Nuggets Fall in all Spur's Traps, Lose 96-91

The Spurs defeated the Nuggets in Denver 96-91, to take a 2 games to 1 lead in the best of 7 playoff series. The second game in Denver will be Monday, and the Nuggets can earn a third game in Denver, which would be game 6 in the series, simply by winning game 4 of the series Monday night, so all is not lost just yet.

I am going to tell you how the Spurs shut down the Nuggets for most of the game and had a lock on the game the whole way through, unless J.R. Smith or Kleiza had been on the court long enough and had been able to hit some threes. So if you want to know why the Spurs won over the more talented Nuggets, and why the Nuggets could not match what the Warriors are doing against the Mavericks, read on. Because this was a textbook game on how the Spurs win against more athletic and talented teams, and all of their strategies were used almost perfectly in this game. I know exactly what those strategies are. The Spurs treat basketball almost as if it were a chess game, where if you are experienced and know all the right moves and the right positions for your players (or chess pieces if it's chess) you win the game, even if your younger opponent is actually more talented than you are.

The first thing you have to understand is that the Spurs enjoy a big basketball intelligence advantage, not only against the Nuggets, but against every team in the League that I can think of, with the possible exception of Jeff Van Gundy's Houston Rockets. The Spurs in general and their Coach, Greg Popovich, in particular, understand the game inside and out, so they play in such a way as to make their winning likely regardless of exactly how well they are shooting. Not only do they take full advantage of the rules, they take full advantage of every aspect of the game, including such aspects as clock management, timeout management, defensive rotations, offensive set plays, optimum player minute allocation, and so on and so forth.

The most important thing they do, the thing that sets the stage for everything else, is that they play a physical, harassing defense, which accomplishes alot of objectives at once. First, it forces inside misses. In game 2, in San Antonio, the Nuggets missed a staggering 21 of 37 layups. In this game, they missed 7 of 17 layups, which is at least 3 too many. The Spurs missed only 3 of 16 layups. So you have an 8 point Spurs advantage just on the layups alone.

The Spurs have their second string players commit as many of the fouls as possible, so that they usually avoid foul trouble for most of their starters, as they did tonight.

When they physically contest a layup, the Spurs may or may not commit a foul, but more often then not, they do. Only a certain percentage of those fouls is going to be called a foul by the refs, though. The refs are going to occasionally miss contact, and they are occasionally going to "let 'em play" with some contact allowed. When a foul is called, the Spurs know that their opponent is almost always going to miss between 1/5 and 1/3 of all free throws. So by initiating heavy contact in the paint, the Spurs are able to squeeze out some stops where no foul was called even though there was a foul, and then they squeeze out a few more points from the other team's total from missed free throws.

In this game, there was a total of 20 fouls called against the Spurs, and 16 against the Nuggets. But a much greater percentage of the Spurs fouls were shooting fouls, which is exactly what the Spurs want. The Nuggets had more than twice as many free throws as the Spurs did. The Nuggets were 22 of 30 from the foul line and the Spurs were 13 of 14 from the line. But the apparent 9 point advantage for the Nuggets is not really an advantage, if the free throws are mostly replacing shots that would have gone in had the Spurs not disrupted them.

Actually there were probably 13 or 14 shots prevented by the Spurs, not 15. The non-shooting foul free throws were technicals or "plus 1's," where the shot counts and a foul is called. Have you noticed that neither Melo, A.I., Nene, nor any other Nugget is getting any plus 1's to speak of in this series?. That's because the Spurs are so intelligent, that they can usually judge in an instant whether a given shot is going to go in or not if they do not foul. They won't foul if they know the shot is not likely to go in, which they determine based on instinct, but they will frequently foul if they know by instinct that the shot is likely to go in. They avoid the plus 1's by making a decisiion instantly on whether to disrupt the shot, and then, when they foul, by making sure that their foul is hard enough to prevent the ball from going in.

Aside from the physical stops and the free throw math that works out in their favor, the Spurs will usually get more blocks from playing this way than their opponent. Ironically, the Nuggets have the best blocker in the NBA, Marcus Camby. But Camby's philosophy is the opposite of the Spurs; he tries to avoid fouling his man, even at the cost of surrendering shots. Camby probably does not understand how fouling to disrupt can work out in your favor, as long as your teammates are on the same page for that strategy. So in this game, you had the best blocker in the NBA playing for the Nuggets, but he picks and chooses his blocks carefully, whereas the Spurs are using the all-out smother strategy in the paint, so that some of the Spur's blocks are actually fouls that were not called. The Spurs buried the Nuggets in blocks 9-4, with Duncan getting 5 blocks and the playoff master Robert Horry getting 3. For the Nuggets, Camby made 2 blocks, Nene made 1, and J.R. Smith made 1.

