse considering the entire training and fitness staff are on the bench with the team.

...former Nugget Earl Boykins received a nice applause when he came into the game and then he proceeded to play like, well, Earl Boykins. Meaning, Boykins routinely over-dribbled until the Wizards' shot clock wound down forcing himself to take the last-second shot. Boykins remains as one of the NBA's all-time enigmas. On the one hand, he's a fascinating, inspirational story. On the other, he's a total ball hog and you'll never win with Boykins on your team.

...I'm concerned J.R. Smith thinks that the 24-second shot clock is really an 18-second shot clock, because he continuously took bad shots with plenty of time on the clock until he scored 13 relatively meaningless fourth quarter points.

...Melo should send Wizards center JaVale McGee a "thank you" note for scoring his 28th and 29th point tonight, because they came on McGee mishandling a rebound rather than a Melo make (when this happens, whomever is closest to the basket for the offensive team gets credited with the make).

Non-Stiff of the Night

-Carmelo Anthony: 29 points, 12 rebounds (five offensive) and endless effort. All this considering the game was the second of a back-to-back makes Melo the clear "Non-Stiff of the Night."

Stiff of the Night

-JaVale McGee: Other than having abnormally skinny legs, McGee has a text book NBA body - obnoxiously long arms, huge hands and he's at least seven feet tall. And yet against the undersized Nuggets McGee could only muster five points on 1-for-6 shooting and three rebounds in over 21 minutes of playing time.

Opposition's Take: Bullets Forever

Photo courtesy of AP: David Zalubowski

Rick Reilly on George Karl's cancer treatments...

2010-03-16T23:13:26Z

Rick Reilly on George Karl's cancer treatments...

I've had my differences with ESPN's Rick Reilly, but here Reilly is at his best taking us into the depressingly sad and tough reality that Nuggets head coach George Karl is living in right now.

Game 68 Preview & Thread: Wizards at Nuggets (7pm MST)

2010-03-16T15:28:39Z

If it weren't for the woeful New Jersey Nets, the Wizards would be neck-and-neck with Indiana for "worst team in the East" honors. I couldn't think of a better opponent for the Nuggets to get back into the win column.

Watching the fourth quarter of the Nuggets game against the Rockets last night, I was convinced that this preview would be another one of my "the Nuggets are quietly the hottest team in the NBA right now" pieces and that the Nuggets would be looking for their eighth straight win when Washington came to town.

Unfortunately, in spite of a spirited effort (especially by Carmelo Anthony) against the Rockets, the Nuggets ultimately lost by a mere two points and we'll have to settle for rooting for a team that's won six of their last seven games. But hey, things could be much worse...we could be the Washington Wizards, inarguably the NBA's biggest disappointment of the 2009-10 season.

Prior to the season kicking off, the Wizards were selected by many (including yours truly) to finish fourth in the Eastern Conference...which is like finishing ninth in the Western Conference. The thinking was a team stacked with talented players like Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, Mike Miller, Randy Foye and Andray Blatche coached by the usually solid Flip Saunders, the Wiz would rebound from a disastrous 2008-09 campaign and contend in the East.

Little did we know that the players would tune Saunders out almost instantaneously, the Wizards longtime owner Abe Pollin would pass away, a few charter plane ride card games would go absurdly awry, Wizards teammates - including the team's star, Arenas - would pull guns on each other in the locker room and three of the team's best four players would be traded for expiring contracts. Rarely in NBA history has a team gone from being an up-and-comer to a complete rehabilitation job so quickly.

I happened to be in Washington and attend a Wizards game at the Verizon Center just days after the Arenas story broke. Granted, they were playing the equally woeful Pistons that night, but the arena was half full (or is it half empty?), the players were listless and the entire atmosphere had a "we're just going through the motions" feel to it, from the players to the fans in the upper rafters. It's an understatement to say this, but the Wizards are in disarray and this should be to the Nuggets advantage...regardless of how genuinely exhausted the Nuggets must be right now.

SCOUTING THE WIZARDS

Wizards Stiffs

-Gilbert Arenas: Arenas has been one of my favorite NBA players that doesn't wear a Nugget uniform since I saw him score 35 second half points against us as a member of the Golden State Warriors during the 2002-03 season. That following offseason, the Nuggets took a shot at Arenas but the Wizards paid more, so we settled on Andre Miller. Unfortunately, Agent Zero has been nothing short of an absolute zero for several seasons in a row now due to an assortment of injuries and exceptionally bad judgment. Oh, and he's owed $22.3 million...four seasons from now.

-Josh Howard: Longtime readers of this blog know how much I loathe Howard, a perennial Nuggets pest when he played small forward for the Mavericks. But after ruining his Mavericks career thanks to a shitty attitude and questionable off court habits, Howard was banished to the Wizards, talked trash about the Mavs on his way out the door and subsequently tore his ACL and is done for the season. Howard's contract has a "team option" of $11.8 million that kicks in next season, and somehow I suspect the Wizards won't be anteing up.

-The rest of the team not named Andray Blatche.

Wizards Non-Stiffs

-Andray Blatche: If there's been one benefit to the departure of stalwarts like Jamison, Haywood and Butler it's that Blatche has been able to develop into the players Wizards fans were hoping for. Blatche routinely goes for 25-plus points and 10-plus rebounds, but he's also a bit of a turnover machine.

-Abe Pollin: If you want to learn a bit about recently deceased Wizards owner Abe Pollin, read this.

Opposition's Take: Bullets Forever

Photo courtesy of AP: Alex Brandon

Game 67 Preview & Thread: Nuggets at Rockets (6:30pm MST)

2010-03-15T17:00:58Z

My apologies about the Grizzlies recap, like Johan Petro has done a time or two ... I dropped the ball. The important thing to make note of ... Denver is finally above the .500 mark on the road, back in control of the #2 seed (by 1/2 a game) and riding high on a 6-game win streak. The Nuggets will look to make it seven in a row tonight in Houston.

The particulars ...

Records:
Denver: 45-21 (28-5 at home, 17-16 on the road)
Houston: 33-31 (18-14 at home, 15-17 on the road)
Denver current streak: Won 6. They are 8-2 in their last 10 games.
Houston current streak: Won 2. They are 6-4 in their last 10 games.
Injuries:
Denver: Ty Lawson (left shoulder contusion) is questionable. Kenyon Martin (left knee tendinitis) is out tonight. Renaldo Balkman (mid-back strain) did not make the road trip with the team and may have had surgery on his back ... looking to confirm. Chris Andersen is probable after suffering a broken ring-finger on his left hand against the Grizzlies.
Houston: Yao Ming (left foot surgery) is out.
Opposition's Take: The Dream Shake

Like the Nuggets, the Rockets are battling for their playoff lives. Unlike the Nuggets, who are jockeying for playoff seeding position, the Rockets are just battling from the outside-looking-in to get into the post season.

Houston is riding a two-game win streak after defeating the New Jersey Nets Saturday March 13th in a game in which Luis Scola hit 20 of 25 shots, scoring 44 points in a 116-108 win. I didn't think it was possible for Scola to score 44 points in an NBA game, but he does have an assortment of post-moves and a reliable jumper ... still 44 points is quite a feat for the power forward.

The good news ... the Nuggets are a little bit more banged up today than they were on Saturday before the Memphis game. Wait ... that isn't good news at all! Birdman suffered a broken ring finger on his non-shooting hand and I guess the good news there is he doesn't often need is left hand for much and he'll likely play through the pain. Johan Petro was visibly limping around a bit against the Grizzlies and I thought to myself ... we can't lose Petro! The French Resistance has been playing better than I expected in K-Mart's absence and it's sort of fun watching him come along and be a part of the rotation. Who knows ... with all the burn he's getting he might just be the in-house big man the Nuggets were searching for this season after all.

This is the last game of the current four-game road trip before the Nuggets return to the Pepsi Center tomorrow night to face the Washington Wizards and it's always key to win the first game of a back-to-back set. The only issue tonight ... Houston is a tough place to play.