The overall damage report from the Spurs hounding and roughing up in and near the paint is that the Spurs ended up scoring more points in the paint, but the Nuggets needed alot more points in the paint than the Spurs did. The Nuggets did not have the jump shooting and especially the perimeter jump shooting capability the Spurs had, because there was a big drop-off in jump shooting on the Nuggets that George Karl played, beyond A.I. and Melo. Camby did his best during the season to develop a jump shot, but it did not fully pan out. When the dust had settled, the Spurs had scored 38 points in the paint, while the Nuggets had scored 36 points in the paint, and the 9 more free throw points that the Nuggets had was only about half as many as were needed.

Another result which shows the damage done by the Spurs to the Nuggets is that the Nuggets had just 19 assists, not enough for a team that relied on quick offense to get the vast majority of their wins during the season. Blake had 7 assists, Iverson was held to just 4 assists, Nene had 3, and Melo and Camby had 2 each.

When the Spurs use heavy contact in the paint, they slow down the game so that their opponent can not get many fast breaks. They want their opponent slowed down and contained. Tim Duncan likes to use the expression "keep everything in front," meaning that the Spurs want to always have their backs to the basket, and have the players they are covering in front of them. By heavy contact in the paint, the Spurs slow down the other team, disrupt it's flow, and foul up it's set plays. The Nuggets do not have many set plays anyway, and the flow they had early in the season has been mostly destroyed by the heavy emphasis on defense in the last two months. So in the case of the Nuggets, sad to say, there wasn't that much for the Spurs to disrupt.

With the foundation of heavy contact in the paint, the Spurs then branch out and use a whole lot of other strategies to make sure they win, no matter who they are playing. By frustrating their opponent first and foremost in the paint, and to a lessor extent outside it, the Spurs can then catch guards off guard, and get more steals than the other team. In this game, the Spurs decimated the Nuggets in steals, 7-3. To the Spurs, stealing the ball is an important team objective, especially in the playoffs. Incredibly, 5 different Spurs had a steal and Robert Horry, the ultimate win in the playoffs veteran, had two steals. Meanwhile, a team like the Nuggets usually gets steals only by chance and in desperate situations late in the game.

Once the flow of their opponent is disrupted and the Spurs have more steals, they will have fewer turnovers overall than their opponent most of the time. The Nuggets, to their credit, kept their overall turnover count within reason, as they at least respected the fundamentals of basketball and did not go crazy trying to do the impossible. But the Spurs inevitably won the turnover battle, 14-11. It almost goes without saying that the Spurs almost never lose the turnover battle in an early playoff series, and they almost never have more turnovers than the average for an NBA game, which is about 14 1/2. Only 4 teams had fewer turnovers than the Spurs did this season, including the two teams that were, at the beginning of the playoffs, the popular favorites to meet in this years Championship series, the Pistions and the Mavericks. The only other two teams slightly more careful with possessions than the Spurs were the Raptors and, surprisingly, the Wizards.

Since the Spurs force so many misses, the team they are playing will usually out rebound them, but this is meaningless and the Spurs know it, so they don't worry too much about rebounding per se.

Now I will reveal the real secret of winning for a team like the Spurs. Almost everything they do, starting with the physical contact, and including all the fouling, stealing, blocking, attention to detail with the ball, and good set plays on offense, lead to more shots on goal for them. This is the real secret of defensive teams like the Spurs. What they do does not directly give them a likely win, but it indirectly makes their winning likely, because they end up with many more shots on goal than the other team has.

And another direct advantage from fouling is that when a shooting foul is called, the possession is over, so there are almost never second chance 3-pointers made on the Spurs, as you have been seeing the Spurs make on the Nuggets a few times in this series.

So the net result of all of the Spurs non-scoring activities was that they had 86 shots on goal versus just 77 for the Nuggets. With that kind of an advantage, the Spurs can shoot worse than the other team and still win the game. In this game, both squads had the same exact shooting percentage, 43%. The Spurs made 37 of 85 shots, while the Nuggets made 33 of 77 of theirs.

Opposing teams fall right into the traps when they go all out to try to play better defense to "match up" better with the Spurs. The correct strategy is to try to defeat the Spur's strategy by having a good passing game which gets the ball again and again to the open man who has the best chance of making the shot. That is more difficult to do than it sounds, but the Warriors are doing it right now as they seek to shock the Mavs. If you try to copy the Spurs, or become as "mentally tough as them," as George Karl wants to do, you lose almost for sure. Yes, the Spurs are "mentally tough," but, more importantly, they are also mentally loaded with knowledge on how to put a stranglehold on a basketball game.

On offense, the Spurs rely on set offensive plays and on three point shooting more than anything else. In a classic West Conference throwdown, the Spurs buried the Nuggets in threes in this game. They made 9 of 21 of them, for a percentage of 42.9%, whereas the Nuggets made only 3 of 12, for a percentage of 25%. In many other game reports, I have warned that George Karl, by not giving his good 3-point shooters from the bench enough playing time, was setting the Nuggets up for inevitable disaster.

I have been all over Mr. Karl since the all-star break for this and other transgressions, so you need only read any number of other game reports to find out about the faults of George Karl. I am not going to review the Karl stuff here, except that I will say that the absence of Kleiza in this game was even more of a crime than the absence of J.R. Smith in other regular season and playoff games was. Kleiza played for only 5 minutes, leaving the Nuggets basically defenseless to the onslaught of 3-pointers from the Spurs. For the Nuggets, Melo made a nice 2 of 3 threes, Blake made 1 of 3, but both Iverson and the rusty from bench sitting J.R. Smith were 0 for 3 from long range, and that sealed the deal for San Antonio.

The bottom line is that the Spurs treat basketball as if it were a science instead of a game. If you mix the right ingredients in the right way, you get a win, no matter which particular team you are playing. And the talented but youthful Nuggets were led to the slaughter by a Coach who means well but can not understand that the Nuggets only way to win is to hit shots that are not covered in and to play players who are not mentioned in the Spur's textbook.

You know, Greg Popovich looks more like a college professor than a former basketball player. And his team showed tonight that it is better to play like a bunch of scrooges than it is to have a scrooge for a head coach.

Najera played 20 minutes and was 0/2 for 0 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.

Kleiza played 5 minutes, did not take a shot, and had 1 rebound. I kid you not.

Blake played 36 minutes and was 3/6 and 1/3 on 3's for 7 points, and he had 7 assists and 1 rebound.

J.R. Smith played 16 minutes and was 4/10, 0/3 on 3's, and 4/4 from the line for 12 points, and he had 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.

Nene played 37 minutes and was 7/11 and 4/4 from the line for 18 points, and he had 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block.

Marcus Camby played 38 minutes and was 2/7 and 2/2 from the line for 6 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 assists.

A.I. played 45 minutes out of 48, or virtually the whole game, and was 7/20, 0/3 on 3's, and 6/9 from the line for 20 points, and he had 4 assists and 2 rebounds. The Spurs are so stingy that even one of the best all time playoff thiefs, Iverson, has not been able to get alot of steals in this series yet. He made 1 steal in game 1, 3 steals in game 2, and no steals in this game.

Melo played 44 minutes out of 48, or virtually the whole game, and was 10/21, 2/3 on 3's, and a disappointing 6/11 from the line for 28 points, and he also had 12 rebounds and 2 assists. He made up for missing a few free throws by making the three-pointers, a job that was left to J.R. Smith in the good old days early in the season. On the other hand, Melo has been known to be perfect from the line, and had he hit every free throw, it might have been just enough for overtime. But let's face it, overtime would only have prolonged the misery.

The next game, which will be game 4 of the series, will be Monday, April 30 in Denver at 7 pm Mountain Daylight Time.

Nuggets Starters Run Out of Gas, Lose Game 2 to Spurs 97-88

As I expected, the Nuggets were not capable of a second miracle 5-man game deep in the heart of Texas. They were, in fact, unable to put up much of a fight against the Spurs at all. A.I., Melo, Nene, Camby, and Blake had an even bigger letdown from their huge game one performance than I thought they would have. In game 1, the Nugget's bench, with it's scarce minutes, was able to get 6 points, while in this game it exploded for 7 points. So predictably, the Spurs took game two 97-88, to even the series at one game each.

Coach Karl seems to think that the game is decided by who scores more points among the starters. If he were correct, the Nuggets would be up 2-0 in this series, as the big five starters for the Nuggets outscored PF Duncan, C Elson, SF Bowen, SG Finley, and PG Parker 81-67, after burying them 89-53 in game one. The Spurs bench totalled 94 minutes in this game while the Nuggets bench was given only 42 minutes. There are 240 player minutes to allocate in a game, so you can see that A.I., Melo, Nene, Camby, and Blake took up over 80% of the playing time by themselves. The Spurs starters took up about 60% of the playing time, leaving a generous 40% for the role players.