The Nuggets did earn a win in Texas back on January 27th when they defeated the Rockets 97-92 and the Nuggets won the first match up with Houston on December 16th in Denver (111-101). This is the last regular season meeting between the two teams this season and the Nuggets are looking to complete the sweep.

Houston looks a little bit different now than they did before the trade deadline as they made the biggest splash in the league when they traded for shooting guard Kevin Martin or "The Other K-Mart" as he's sometimes referred to by Nuggets Nation.

Along with the addition of Kevin Martin the Rockets added rookie Jordan Hill and defensive ace Jared Jeffries from the New York Knicks. Gone is Carl Landry and former franchise player Tracy McGrady. Houston is sort of rebuilding on the fly and may have salvaged a total rebuilding process in the wake of losing McGrady by plugging in both Martin and Hill.

While it'll be nice to see some fresh faces in Houston ... I'll be looking for Denver to push their current win streak to seven games after tonight's contest.

Views you can use:

Houston is another team that doesn't have the best bench around. In their win against the Nets, the Rocket reserves combined for just 22 points ... 8 less than J.R. Smith scored by himself against the Grizzlies.
Johan Petro is averaging 7.2 rebounds in his last four games. The Nuggets needed somebody to get on the glass and Petro hasn't disappointed ... even notching 10 rebounds twice in those four games.
J.R. Smith shot 70% (7-10) from beyond the arc against the Grizzlies and led the team with 30 points. Smith is definitely looking like a player that heats up as the season wears on.

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos

Game 66 Preview & Thread: Nuggets at Grizzlies (6pm MST)

2010-03-13T19:00:23Z

It's too bad the Nuggets wont be playing at home on St. Patty's Day, or at all on March 17th, because we'd maybe get to see some more green uniforms. Well, the Nuggets are playing this evening in Memphis, the Saturday before St. Patty's, or as it's commonly known ... the party day. Enjoy your green beer and car-bombs* and hopefully a big Nuggets road win.

The particulars ...

Records:
Denver: 44-21 (28-5 at home, 16-16 on the road)
Memphis: 35-31 (20-14 at home, 15-17 on the road)
Denver current streak: Won 5. They are 7-3 in their last 10 games.
Memphis current streak: Won 3. They are 6-4 in their last 10 games.
Injuries:
Denver: Ty Lawson (left shoulder contusion) and Kenyon Martin (left knee tendinitis) are both out tonight. Renaldo Balkman (mid-back strain) did not make the road trip with the team and may have had surgery on his back ... looking to confirm.
Memphis: Ronnie Brewer (partially torn right hamstring) is listed as day-to-day. Steven Hunter (sore left knee) is out.
Opposition's Take: Straight Outta Vancouver

Andrew often likes to remark about fights not being fair when one team is coming off a back-to-back, he has even gone as far as saying perhaps fans should get a "refund" for having to pay for such lopsided contests. Well, what would he have to say about tonight's game where both teams are coming in off a back-to-back?

Well, Andrew has been working with Denver Stiffs reader Chris Chan on an upcoming back-to-backs piece for SB Nation and shared this statistic with me:

During the 2009-10 NBA season, when both teams are coming in for the second of a back-to-back game, the home team wins 57.3% of the time.

So, if you want to take the statistical approach, the Nuggets only have a 42.7% chance of winning tonight's game. Count me among those glad that this game wont be determined on paper, but rather with sheer will and hopefully good passing and shooting for Denver.

The Grizzlies played at home last night against the New York Knicks and won the game 119-112. The Grizzlies sit just outside the playoff race in the dreaded #9 slot, right behind the Portland Trail Blazers. Can the Grizzlies catch the Blazers and make their first post-season season appearance sans Pau Gasol? They'll need to catch fire the rest of the way and that means stealing some wins at home against good teams ... teams like the Denver Nuggets.

The only catch for Memphis? The Nuggets can't afford to drop any games down the stretch as they are trying to keep pace with the red-hot Dallas Mavericks for the #2 seed. So, while each team might be a little tired after playing last night, neither can afford to play the back-to-back excuse card.

Memphis is one of the few teams that I haven't got to see play much this season. Zach Randolph's play has been lauded quite a bit this season, as well as Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol. O.J. Mayo has flown a little bit under the radar for the Grizzlies with his newfound team play, but he's still averaging 17.5 points and 3.1 assists for the Grizz.

Memphis has a pretty potent starting five, but the team doesn't really have much of a bench and as we've seen in Denver ... the bench can make all the difference. When your bench rotation features Marcus Williams, Sam Young, DeMarre Carroll, Darrell Arthur, Hamed Haddadi and rookie NBA-DL call up Hasheem Thabeet (poking a little fun at the #2 overall pick) it's easy to see why your starters average 36.5 minutes per game (with Mike Conley averaging the least minutes at 31.5 and Zach Randolph logging the most at 39.7 mpg). In comparison the Nuggets starting five average 33.4 minutes per game and we all know Denver used a very tight 8-man rotation until K-Mart's recent injury.

So if Memphis misses out on the playoffs this season it could very well be because of their lack of depth. Add a few pieces in the offseason and the Grizzlies could be a very dangerous team.

Danger would be a good word to describe this game as noted above, neither team can afford to drop many games the rest of the way. So, even though both teams are coming off a back-to-back, I expect this game to be a dogfight. Hopefully the Luck of the Irish will be with the Nuggets ... even if it's a little early and I'll cheers my car-bomb to that!

* - If for some odd reason you are not sure what a car-bomb is ... I don't know what to tell you. Please don't drink if you are under the age of 21 and a U.S. resident.

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos

In AD we trust... (Nuggets/Hornets recap)

2010-03-13T06:41:43Z

Nuggets assistant coach Adrian Dantley is doing a fine job steering the team's ship in George Karl's absence.

When it was announced that George Karl would miss several road games in his battle with throat and neck cancer, yours truly questioned whether or not assistant coach Adrian Dantley was up to the task of filling in for the Nuggets head coach. While I seriously doubt AD will ever win over 970 NBA games as Karl has, AD's 4-1 record (3-0 this season after tonight's win at New Orleans) as the Nuggets head man in Karl's absence is admirable and deserving of our praise.

Sans having a lineup including Malik Allen, Joey Graham and Anthony Carter on the floor together for about two minutes tonight, AD is doing a lot of things well. Notably, he's keeping the Nuggets loose during a tough stretch of the season and the players are responding with smile filled victories. At the end of the day, basketball is just a game and those who play it should be having fun while doing so. And if that means a few behind the back passes, spectacular dunks, trash talking and so forth - all of which we saw tonight - then so be it.

Feeding off AD's loose atmosphere the most appears to be Nuggets superstar small forward Carmelo Anthony, who again tonight reminded us that in a close game, the team with the best player often wins. And no one was better than Melo tonight. Not only did he have 12 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter, but he tied his season high with 12 rebounds (four offensive). When Melo finds that extra gear in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets become lethal closers as the Hornets - who put up a good fight until the final three or so minutes - found out tonight.

Also contributing to the cause in the rebounding department were Johan Petro, Nene and Chris Andersen - all three of whom are taking on additional responsibilities with Kenyon Martin being out and are delivering handsomely. By out-rebounding the Hornets 49 to 36 in this game, the Nuggets were able to prevent their recent playoff foes from getting easy second chance baskets and turned the Hornets into the bad jump shot shooting team that they are.

Congratulations to AD and the other Nuggets assistants for keeping the ship afloat while Karl deals with ongoing cancer treatments. We continue to wish Karl and his family the best and, thankfully, in the meantime the Nuggets appear to be in good hands with the coaching staff that Karl has been grooming.

Non-Stiff of the Night

Carmelo Anthony: As noted above, Melo carried the Nuggets to the promised land thanks to 12 fourth quarter points and 12 rebounds. If the Nuggets continue to rack up wins, Melo may vault himself back into the MVP conversation.