What George Karl is doing is exactly opposite what title winners such as Greg Popovich and Phil Jackson do. They generously rotate in every role player who can contribute from off the bench, while at the same time making sure that their key performers, in this case Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, do not run out of gas. With the possible exception of Iverson, the five players that Karl is over relying on are all subject to getting a little bit tired in the second half when they are left in for almost the entire game. More to the point, they are going to be a little more tired than the Spurs players on the court at any given time.

To be specific with regard to this game, Popovich had Duncan play 33 minutes and Parker play 38 minutes, while Karl had Melo play 44 minutes and Iverson play 45 minutes. In a tight game between two evenly matched teams, the fact that Iverson and Melo are a little more tired than Duncan and Parker could be the difference between winning and losing. In this game, neither A.I. nor Melo were fully feeling their jump shots, and they were both getting mangled on layup attempts at the hoop, so when the Spurs had the extra step on them later in the game, it just made a bad situation worse. By not resting A.I. and Melo for roughly half of the the 3rd quarter, the Coach blew an opportunity to see if J.R. Smith or Linas Kleiza could shoot the Nuggets back into the game.

About half way through the 4th, a weary Melo and a weary A.I. finally tapped that last small reserve of athletic adrenalin that they were saving for the last desperate minutes, but it was not enough. Iverson buried a three with 45 seconds left to make it 91-88 Spurs, but Duncan then calmly iced the win for the Spurs by making a little 9-foot banked jumper with 27 seconds to go for 93-88 Spurs. Anthony said after the game: "Tonight we showed that we're going to fight. Whether we're down 50 or we're down two, we're going to fight you until the last whistle blows." He might have added, "or until we drop from exhaustion". The Nuggets were literally outnumbered by the Spurs, who kept enough fresh role players on the court at all times to guard well their absolutely necessary victory.

George Karl refused to budge on his refusal to share substantial playing time outside of the five starters, with J.R. Smith not even playing quite a quarter and Linas Kleiza getting only 16 minutes. When they were playing 20-30 minutes a game, Smith was the key factor in at least 6 of the Nuggets 45 regular season wins this season, and Kleiza was the key extra factor in at least 4 of them, but such contributions are ignored by Mr. Karl in Scroogeland. Most coaches would be using Kleiza to give Melo some breathers and Smith to give Iverson some breathers.

Of course, many coaches would have Smith starting at shooting guard and Iverson starting at point guard, with Blake coming in from the bench. At one point earlier this season, Karl did start A.I. at the point and J.R. at SG, and it worked quite well. That ended in less than two weeks, though, when J.R. upset Karl's delicate sensibilities when he had a few too many turnovers and made a few too many bad-looking shots in two or three different games. Even the J.R. shots that went in were counted as a negative by the Coach, if they looked awkward or if they were taken when someone else had a better open look. In recent weeks, Smith has been late to practice a time or two, and late once for the team bus, which caused Karl to bury him even deeper on the bench. As for Kleiza, his main problem is that he is not A.I., Melo, Nene, Camby, or Blake, since Karl thinks that five should be enough. Also, Karl apparently worries that Kleiza is too young to be dependable in a high pressure playoff situation, which is one of those theories that only a pessimistic scrooge could adopt.

There is a parallel problem going on, due to Karl's refusal to play rebounding and in-the-paint defensive specialist Reggie Evans. Nene has gotten noticed by the entire basketball community for his ability to neutralize Tim Duncan, and Camby is a blocking and rebounding ace second to no one except maybe Kevin Garnett, but a big man such as Nene and a complex multi-dimensional center such as Camby can only play so many minutes before they start missing layups, missing blocks, and causing the refs to blow their whistles. In this game, a running low on gas Camby fumbled an open dunk with 1:52 to go that would have made the score 89-85 Spurs. Would Camby had blown that dunk if Reggie Evans had given him the kind of rest that most players his age and condition get? I seriously doubt it.

The game was like a big cry from the gang of five: "we need a little help here, George." Camby's blown dunk was just the tip of the iceberg. The starting five were able to make only 15 of 34 layups, which would be miserable for any junior high team, let alone a pro team playing for the ring which, ironically, Camby said during the day was attainable for the Nuggets this time around. Careful, Mr. Camby, that's alot easier said than done and you don't want to overwhelm everyone. It's supposed to be one game at a time, you know. Meanwhile, the Spur's starters made 10 of 13 layups, with the steady but cautious Duncan making 5 of 5. Overall, the Spurs made 16 of 24 layups, while the Nuggets frantically made only 16 of 37.

The Nuggets shooting was a pathetic 38.6% while the Spurs shooting was held to 43.8%. Other than the shooting, the rest of the production was remarkably equal between the two teams, a bad sign for the Spur's prospects in Denver. The Spurs were supposed to dominate in rebounding in this series, but both teams had 44 rebounds in this game, with Denver getting 14 offensive rebounds versus just 10 for the Spurs. The Nuggets, who just about led the League in turnovers this year, had a very reasonable 12 turnovers, while the Spurs, who had fewer turnovers than almost anyone, had 13. Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili combined for 15 of the 20 Spurs assists, while Blake (7 assists) and Iverson (5 assists) combined for 12 of the Nuggets 17 assists.

Tim Duncan had five blocks and Marcus Camby had three. But the Nuggets beat the Spurs on steals 7-5. A.I. made three steals and Camby made two steals. SF Bruce Bowen made three steals for the Spurs.

From 3-point land, Melo, Iverson, and Blake all stepped up and made clutch 3-pointers, as the Nuggets actually did better from long range than from shorter range. In another sign that the Spurs are likely to lose the series, the Nuggets were able to keep the Spur's big 3-point shooting advantage to a minimum for the two games in San Antonio, despite the fact that Kleiza and Smith were non-factors.

So the Nuggets are standing or falling based on how just those five do, and they followed their incredibly outstanding performance in game one with a very weak three and a half quarters in this game, with a too little too late rally in the last half of the fourth quarter. The 4th quarter rally, at least, gave the Spurs a little bit of a scare, and informed them that the Nuggets are not going to go away quietly in this series.

No, this is going to be a six or seven game series. And I will now proceed to the good news, and reward with a big shot of confidence any Nuggets fan who has read this far and soaked up the bad news. The biggest story of all from this series so far is that the Spurs have played poorly in both of their home games. That is a major shock, and obviously means that the Nuggets can and should win both of the upcoming games in Denver, as long as they avoid a shooting disaster like the one that occurred tonight, which is little to ask for.

In a remarkable development, Nene, with some assistance from Camby, have neutralized Duncan two straight games in his building. As long as Nene and Camby keep hustling enough to keep harassing Duncan, who is overwhelmingly the go-to guy in the Spurs front court, the Nuggets in theory need only to avoid an A.I.-Melo combined shooting disaster to win both games in Denver. If one of those two is hitting, it will be close, but the Nuggets, with some assistance from extremely loud fans, would be favored. And if both A.I. and Melo are making shots, you can turn the lights out in San Antonio for this season.

Najera played 14 minutes and was 0/3 for 0 points, and he had 2 rebounds and an assist.

Kleiza played 16 minutes and was 2/4 and 1/3 on 3's for 5 points, and he had 1 assist.

Blake played 35 minutes and was 3/5 and 2/3 on 3's for 8 points, and he added 7 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

J.R. Smith played 12 minutes and was 0/4, 0/3 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 2 points, and he had 3 rebounds.

Nene played 36 minutes and was 8/15 and 1/2 from the line for 17 points, and he had 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block.

Camby played 39 minutes and was 4/11 and 2/4 from the line for 10 points, and he also had 18 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. This was well above Camby's normal playing minutes and well above the minutes played by comparable players in similar situations.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 9/25 and 2/3 on 3's for 20 points, and he had 5 assists and 3 steals.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 8/21, 2/4 on 3's, and 8/9 from the line for 26 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.

The next game, which will be game 3 of the series, will be Saturday, April 28 in Denver, against the Spurs, of course, at 6 pm mountain time.