Stiff of the Night

Morris Peterson: It's tempting to put J.R. Smith and his 1-12 shooting night here but at least J.R. contributed to the game in other areas, including four assists and two steals. And thus, the Stiff of the Night goes to Morris Peterson. I almost forgot that "Mo-Pete" was still on the Hornets and with good reason because he had yet another forgettable game tonight. 0-6 from the floor and four fouls in 32-and-a-half starter's minutes.

Opposition's Take: At the Hive

Photo courtesy of AP: Bill Haber

Game 65 Preview & Thread: Nuggets at Hornets (6pm MST)

2010-03-12T15:58:24Z

The wheels came off the Hornets season a long time ago. But if it weren't for rookie point guard Darren Collison, they wouldn't even be close to playing .500 basketball.

When I attended NBA Summer League in Las Vegas last summer I specifically wanted to see how the young point guards sized up. You could tell right away that the Bucks' Brandon Jennings was NBA-ready. Even though he was only 6'1" he had abnormally long arms and big hands - almost an Allen Iverson body type but with a few more inches of height. Same went for the Thunder's James Harden and the Kings' Tyreke Evans, who looked like men among boys out there.

Speaking of boys, I was shocked at how small Stephen Curry, Ty Lawson and Darren Collison were versus their competition. Maybe I'm saying this because I'm almost 6'6" myself and am rarely impressed by anyone's height (except for the time I was in an elevator with Zydrunas Ilgauskas), but back in July I couldn't foresee how great these guys would be given how small they were. Curry at least had a silky smooth jump shot and exceptional quickness. Lawson had the quickness, the ball sense and the bulk to stand up to bigger competitors. But Collison?

Collison didn't seem to have much going for him from my perspective at the time. Listed at 6'0", he might be 5'10" on a good day and he weighs a mere 160 pounds. Furthermore, Collison had one of the worst jump shots technique-wise that I've seen in a while. It's a poor man's Reggie Miller-type shot, almost a two-handed push shot. I quickly saw why this kid - in spite of being a bona fide winner at UCLA - slipped to the 21st overall selection.

And yet here we are in mid-March, and - until recently losing seven of 10 games - Collison has been carrying an injury-ravaged Hornets team to within arms' length of a playoff berth. Not only has Collison made 10 NBA GMs look like morons (not hard to do) for passing on him, but he's been getting Rookie of the Year consideration alongside Evans and Curry. The clear winner is and should be Evans, who has been doing it all season long. But Collison's play since future Hall of Famer Chris Paul went out in late January (likely) for the season with knee surgery has been nothing short of sensational considering he's an undersized rookie.

In the 19 games that Collison has started at point guard in CP3's absence, the rook is averaging 20.1 ppg, 9.8 apg, 1.7 spg and is shooting 48.3% from the field. Those aren't typical numbers for the 21st overall selection in the draft, folks. And during this stretch, Collison has had games with 18, 14 and 20 (20!) assists. The only downside to Collison's game right now is that he's very turnover prone, to the tune of 4.5 per game since filling in for Paul. But he gets a pass because all rookie point guards give the ball away at an alarming rate.

Unfortunately for Collison and Hornets fans everywhere, the team is still recovering in the wake of Byron Scott's poor coaching and subsequent firing, and Paul's injuries. Scott should have been canned the day after the Nuggets beat them by 58 points at New Orleans in a playoff game last spring. That's right, the day after. But by allowing Scott to come back while doing nothing to upgrade the bench sans drafting Collison and stealing fellow rookie Marcus Thornton (who's been an absolute gift, more on him shortly) from Miami, the Hornets were in disarray before the season began. But as I like to say to my girlfriend after an argument, we are where we are and we have to move forward. And while the Hornets present won't include a playoff berth, the Hornets future - thanks to Collison and Thornton - actually looks pretty bright.

SCOUTING THE HORNETS...

Hornets Stiffs

-Emeka Okafor: When I snagged Okafor in the middle of my fantasy basketball draft I was convinced I had a steal on my hands. Amazingly, Okafor played pretty damn well with Chris Paul but has been completely lost with Collison at the helm of the offense. So lost, in fact, that Okafor airballed two consecutive free throws against the Thunder the other night.

-James Posey: Remember when this former Nugget was an integral piece to the championship puzzle in Miami and Boston? Now Posey is just another example of why guaranteed contracts ruin the NBA. Averaging a career-low 5.1 ppg on a career-low 35.3% shooting from the field, the now 33 year old Posey is due $6.9 million...two seasons from now!

-Peja Stojakovic: Due a mere $15.3 million next season, the soon-to-be 33 year Peja is averaging near career lows in all categories and will be out for a few games with a lower abdominal strain. Because, you know, what's an NBA season without Peja getting hurt?

Hornets Non-Stiffs

-Darren Collison: For all the reasons noted above. The question facing the Hornets, however, is what to do with Collison when CP3 returns?

-Marcus Thornton: When you're the first second round pick to score at least 37 points in a game since Sherman Douglas did it in 1990, you've got game. Hornets interim head coach Jeff Bower has done a great job working Thornton into the lineup. In eight of his last nine games, Thornton has put up scoring nights of 37, 25, 18, 21, 30, 24, 18 and 28. I think the Hornets have found their shooting guard for the future.

-David West: On a team being forgotten by most who follow the NBA, West is quietly having yet another solid season. His scoring and and rebounding is down a tad, but his field goal percentage is up and he's had a slew of monster games recently. Notably a 40/10 game to lead the Hornets to victory over the Magic a few weeks ago.

Opposition's Take: At the Hive

Photo courtesy of AP: Pat Sullivan

The greatest in-game dunk in Nuggets history?...

2010-03-11T22:45:41Z

J.R. Smith's spectacular 360-degree alley-oop dunk may very well have been the greatest in-game dunk in Denver Nuggets history.

After watching J.R. Smith's unbelievable alley-oop 360-degree dunk last night, I started racking my brain to remember a better in-game dunk in Denver Nuggets history. Most unfortunately, my memory isn't as sharp as I'd like it to be and I'll need Denver Stiffs' official old school expert Thursty to weigh in on this. But excluding what I'm sure were an assortment of spectacular dunks by the great David "Skywalker" Thompson in the late 1970s, I think there's a good chance that last night's dunk was the best we've ever seen by a player in a Nuggets uniform.

Before getting into some memorable Nuggets dunks, I have to do a quick rundown on the history of Nugget dunkers. First off, we all know that The Skywalker was undoubtedly the best dunker in Nuggets, and perhaps NBA, history. Unfortunately, while I'm sure I technically saw Thompson in person, I was too young to really remember him playing live. But talk to any truly old school Nuggets fan, and they'll tell you Thompson was the best there ever was when it came to incredible, sky-high, aerobatic slam dunks. In fact, he's even credited with bringing the alley-oop to the NBA, having completed countless of them while at North Carolina State. Here's a collection courtesy of YouTube...

Unfortunately, because a lot of ABA games weren't televised, we likely don't have a number of Thompson's greatest dunks available on video. This isn't a shame, it's criminal.

After Thompson's departure from the franchise in 1982 courtesy of a cocaine addiction that caused him to fall down the stairs at Studio 54 in New York and tear up his knee (no joke, unfortunately), the Nuggets were famous for not dunking throughout the Doug Moe Era. While the Nuggets throughout the 1980s were one of the more fun teams to watch and scored well over 100 points a night with regularity, they always did so well below the rim.

Simply put, from about 1981 to 1990 Nugget players never dunked. Well, almost never. The Nuggets leading scorer, the legendary Alex English, actually preferred not to dunk because he was concerned about hurting his wrists and thus, hurting his silky smooth jump shot. That said, English did dunk occasionally (see the video below) and whenever he did, the McNichols Arena crowd would go absolutely berserk.

But other than the occasional English jam, the Nuggets stayed away from rocking the rim. In fact, I can't remember a single time the Nuggets had an alley-oop play in the 1980s and I specifically remember that in David Robinson's rookie season of 1989-90, "The Admiral" had more dunks than the entire Nuggets team combined. When your center rotation consists of Danny Schayes, Blair Rasmussen and Wayne Cooper, there's just not a lot of dunking going on.