IT WAS UNTHINKABLE THAT SPURS COACH GREG POPOVICH
WOULD BE SCROOGED BY GEORGE KARL TWICE IN A ROW













NENE ON TIM DUNCAN















NENE IS GENERALLY GETTING GOOD POSITIONING ON DUNCAN













A SLIGHTLY WEARY BUT DETERMINED IVERSON













A.I. FINDS A GOOD PLACE TO TAKE A BREATHER














IN BASKETBALL, THE BEST PLAYER ON THE COURT DOES NOT
ALWAYS WIN; FOR MORE INFORMATION, CHECK WITH KOBE BRYANT













MELO LEANS IN ON TIM DUNCAN













TIRED OUT BUT HEADING HOME, THE NUGGETS
ACHIEVED IN SAN ANTONIO WHAT WAS
NEEDED TO EVENTUALLY WIN THIS SERIES

A.I., Melo, Nene, Camby, & the Nuggets Stun Spurs 95-89

It was a titanic struggle, but the Titanic, in the end, went down, despite the fact that the Basketball Establishment was in complete agreement that the Titanic, otherwise known as the San Antonio Spurs, would never sink. True, it was only one game, but the Nuggets won with one hand tied behind their backs, as they played under Coach Scrooge with just 7 players playing 10 minutes or more, whereas the Spurs had 10 players playing 10 minutes or more. Incredibly, the Spurs bench outscored the Nuggets bench 36-6, whereas the Nugget's dream team of starters, minus Kenyon Martin, outscored the Spurs tried, tested, and well worn starters by an astonishing 89-53, surely one of the greatest such playoff routs in recent years.

Coach George "Scrooge" Karl seems to impart his scrooge-like ways on the Nuggets more and more with each passing week, and they have now been molded to be able to win basketball games with essentially no bench scoring at all, which is supposedly impossible in modern pro basketball. I would reckon it's been about 50 years since a team won a major playoff game with just 5 contributors. Well, "why bring other hands into the picture?," reasons any scrooge worth his salt. "They are liable to muck things up. And money can be saved if we just take J.R. Smith, Reggie Evans, and DerMarr Johnson off the payroll entirely, so let's just kick them off the team and be done with it."

Meanwhile, Coach Popovich of the Spurs had his worst fears, that his squad might be a little too long in the tooth to have an easy time of things against the extremely talented but extremely inexperienced and dubiously coached Nuggets, start to come true. No, Popovich will not be sleeping very well this week, because the Nuggets did not merely stun the Spurs and the entire Basketball Establishment, they blew up alot of assumptions and left them in a thousand pieces on the court. The Nuggets actually won this game by more than the raw score indicates.

How is this series likely to go from here, based on what is known now? There is little doubt that the Spurs will win game 2. Popovich will come up with new schemes and the Spurs will kick it into their highest gear to make sure they are not handled in their own building again. But the Nuggets, provided that most of the following keep happening, namely, that Melo and Iverson keep making jumpers at a fast pace, that Nene, with assistance from Camby, keeps doing a number on Tim Duncan, that J.R. Smith can get a disguise and sneak on to the court for games 3 and 4 in Denver, and that Kleiza can do a little better than the 0 of 5 from the field that he shot in this game, will likely be in full command of the proceedings in Denver, and are likely to return to San Antonio with a 3 to 1 game lead in the series for game 5 on Wednesday, May 2. The Spurs would be favored in that one, for old time's sake, whereupon the Nuggets can complete the 4 games to 2 massive upset on Friday May 4, in a Denver that will by then be having a huge case of basketball fever, with crazed fans ready to party long into the night.

That's my prediction and I am sticking to it. From this point forward, your Nuggets reporter is not accepting any criticism, from either himself or anyone else, that he is always too pessimistic about the Nuggets. On the other hand, I am warning you in advance that I will probably be predicting that the Suns, who will not be intimidated by the energy and the athletic talent of the Nuggets, will beat the Nuggets in the West's round of four.

And before anyone gets carried away, keep in mind that the Nuggets are one minor injury away from total disaster. George Karl has bet the ranch on A.I., Melo, Camby, and Nene. If any of these go out with an injury, well, don't expect Karl to have a plan to deal with it, let's put it that way.

When Charles Barkley, a former basketball star and now a commentator on the TNT cable network, was predicting that the Nuggets would go nowhere, he backed up his prediction by saying that the Nuggets have scoring, but they don't have a player or two who can get the key rebounds, who can get key stops, and who can generally slow down and harass big men such as Tim Duncan. Aside from overlooking the defensive skill of Marcus Camby, which was a monumental mistake in itself, Barkley was also apparently completely unaware of a power forward named Nene. Maybe this is because Nene is from Brazil, and Barkley and others can not conceive of a Brazilian as a big time power forward in the NBA. Well, PF all-star Tim Duncan and his Coach, Mr. Popovich, now understand that it is possible for a Brazilian to be a big time power forward in American basketball, because it is happening right before their eyes.