The Nuggets were such poor dunkers that when they drafted Pittsburgh's Jerome Lane in 1988, the fans rejoiced simply because Lane had broken a backboard while throwing down a one-handed jam in college. Back in the day, if your parents had connections you could meet one Nugget of your choice on your birthday before a home game. I can't tell you how many of my friends in elementary school picked Lane (a total bust by NBA standards) over Nugget stalwarts English and Fat Lever, simply because Lane could dunk.

Moving into the 1990s, the Nuggets finally embraced the slam dunk. The 1992 through 1995 Nuggets teams had an assortment of high flyers, including Robert Pack, LaPhonso Ellis, Rodney Rogers and Tom Hammonds, who had won the college slam dunk contest before coming to the NBA. Even the diminutive Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf could throw it down, except he never did so once in an NBA. Abdul-Rauf saved his lone dunking experience for the 1993 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.

Prior to J.R. Smith's dunk last night, it's arguable that Pack's dunk on Shawn Kemp late in Game 3 of the Nuggets unimaginable playoff upset over George Karl's Seattle Supersonics was the greatest in-game dunk in Nuggets history post-Thompson. Not only was the dunk spectacular, but it was the single moment that turned the series. That dunk sent a message to the Sonics and the entire NBA that the Nuggets weren't just happy to be there.

Other than that memorable Pack dunk, the only other in-game dunks from the 1990s that stands out to me were Pack's throwdown on the 7'6" Shawn Bradley and Rodney Rogers ridiculous slam over David Robinson and Dennis Rodman during the 1994-95 campaign. Both dunks - plus another from Hammonds - would make the NBA's "Top 10 Dunks of 1994-95" highlight reel.

Moving into the modern era of Nuggets basketball, we've been blessed to have so many amazing athletes on the team - Carmelo Anthony, Nene, J.R. Smith, Chris Andersen, Dahntay Jones, etc - that it's hard to keep all the dunking straight. One never-to-be-forgotten slam was a very young Melo's one-handed alley-oop jam over the Rockets' 7'5" Yao Ming...

...but even better was Melo's thunderous slam over the Jazz's Paul Millsap to kick off this current season back in late October.

In fact, the 2009-10 Nuggets season has been chock full of insane Nuggets in-game dunks. Before J.R.'s 360, the dunk of the season was Ty Lawson's out-of-nowhere jam on the Lakers DJ Mbenga.

But the best of them all...and perhaps the best of all time...was J.R. Smith's unreal 360-degree alley-oop against the Timberwolves last night...

Agree? Disagree? Let the debate begin...

Photo courtesy of Getty Images. Videos courtesy of YouTube.

The 360-Alley Oop Game (Nuggets/T-Wolves recap)

2010-03-11T16:50:43Z

The French Resistance aka Johan Petro wasn't the story of the night, but in his second-start since K-Mart's possible regular season ending injury, Petro played smart defense on a legitimate low-post threat in Al Jefferson and allowed Nene to slide over to power forward and cruise to 17-points in the Nuggets 110-102 victory over the Timberwolves. But the play of the night belonged to J.R. Smith ... watch it here.

I watched the game DVR-style, quickly becoming one of the best ways to watch a sporting event, and as I was cruising along in the fourth quarter at the 4:28 mark it happened ...

Chauncey Billups came up with a loose ball on Denver's end, dribbled just past half court, saw a streaking J.R. Swish and lobbed a perfect alley-oop from about 6-feet outside the three point line where Smith caught the ball in mid-360 and slammed it down one-handed. I thought Chris Marlowe, Scott Hastings and the Minnesota faithful were all going to have a simultaneous heart-attack. Just watch this play. That gave the Nuggets a 103-91 lead and basically put the Wolves to bed.

The Nuggets struggled keeping Minnesota off the offensive glass all night as they were able to grab 16 offensive boards, including outscoring the Nuggets 8-1 in the first quarter on second-chance points. The Wolves work on the offensive glass allowed them to take leads heading into the second and third quarters and they even pushed a lead out to eight-points in the third quarter.

But when J.R. Smith checked into the game in the second-half he earned his Swish nickname by hitting three-straight three-pointers from the right elbow and closed Minnesota's lead to just a point at 67-66. From there the Nuggets went on an 11-4 run, pushed that to 15-6 and closed the third quarter on a 24-9 run to take a 79-72 lead into the final period.

In the fourth, Denver extended a 15-0 run to give themselves a 85-72 lead and that left the Wolves playing catch-up for the rest of the game and frankly there are not many teams that can keep up with the Nuggets in the scoring department. The fourth got a bit ugly as the game turned into a free-throw shooting contest with both teams combining for 25 free throws in the final quarter.

The Nuggets took care of a sub .500 team on the road and now once again hover just one game under .500 away from the Pepsi Center at 15-16. To close out the month of March Denver will be on the road for 8 of their remaining 11 games this month and their road record could drastically change for the better over the next three-weeks.

Additional Nuggets ...

-I was really impressed with Petro's defense last night. He only played 13 minutes and I thought he could have played more, but Adrian Dantley opened up the bench and gave Joey Graham and Malik Allen 8 combined minutes. Al Jefferson finished the night 7-13 from the floor for 17 points, but Petro did a great job not allowing him space or getting deep into the paint. Big Al is a great low-post player, but Petro's length, quickness and position allowed him success last night. I also enjoyed watching Petro as the Wolves lofted shots ... he actually boxed guys out! Petro finished with 2 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.

-Arron Afflalo scored 10 points on 4-9 shooting, but did so in a different way last night. Afflalo was a running fool last night and did a great job filling the lanes and getting easy buckets in transition. When Afflalo has great explosion to the rim and I think really surprises defenders with his drives as he often blows by guys once he gets into the paint.

-The Nuggets recorded 24 assists last night and Anthony Carter again led the team with 8 total dimes. It's been a pleasure watching A.C. realize his best asset is setting up his teammates. Carter even made a couple layups last night and continues to fill in for Lawson admirably. Also, A.C. and Bird have great chemistry on alley-oop plays and A.C. hit Bird for a nice one last night at the 7:30 mark of the second-quarter.

-J.R. Smith continued his nice play of late with 15 points on 6-15 shooting, Swish finished the night just 3-10 from deep and 3-5 from inside the arc. It was good to see Smith run some point guard last night with Billups on the bench. Smith finished the game with 3 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals ... Swish continues to feast on stealing long outlet passes and disrupted one last night.

-Birdman and Billups sort of floated under the radar for me. Bird finished an impressive 6-7 from the field and went to work on the glass collecting 10 rebounds to go along with 3 blocks and 14 points. Billups led the team with 25 points on 9-18 shooting and dished out 3 assists.

-Melo continued to play the game he was dealt, handing out 5 assists and only scoring 19 points on 6-16 shooting. He also added 6 rebounds and was active on defense all night totaling 5 steals. Melo matched up on Kevin Love a few times and did a great job on the big man as Love likes to catch the ball a little further out than desirable for a 6'11'' forward.

-Corey Brewer stayed true to form last night posting his average against the Nuggets this season by dropping another 21 points. Brewer however, didn't ever take the game over and wasn't really a factor in scoring his points. It was sort of a quiet 21 for him and it'll be interesting to continue tracking his development.

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos Jim Mone

Game 64 Preview & Thread: Nuggets at T-Wolves (6pm MST)

2010-03-10T16:40:59Z

From bust to boom Corey Brewer is enjoying a fine season for the Minnesota Timberwolves and should be considered for the NBA's Most Improved Player award.

The particulars ...

Records:
Denver: 42-21 (28-5 at home, 14-16 on the road)
Minnesota: 14-50 (9-23 at home, 5-27 on the road)
Denver current streak: Won 3. They are 7-3 in their last 10 games.
Minnesota current streak: Lost 6. They are 1-9 in their last 10 games.
Injuries:
Denver: Ty Lawson (left shoulder contusion) and Kenyon Martin (left knee tendinitis) are both out tonight.
Minnesota: Wayne Ellington (left ankle) and Nathan Jawai (right ankle) are both listed as Questionable for tonight's game.