Although the Brazil guy was held to 13 points on 5 of 12 shooting, as Duncan was able to interfere with Nene's usual extreme effectiveness from point blank range, the Brazil guy returned the favor and held Duncan to 14 points on 7 of 17 shooting. Both of these gladiators, who the referees let fight it out with few interruptions for fouls, hounded each other to no end. Duncan had 10 rebounds, but Nene had 12. Duncan made three blocks, but Nene (1 block) and Camby (2 blocks) combined for three. So it was basically a bloody draw, which was a huge win for the Nuggets, because the Spurs came up way short when they tried to match what the dynamic duo, A.I., and Melo, were doing mostly outside of the bloody trench in the paint. Nene was the anti-Duncan, exactly the type of player Barkley had in mind when he said the Nuggets have no one like that, and so Mr. Barkley should apologize to Nene, and to the whole of Brazil if he is generous enough to go that far. I am picking on Barkley, but keep in mind that what Barkley said about the Nuggets was what most basketball observers were thinking, although most of them were not quite as harsh as he was. Everyone had Nene written off due to his serious knee injury and slow recovery, but in the end the power of his mind and body to heal won out.

Offensive rebounding was about even, but the Nuggets had 29 defensive rebounds versus 21 for the Spurs. Overall shooting was 35 of 77, for an accuracy of .455 for the Nuggets, and 37 of 88, for an accuracy of .420 for the Spurs. The Spurs shooting was worse than it looks, as their three top scorers, PF Duncan, PG Tony Parker, and SG Manu Ginobili were a combined 7 of 33 in the first half and 19 of 52 for the whole game. With all three of his best scorers out of sync, Popovich was left with a puzzle for which there was no solution.

The Nuggets dynamic duo of Melo and A.I. combined for 61 points on 21 of 40 from the field, while the Spurs dynamic duo of Parker and Ginobili combined for 28 points on 12 of 35 from the field. The old guard was rattled, could not figure out a way to become unrattled, and so they more or less surrendered in the 4th quarter of this game to the upstarts from the poor village in the hills. They retired to their castle to rest up and scheme battle plans for the next game.

Were it not for the fact that Denver was playing without a bench, this would have been a near rout, but Mr. Karl apparently feels that it would be too risky to play with a bench. "Why do so if you don't have to,?" reasons Mr. Scrooge. "A 4 or 6 point win is just as good as a 10 or 12 point win," he claims. "J.R. Smith? Don't know him and don't need to know him," continues the Scrooge. "We can do just fine without putting up alot of those crazy three-point shots that are more likely to miss than go in. And I could not care less that the Texas teams and most NBA Championship teams live off the 3-point shot. Living high off the hog like that is not good at all, and it's not for me, no sir."

Why bother arguing with him as long as the Nuggets keep winning?

This struggle of a game was played in the Spurs building and with the Spurs tempo. Therefore, the game produced very few fast break points. Denver had only 3 more turnovers than the Spurs did, 18 versus 15. The Spurs had 27 points off turnovers whereas the Nuggets had just 15, but this was offset by the Nuggets making 21 of 25 free throws, while the Spurs made 7 of 10. And so not only did Camby, Nene, and the Nuggets play effective defense, but they also played high quality defense, and were called for only 13 personal fouls, whereas the Spurs had 20.

Steve Blake, who is the one Nugget who can calm George Karl's nerves by his mere presence on the court, had a long introduction to the high pressure world of playoff pro basketball in Texas. He played most of the game, but made only 4 assists and had only 7 points on 3 of 6 shooting. He was there, he was learning, he didn't get in the way, he chose his shots carefully and, as a result, quietly helped the Nuggets in a small but significant way. And he kept George Karl calm and contented, which is important. The Nuggets had only 13 assists in total, as Melo and A.I. were hitting their shots and beating their defenders most of the night, and so were often happy with isolation plays. The Spurs had 22 assists, with Parker making 8 of them and Duncan making 7.

Fasten your breastplates well, for the nobles of the Alamo are going to be out for revenge on Wednesday, and it will probably get rather ugly for the Nuggets. But then the Nuggets will bring the nobles to their humble village for games 3 and 4, and it is then that they expect to finally win the hearts of their fans, to defeat the royal Spurs, and to continue on to battle the even mightier Suns in their desert kingdom.

Najera played 20 minutes and was 1/2 and 1/2 from the line for 3 points, and he had 4 rebounds.

Kleiza played 19 minutes and was 0/5, 0/2 on 3's, and 1/2 from the line for 1 point, and he had 4 rebounds.

Blake played 37 minutes and was 3/6 and 1/2 on 3's for 7 points, and he also had 3 assists, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals.

J.R. Smith played 5 minutes and was 1/3 and 0/2 on 3's for 2 points.

Nene played 38 minutes and was 5/12 and 3/5 from the line for 13 points, and he had 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block.

Camby played 37 minutes and was 4/9 for 8 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.