Opposition's Take: Canis Hoopus

The Most Improved Player award winners from the last five seasons:

2008-09: Danny Granger, Pacers
2007-08: Hedo Turkoglu, Magic
2007-06: Monta Ellis, Warriors
2005-06: Boris Diaw, Suns
2004-05: Bobby Simmons, Clippers

Brewer, the former 7th overall pick from the 2007 NBA Draft was largely considered a disappointment after his first two seasons in the league. As a rookie Brewer, a string-bean at 6'9'' and 188 pounds, averaged 5.8 points on 37% shooting in 22 minutes of action in 79 games (including just 19% from three-point land going 7-36 from deep).

The rookie struggled to find his stroke and the comparisons to Scottie Pippen began to fade away. Brewer was a very versatile player at the University of Florida and played a key role being a great defender and an athletic wonder with his wiry frame. Like so many college players coming into the league, Brewer had yet to adjust his game to the pros and needed to quickly develop an offensive game that didn't consist of just relying on his athletic ability.

In his second season, the young shooting guard/small forward tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee in the 15th game of the season against ... the Denver Nuggets. The Timberwolves vice president of basketball operations at the time, Kevin McHale, had this to say at the time of the injury:

"I personally feel very bad for the kid because I know how much time he put in," McHale said. "I know what he sacrificed to become a better player and it was really starting to come around for him."

So after averaging 6.2 points in 20 minutes a night, Brewer's season was over. He had raised his field goal percentage from 37% to 41%, but after just 15 games it was hard to tell what kind of improvements the youngster had made.

Coming into this season, questions around Brewer's health and game needed to be answered. Well, after 64 games the 24 year-old is averaging career-highs of 13.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.4 steals. He's already logged more minutes this season with 1,976 than he did in his entire rookie season of 1,803 minutes. Brewer averages just over 30 minutes a game and is shooting a career-high 42.9% from the field and he has developed a three-point shot. From beyond the arc he's shooting a mediocre 35.1%, but he's made a career-high threes going 61-174 from deep ... like Carmelo Anthony, Brewer has developed a nice long-range game to compliment his drives and keep defenses honest.

It's been a blessing for T-Wolves fans to see Brewer develop and to come back after such a major knee injury. The league will probably hand the award for Most Improved Player to a bigger name, but for my money, Brewer is in the hunt.

It's easy to say that his numbers have improved because his team needs all the scoring it can get, but with scoring threats of rookie point guard Jonny Flynn, rookie shooting guard Wayne Ellington and forwards Ryan Gomes, Kevin Love and Al Jefferson there are plenty of options in the Twin City.

In three-games against the Nuggets, Brewer is averaging 21 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in 34.7 minutes per contest. He's also shooting a red-hot 56.5% against Denver, but only 25% from deep. If I'm Adrian Dantley (who will be on the bench in George Karl's absence tonight) I throw Arron Afflalo on him and wish Brewer the best of luck trying to score the ball.

Speaking of Most Improved Players ... how about the case for Arron Afflalo? Afflalo is averaging career-highs in minutes, field goal percentage, three-point percentage, rebounds, steals, blocks, assists and points.

	2009-10 AAA	2008-09 AAA (Career #'s)
Minutes	27.1	16.7 (14.8)
FG%	47.2%	43.7% (42%)
3PT%	45.5%	40.2% (30.5%)
Rebounds	2.8	1.8 (1.8)
Assists	1.7	.06 (.065)
Points	9.0	4.9 (4.3)

You can't totally measure Afflalo's defensive presence either. And we'll see tonight, hopefully against Brewer just how important Afflalo is for the Nuggets.

Additional nuggets ...

No official word on the Brian Cook signing as of yet ... I'm sure the Nuggets will have a nice warm spot on the bench for him. Chris Tomasson tweeted late last night, "If Nuggets want him, Brian Cook said he obviously wants a deal for rest of the season but would take a 10-day contract. "I need a job," he said."
Some fan thoughts on The Dream Shake regarding my Brian Cook FanPost on the Rockets site. (Good for some cheap laughs).
Johan Petro draws a very difficult assignment tonight as Denver's starting center will face Al Jefferson who is averaging 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds this season. This will be Jefferson's second game back with the team since facing a two-game suspension for his drunk driving arrest. Big Al is coming off a monster game against the Mavs where he put up 36 points and grabbed 13 rebounds ... now he's going to try to Mess With the Johan ... aka the French Resistance. (Good story on Petro here from the Denver Post's Chris Dempsey.) Can we get a clip art wiz-kid to adapt this picture into Petro a themed poster?
In his past three-games Anthony Carter, filling in for Ty Lawson, has notched 25 assists, good for 8.3 per game ... that trumps starter Chauncey Billups' 5.9 assists per game. This is the A.C. we can all live with and even dare I say ... root for?!?!
More on Petro ... kid can play a little bit. Against Portland's smallish frontcourt he posted 6 points on 2-3 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds in 23 minutes. What will he do for an encore? It'll be difficult inside with Jefferson, Love and even the lanky Ryan Hollins patrolling the glass, but this will be a great test for the young Frenchie.

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Mike Fuentes

What is Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy? (Plus Brian Cook)

2010-03-09T21:41:14Z

As yet another of the Nuggets' family battles medical issues, as Kenyon Martin began receiving platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP) for his injured left knee Monday March 8th, I needed some additional information on what the heck this therapy even is. Let's get a better understanding ...

In doing a little spot research I was comforted a little bit with the list of athletes who have been treated with PRP therapy. The list includes disgraced golfer Tiger Woods, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Takashi Saito, Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers, more than 20 professional soccer players and even recreational athletes (like you and me) to name a few.

So what exactly is Platelet-Rich Plasma Threapy?

I'm no doctor, although if you have ever seen my YouTube Milk Challenge video you may disagree, so let's get the experts' take.

From the Scientific American on Dec. 18, 2009:

Torn tendons, muscles and ligaments plague athletes in many types of sports. In attempts to help heal the wounded tissue, some athletes, both amateur and professional, have turned to platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy. For the treatment, doctors take a small vial of a patient's blood, about 30 milliliters, and spin it in a centrifuge to separate the platelet-rich plasma from the other components. Then they inject the concentrated platelets at the site of the patient's injury. In theory, the growth factors that platelets secrete (not including human growth hormone) spur tissue recovery. ...
Before playing in all four professional golf majors this year, Tiger Woods received four injections of PRP in his left knee following surgery. ...

Whereas doctors have used PRP therapy since the mid-1990s to aid bone healing after spinal injury and soft tissue recovery following plastic surgery, it has only been in the past year that the treatment has caught on for treatment of sports-related injuries. "PRP treatment really gained speed last January. It got press that two of the Pittsburgh Steelers [Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu] used it before [winning] the Super Bowl. More and more patients started to ask about it," says Dennis A. Cardone, a doctor of osteopathic medicine at the New York University (N.Y.U.) Hospital for Joint Diseases. Cardone has treated 30 amateur athletes with PRP therapy over the past year.

From the New York Times on Feb. 16, 2009:

Experts in sports medicine say that if the technique’s early promise is fulfilled, it could eventually improve the treatment of stubborn injuries like tennis elbow and knee tendinitis for athletes of all types.

The method, which is strikingly straightforward and easy to perform, centers on injecting portions of a patient’s blood directly into the injured area, which catalyzes the body’s instincts to repair muscle, bone and other tissue. Most enticing, many doctors said, is that the technique appears to help regenerate ligament and tendon fibers, which could shorten rehabilitation time and possibly obviate surgery.

What's the recovery time like for players coming back after this treatment?

New York Times piece:

Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ team physician, used platelet-rich plasma therapy in July on a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in the throwing elbow of pitcher Takashi Saito. Surgery would have ended Mr. Saito’s season and shelved him for about 10 to 14 months; he instead returned to pitch in the September pennant race without pain.

Dr. ElAttrache said he could not be certain that the procedure caused the pitcher’s recovery — about 25 percent of such cases heal on their own, he said — but it was another encouraging sign for the nascent technique, which doctors in the field said could help not just injuries to professional athletes but the tendinitis and similar ailments found in the general population.

"For the last several decades, we’ve been working on the mechanical effects of healing — the strongest suture constructs, can we put strong anchors in?" Dr. ElAttrache said. "But we’ve never been able to modulate the biology of healing. This is addressing that issue. It deserves a lot more study before we can say that it works with proper definitiveness. The word I would use is promising."

From the above we can see that Saito started treatment in July of 2008 and returned to action in September of 2008. So there is about a 2-3 month treatment period that worked for Saito. If K-Mart followed this path with his treatment beginning on March 8th and the end of the Nuggets regular season being April 13th in Phoenix, it doesn't give him too much time ... roughly just over a month to get as healthy as he can before the NBA playoffs begin.

Here is Hines Ward's story on his PRP treatment:

New York Times piece:

The technique played its most glaring role with Mr. (Hines) Ward, a receiver who left that Baltimore (Ravens) game in the first quarter with a sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee. The next day, he was injected with a form of PRP therapy called autologous conditioned plasma, which features different proportions of platelets and other cells. Along with strenuous rehabilitation and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, Ward recovered enough to make two catches in the Super Bowl, in which the Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals.

"I was next in line, the next guinea pig," Mr. Ward said, referring to Mr. Polamalu’s experience with platelet-rich plasma. "I think it really helped me. The injury that I had was a severe injury, maybe a four- or six-week injury. In order for me to go out there and play in two weeks, I don’t think anyone with a grade-2 M.C.L. sprain gets back that fast."

Will this PRP treatment work?

New York Times piece:

... several doctors emphasized that platelet-rich plasma therapy as it stands now appeared ineffective in about 20 to 40 percent of cases, depending on the injury.

With such limited research thus far with PRP treatment it isn't known if the treatment will work or not. If Martin's injury is truly just tendinitis then I think his chances of treatment working are much greater. If there is a ligament tear (even a minor one) I think this new wonder treatment will be far less effective. It sounds to me like K-Mart sees the writing on the wall and that surgery will derail the Nuggets' season and he's willing to perhaps sacrifice long-term health for a short-term championship run.

Your newest stiff ... Brian Cook?

In lieu of Kenyon Martin, it appears the Nuggets are ready to add shooting big man Brian Cook to their roster. As reported by Travis Heath of Hoops World, the Nuggets were impressed with Cook's shooting after his workout in Denver yesterday (March 8th) and are expected to sign him to a contract. Cook, pictured on the left next to Tracy McGrady, has been doing a lot of sitting these past few seasons.

The former Laker, Magic and most recently Rocket has only appeared in 81 games the past two seasons and saw very limited action in 15 games with the Rockets this season. Cook, at age 29, peaked from 2004-2007 when he was with the Los Angeles Lakers as he averaged 7 points and 3.2 rebounds. He shot 40.3% from three-point land during that three year stretch including 76.6% from the charity stripe.

In his career, Cook is a 44.7% field goal shooter and 39.1% three-point marksman. At 6'9'' and 250 pounds he is sort of a mirror image of Malik Allen. Cook isn't the most nimble guy around and prefers to play the game like Channing Frye ... take his shots, mix it up a little bit inside if he must and that's about it. In his three peak seasons with the Lakers from 2004-2007 Cook appeared in 72, 81 and 65 games and started 70 of those contests.

Coming out of Illinois I expected Cook to have a little bit better of a career and maybe with the Nuggets he can come in and offer some outside shooting and stretch the floor if and when he sees some action. It's obvious the Denver could use an extended rotation and hopefully Cook's presence will be a positive ... I'm not sure of Andrew's take on Cook, but I'm sure he'll offer up some thoughts in the coming days.

via nimg.sulekha.com
You can see that Cook has decent size and he towers over
Carl Landry and is comparable to Dikembe Mutombo and Yao Ming.

via grfx.cstv.com
Hey, Cook's got the ball inside the three-point line!

ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons

Photos courtesy of AP Photos

[UPDATED] K-Mart allegedly returning this season...

2010-03-08T23:00:34Z

[UPDATED] K-Mart allegedly returning this season...

The Post's Benjamin Hochman is now reporting that Kenyon Martin "will miss an undetermined amount of time while undergoing platelet rich plasma (PRP) therapy. He plans to return this season, although perhaps not until the NBA playoffs."

Golden Nuggets...

2010-03-08T20:51:28Z

Here's a smattering of recent Nuggets coverage, notably Stephen A. Smith's column on Allen Iverson claiming that the former Nugget will either "drink himself into oblivion or gamble his life away."

Stephen A. Smith: Iverson needs more than a prayer | Philadelphia Inquirer
His closest confidant asked the basketball world to pray for Allen Iverson, as if no one has all these years while seeing this train wreck coming.

George Karl Set for Surgery as Nuggets Taking Auditions -- NBA FanHouse
The Denver Nuggets will begin to audition players Monday as they wait to learn the fate of injured forward Kenyon Martin. The auditioning players include Stiffs Brian Cook, Mark Blount, Rob Kurz, Jake Voskuhl and non-Stiff Mikki Moore.

Karl's Battle Galvanizing Nuggets? - Basketball News & NBA Rumors -
Will the inspiration the Denver Nuggets are taking from head coach George Karl's battle with cancer be enough to propel Denver to new heights?

Nuggets' Renaldo Balkman Hoping to Turn Around Tough Season -- NBA FanHouse
At least, Denver Nuggets forward Renaldo Balkman got into a game Wednesday. Balkman, who has endured a trying season, finally stepped on the floor.

Nuggets' Andersen blocks out the hurting - The Denver Post
Chris Dempsey covers the Birdman's assortment of injuries and how he's rebounding from them.

NUGGETS: The Nuggets Beat with Aaron Lopez
Lopez talks to Anthony Carter about his new role this season as third-string back up point guard and conveys how classy A.C. has been given the circumstances.

And the award goes to... (Nuggets/Blazers recap)

2010-03-08T07:49:14Z

The only award befitting the Trail Blazers after their uninspired performance tonight is a "Razzie."

I take back everything positive that I said about the Trail Blazers in my game preview. While what I'm about to say may not endear me to Blazers fans, having seen this team up close and in person I'm shocked that they're still in the Western Conference playoff hunt. Simply put, the Blazers stink.

At lunch with Fanhouse's Chris Tomasson today, he said that the Blazers are the one team that the top Western Conference seeds are scared to face in the first round. After witnessing such a listless performance from a supposed talented team that had since Wednesday to prepare for a banged up Nuggets team playing its seventh game in 11 days, I can wholeheartedly say: bring on the Blazers - it would be a pleasure to face these guys in the first round, with or without Kenyon Martin.

When Blazers star Brandon Roy decides to take a night off, as he did tonight, the Blazers seem to be devoid of other options offensively. Yes, Roy's backup Jerryd Bayless had a nice game, but much of his offense came off jump shots while the Blazers were getting smoked off the Pepsi Center floor anyway. With Roy uncharacteristically out of it from the opening tip onward, the Blazers were stagnant on both ends while the Nuggets raced around them to 118 points, keeping their undefeated home streak alive when the Nuggets score north of 110.

It's pretty amazing to think that the Nuggets only home defeat to a Northwest Division "rival" this season was at the hands of the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves back in November. Because the Jazz, Thunder and now Blazers have been nothing short of no-shows in Denver thus far.

The View from the Not-So-Cheap Seats...

...Rudy Fernandez is no longer on the "All-Shoulder Hair Team". Chris Kaman now anchors that roster solo.

...on J.R. Smith's second three-point make, the ball bricked off the rim about three feet above the basket and then dropped in. As J.R. strutted back down on defense, Blazers point guard (and former Nugget) Andre Miller could only shake his head.

...speaking of Miller, who knew he could dunk so ferociously?!

...Broncos (for now) wide receiver Brandon Marshall sat right in front of us at courtside and was wearing a light blue hat. When the national anthem began, the guy standing next to Marshall had to remind him to take his hat off.

...Denver native and Tennessee Titans running back Lendale White sat a few seats down from Marshall and when his first cousin Chauncey Billups saw him sitting there, he said "What's up, White?!" in the middle of the game.

...at half time, about half the Nuggets players went up shake Marshall's hand as if he was the godfather of courtside.

...also at half time, Billups could be seen showing Arron Afflalo an assortment of head fake and step moves, with Afflalo paying close attention.

...Carmelo Anthony seems to be back to full health and more importantly, these past few games he has let the game come to him and has been playing exceptionally well. It's no accident that the crowd routinely chanted "M-V-P" each time Melo stepped to the free throw line tonight. When Melo is playing loose and smiling while crushing the opposition...look out.

...at the 9:04 mark in the fourth quarter, I think Nuggets head coach George Karl officially assembled his most curious lineup ever - four guards: Chauncey Billups, Anthony Carter, J.R. Smith and Arron Afflalo, and one Stiff center: Johan Petro. Funny enough, the Blazers were also playing with four guards and one big man in LaMarcus Aldridge.

...for the third straight game, A.C. played great in Ty Lawson's absence.

Non-Stiff of the Game

-J.R. Smith: One game removed from dishing out a season-high eight assists, the suddenly pass happy Smith dished out seven to go with 8-14 shooting from the field and two steals. Making things even better, J.R. is looking patient out there.

Stiff of the Game

-Brandon Roy: Beyond the fact that Roy missed 11 of his 14 shot attempts, his body language stunk from the opening tip. In uncharacteristic fashion for a player of Roy's caliber, the Blazers star player didn't appear to want to be on the Pepsi Center floor tonight and instead just went through the motions without ever attempting to impose his will on the game. If I were a Blazers fan, I couldn't be more disappointed in Roy's performance tonight.

Opposition's Take: Blazers Edge

Photos courtesy of AP: David Zalubowski

Game 63 Preview & Thread: Blazers at Nuggets (8:30pm MST)

2010-03-07T18:46:06Z

While most Coloradoans will be stuck at silly Oscar parties placing $2 bets on who will win Best Supporting Actress, I'll be at Pepsi Center watching the current Nuggets take on three notable former Nuggets who now play for the rival Trail Blazers.

I was admittedly drinking the Trail Blazers Kool-Aid before the season began. I figured a team that could field two starting fives and had one of the NBA's few "alpha dogs" in Brandon Roy leading the way was due to make another leap from their Nuggets-tying 54 wins of a season ago. Looking at the Blazers preseason roster, they could play big ball, small ball, slow ball or fast ball and do so with youthful energy combined with experience.

At that time, a lot of readers of this site disagreed, suggesting that the Blazers offseason acquisition of former Nugget point guard Andre Miller would prove to be a mistake and disrupt the Blazers young, hungry dynamic. This was true for the first month of the season when Miller showed up at training camp out of shape, the ball was taken out of Roy's hands too often and the Blazers got off to a rough start. But when Blazer centers Greg Oden and Joel Pryzbilla went down with nasty knee injuries in December, it would be Miller's acquisition that enabled the Blazers to acquire another former Nugget, this time center Marcus Camby. Had the Blazers not brought Miller to the Pacific Northwest, point guard Steve Blake (another former Nugget) wouldn't have been expendable in a deal to bring in a big man.

Regardless of the Miller situation, the Blazers - sitting in the Western Conference's eighth playoff seed, on pace for 47 wins and fielding a roster with three former Nuggets, the youngest of whom (Miller) is 33 years old - certainly aren't having the season anyone expected. When two-fifths of your starting five are comprised of aging former Nuggets who, while in Denver, never came to close to winning a playoff series, things aren't going to plan. That said, the Blazers have been playing well of late, winning five of their last six games (five of which were on the road) in commanding fashion and haven't played since Wednesday.

The Blazers will be rested and ready to take on the Nuggets who, conversely, will be playing their seventh game in 11 days and are suddenly more banged up than usual. Nuggets fans everywhere woke up Saturday morning to the frightening news that Kenyon Martin might need surgery on his left knee which, if this comes to fruition, will end K-Mart's thus far exceptional 2009-10 season and kill the Nuggets chances for an NBA championship. In addition to K-Mart's absence, rookie sensation Ty Lawson could likely miss tonight's game with a bad shoulder, Chris Andersen is playing through pain and Carmelo Anthony needed an IV after Friday's game.

The Nuggets certainly won't get any sympathy from Portland, though, a team that has sustained a number of injuries all season long and yet could still finish as high as fifth overall in the Western Conference playoff seeding. And that's part of why tonight's game is going to be so intriguing to watch play out. Portland knows Denver is banged up and they want to continue their march to that fifth seed. Meanwhile, Denver wants to keep pace with Dallas and keep their pesky division rival in Portland at bay. Throw in three former Nuggets - Miller, Camby and Juwan Howard - sure to play big minutes tonight, and we have the makings for an exciting national TV game.

I'll guess I'll have to get my Oscar results via my phone.

SCOUTING THE BLAZERS (OSCAR STYLE)...

Actor in a Leading Role - Brandon Roy: Despite missing 15 games due to injury, Roy's numbers remain on par with last season's and he's been playing great recently. As noted above, Roy is one of the few players in the NBA who can carry a team to the promised land through a combination of great leadership, excellent skill and clutch performance.

Actor in a Supporting Role - LaMarcus Aldridge: While the big men around him have crumbled, Aldridge has been a rock, missing just three games all season while delivering 17.5 ppg on 50% shooting and 8.1 rpg.

Directing - Nate McMillan: Give McMillan - a former George Karl disciple - credit. When Miller showed up out of shape at training camp, McMillan immediately demoted him to the second unit. And McMillan has done a fine job weathering an assortment of injuries (including his own Achilles tendon rupture) to keep Portland in the playoff hunt. Of course, it helps when you have two starting fives on your roster.

Opposition's Take: Blazer's Edge

Photo courtesy of AP: Jim Prisching

Breaking News: K-Mart might need knee surgery

2010-03-06T06:29:20Z

Breaking News: K-Mart might need knee surgery

Yahoo! Sports' Marc Spears is reporting that Kenyon Martin has a partial tear in his left patella tendon and that "surgery is among the treatment options."

As expected... (Nuggets/Pacers recap)

2010-03-06T06:20:08Z

The box score readers will wonder how the Pacers only lost by eight to the Nuggets tonight. Those who watched the game know the outcome was never in doubt.

While tonight's victory over the destitute Indiana Pacers wasn't the snoozer I forecasted in my game preview, I was never concerned about the Nuggets securing the victory. Their third straight against a sub-.500 team, by the way (and yes, it's somewhat concerning that that's cause for celebration around here).

In hindsight, my pregame description of the Pacers being a collection of white American Stiffs may have been unfair. Because regardless of the race of the players, this Pacers team stinks. It's not that all their players are bad per se, it's just that Pacers head coach Jim O'Brien's "system" makes no sense whatsoever. Rather than utilize his team's youth and athleticism to pester opposing teams into off nights with scrappy hustle play and full court defensive pressure, they basically engage in a Golden State-type fast paced shootout that encourages quick jumpers from any range.

The big flaw in O'Brien's "strategy" is that the Pacers can't shoot straight, evident by their third-to-last field goal percentage in the NBA and fifth-to-last three-point shooting percentage. Things were no different tonight, when the Pacers made just 44% of their shots. And that percentage is skewed as the Pacers made a handful of easy, meaningless buckets in the final three minutes of the game, making a 17-point blowout appear to be much closer.

The good news for Nuggets fans is that our team seems to be taking games against lesser opponents seriously at last. Even with Kenyon Martin and Ty Lawson missing in action tonight, the rest of the Nuggets roster - notably the starters plus J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen - performed as professionals tonight and never allowed it to get dangerously close.

The view from the not-so-cheap seats...

...when former Nuggets Dahntay Jones entered the game, he received a decent applause from the crowd but it wasn't as loud as I had expected considering how hard Dahntay played for us last season.

...Jones' adorable young son high-fived all of the Nuggets as they ran onto the court. It was a very cool moment.

...throughout the game, Dahntay was yapping with both J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony. Melo could be seen smiling whenever Dahntay tried to guard him and simply lit Dahntay up, proving good offense will always overcome good defense.

...the Pacers Josh McRoberts got a lot of playing time, and in the first half we openly questioned why. Then in the second half McRoberts showed why he belongs in the NBA with an assortment of athletic moves around the rim, including a spectacular alley-oop dunk. This kid has serious hops and is anything but the Stiff most experts predicted he'd be when he was drafted out of Duke.

...speaking of spectacular dunks, in all my years watching NBA games I've never seen a dunk thrown down with such rapidness as J.R.'s thunderous jam on Pacers center Roy Hibbert in the fourth quarter.

...Chris "Birdman" Andersen had a terrific game off the bench. He was active on both ends of the floor and definitely had his legs back.

...Hibbert is a surprisingly good free throw shooter and has nice, almost textbook, form. So why exactly can't other plus-seven foot centers do the same?

...when Nuggets head coach George Karl brought Melo and J.R. back into the game around the eight-minute mark in the fourth quarter with the Nuggets up 17, a lot of fans wondered why. in hindsight, the Nuggets were far from sealing this game and Karl absolutely made the right decision. By having Melo and J.R. in there for about five more minutes, the Nuggets were able to trade baskets and ice the victory. Good call by the coach here.

...a rarity, the Nuggets players laid off the refs tonight, accepted rather than contested foul calls and this produced a very fair whistle.

When I got home from the game I heard the news that Kenyon Martin might need surgery on his left knee. I speak for Nuggets fans everywhere when I say I really, really, really, really, really hope this doesn't come to fruition. It should be noted that, according to Yahoo! Sports' Marc Spears, surgery is being floated out as "among the treatment options". Let's not push the panic button yet until we get more definitive information. After all, we don't want our weekends ruined.

Non-Stiffs of the Game

-Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith: Melo and J.R. played great tonight. In addition to shooting 12-20 from the field, Melo got to the free throw 10 times and only missed one. Perhaps he's shaken off his recent free throw shooting slump. J.R. was hot out the gate and even though he shot a bit aimlessly in the second half, his season high eight assists more than made up for it.

Stiff of the Game

-Jim O'Brien: The Pacers have some (emphasis on some) talent, but O'Brien is out of his league trying to coach this team. Given that all of the Pacers core players are due to be paid next season, too, the Pacers should fire O'Brien now, bring in Avery Johnson and develop a more intense, defensive mentality in Indianapolis. Until this team takes playing NBA basketball seriously, they're going nowhere anytime soon.

Opposition's Take: Indy Corn Rows

Photo courtesy of AP: David Zalubowski

Defensive Player of the Year (AA) by Mplax

2010-03-05T17:59:12Z

Defensive Player of the Year (AA) by Mplax

A nice FanPost on Canis Hoopus (T-Wolves) on Afflalo.

Game 62 Preview & Thread: Pacers at Nuggets (7pm MST)

2010-03-05T06:24:03Z

The NBA's version of "The Whitest Kids U' Know," the Indiana Pacers, make their lone appearance at Pepsi Center on Friday night.

Before waiving Travis Diener three days ago, six of the Pacers 15 players were white. I think it's safe to say that Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird has overreacted to the Ron Artest / Stephen Jackson / Jamaal Tinsley / Marquis Daniels era of a few seasons past (hey, that sounds like a squad Mark Warkentien would assemble!) during which we saw the biggest brawl in NBA history and the infamous "Club Rio" incident. Becase last I checked, fielding an NBA team post-1960 that's comprised of 40% white American Stiffs is not advisable.

As noted by the Washington Post's Michael Wilbon a couple years ago, white American players in the NBA have been evaporating at a rate similar to black Americans in Major League Baseball. In fact, when David Lee made an All-Star appearance this season it was the first time the NBA's mid-season party had had a white American participant since Brad Miller's 2004 appearance. And yet the Pacers have been hell bent on reversing this trend all by themselves. The results? After missing the playoffs by three games in the Eastern Conference (a conference in which the eighth seed routinely has a sub-.500 record), they're on "Pace" (pardon the pun) to win about 27 games this season.

In other words, Bird's multi-year attempt to field an NBA team with shoddy duplicates of himself has been an abject failure. Now we know why people look back at the Donnie Walsh era in Indianapolis with such fondness, despite appearing in just one NBA Finals and hiring Isiah Thomas as head coach during Walsh's nearly 20 year reign over the franchise. (I don't want to pick on Walsh, by the way. The former Nuggets assistant and head coach did a great job keeping small market Indiana competitive and remains one of the classiest figures in the NBA. And he eventually fired Isiah...twice.)

Where was I? Oh, right. The Pacers are garbage. Absolute bottom-feeding NBA garbage. They're chock-full with Stiffs and making matters worse, they're expensive Stiffs who are on the payroll for next season. Further proof that hiring a former Celtic legend from the 1980s as your GM might not be the best idea in world. Just ask Minnesota Timberwolves fans. (And yes, Danny Ainge has done a good job in Boston but he lucked into Kevin Garnett courtesy of his friend and former teammate Kevin McHale. Lest we forget that Ainge essentially traded the right to draft Brandon Roy for Sebastian Telfair before the KG deal landed in his lap.)

When we last watched the Pacers play our Nuggets, the Nuggets walloped them 111-93 at Indianapolis in the fourth game of the season. Those were silly old times when Anthony Carter started (no joke), J.R. Smith was suspended and Renaldo Balkman actually got some garbage time minutes. The only question Nuggets fans should be concerned about entering Friday night's contest with the Pacers is whether or not to make LoDo plans for 9pm or 9:30, because this game will be over by the mid-point of the third quarter.

SCOUTING THE PACERS...

Pacers Stiffs

-Tyler Hansbrough: It's tough to blame Bird for drafting an NCAA Champion who won the Naismith and Wooden Awards 13th overall in the NBA Draft, but Hansbrough has turned out to be another Adam Morrison-type player: great in college where the best players no longer play past one season, not so great in the NBA. In fairness to Hansbrough, he's been hurt. But when he has played, 36% shooting isn't going to cut it in the NBA.

-Mike Dunleavy, Jr: Speaking of hurt, white and bad shooting...ladies and gentlemen, I present Mike Dunleavy, Jr! Dunleavy's 10.5 ppg on 40.1% shooting (29.9% from three-point range) is even more painful if you consider he's making $9.8 million this season...and will make $10.6 million next season.

-Jeff Foster: Foster belongs on this list for teasing Nuggets fans all season with the news that he might be a Denver Stiff instead of a Pacers Stiff. Not only did Foster never come to Denver (a move I was all for, by the way), but he called his season quits early due to back surgery.

Pacers Non-Stiffs

-Danny Granger: Thanks to an assortment of injuries and being asked to carry this awful team, Granger's production is down this season. But with the exception of an off-night against the Lakers this week, Granger has gotten his groove back over the past 10 or so games.

-Troy Murphy: I've always liked Murphy's game. He can score inside or out, hit the three and is a great rebounder. It's a shame that Murphy's talents are being wasted in a market that's goes largely unnoticed by the media that covers the NBA.

-Roy Hibbert: Hibbert is having a fine sophomore season for a guy drafted 17th overall in 2008. Unlike his fragile teammates, Hibbert has appeared in all 61 of the Pacers games and is averaging a respectable 10.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg and 1.7 bpg in just 23 minutes of playing time per night. In fact, when Hibbert was getting starters minutes earlier in the season, his contribution was even more impressive.

Opposition's Take: Indy Corn Rows

Photo courtesy of Getty Images: Ron Hoskins