Melo played 40 minutes and was 10/18, 2/4 on 3's, and 8/8 from the line for 30 points, and he had 8 rebounds and a steal. Melo was 4 of 6 on layups and dunks. 4 of 8 on two-point jumpers, and a surprising and clutch 2 of 4 on threes.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 11/22, 1/3 on 3's, and 8/8 from the line for 31 points, and he had 5 assists, 1 steal, and 1 rebound. In a development that could make Iverson even more of a legend than he already is, Iverson has completed the circle and has returned to the miracle, too good to be true days of his first three years with the Sixers. He is hitting so many jump shots, 9 of 19 in this one, for example, that he does not need to risk an injury and wear himself out by charging to the hoop alot. But when he does penetrate to the hoop, he is getting his share of foul calls.

The next game, which is game two of the best of 7 series, will be Wednesday April 25 in San Antonio to play the Spurs at 5 pm mountain time.

POPOVICH NOW KNOWS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE SCROOGED










THAT GUY FROM BRAZIL THAT BARKLEY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT











NENE HAS GOOD DEFENSIVE POSITION ON DUNCAN HERE














NENE SMOTHERS THE VETERAN FORWARD ROBERT HORRY













NENE SLAM DUNK













THE SPURS HAVE A DOUBLE TEAM ON MELO HERE,
BUT COULD NOT AFFORD TO DO SO VERY OFTEN,
WITH NENE, A.I., AND CAMBY ON THE LOOSE













FAST BREAK DUNK FOR MELO













MELO SPOTS UP AS THE FANS GET READY FOR MORE PUNISHMENT













CARMELO ANTHONY













ALLEN IVERSON













ALLEN IVERSON AND TIM DUNCAN













IVERSON GOES UP FOR A SHOT BETWEEN DUNCAN AND PARKER












FOR IVERSON, THE GOOD OLD DAYS HAVE COME BACK,
AND NOW THEY ARE THE BETTER GOOD OLD DAYS













MISSION ACCOMPLISHED















SYRACUSE, I MEAN DENVER, EXCUSE ME, LEADS THE TOURNAMENT 1 GAME TO NONE

Nuggets Get Easy Win Over Hurting Wolves 122-107

Neither the Wolves nor the Nuggets had a whole lot to play for here, as the regular season fates of both teams was already decided before the tip. The Nuggets shot with an accuracy of 50%, whereas the Wolves were 47.8% accurate, so you can see right away that neither team was playing remotely like the Spurs do on defense. The Wolves were devastated due to the injury loss of Kevin Garnett, and in any event are near the bottom of the Western Conference and are already thinking about the draft and about prospective off-season trades they need to make if they want to challenge the Nuggets in the Northwest division next year. The Nuggets were locked into the 6th rank of the West before the tip of this game, and the Spurs were locked into the 3rd rank, meaning that the Spurs and the Nuggets already knew they would be meeting in the playoffs even before this game was played.

In this game, the Nuggets worked on defending the pick and roll, in preparation for Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, and the Spurs. Offensively, they worked on penetration, and they ended up with an impressive 60 points from the paint.

The Nuggets used their big skill advantage and their motivation to stay charged up for the playoff series with the Spurs to overwhelm the Wolves in the 3rd quarter and cruise to a win that was much easier to get than the score indicates, 122-107. For the game, the Nuggets had a huge 34 points off of fast breaks, whereas the Wolves had 19. Each team had 17 turnovers.

The Nuggets drew twice as many shooting fouls as did the Wolves and made 32 of 40 free throws, whereas the Wolves were limited to 17 of 22. Despite the fact that Marcus Camby sat out this one with a sore right knee, the Nuggets, led by 10 rebounds by Nene and 10 by Kleiza, out rebounded the Wolves 44-37. We are starting to see more and more evidence that Camby's defensive skills have finally started to rub off on others. In this game, played without Camby, the Nuggets nevertheless had 10 blocks, twice as many as the average for an NBA game. Reggie Evans made 3 blocks, Melo made 2, and Jamal Sampson made 2 in just 5 minutes. It will be practically a crime if Camby is not named the Defensive Player of the Year. Heck, he should be named the Defensive Coach of the Year to boot.

George "Scrooge" Karl, being much more of a scrooge than an intense basketball coach these days, decided to use the fact that the game was not in the least a must win to allow all of his doghouse players out on the court, so that they could shed some bench rust. In the cases of Yakhouba Diawara, DerMarr Johnson, and Jamal Sampson, though, the minutes they played in this game were not enough to get rid of the majority of the rust, and so none of them are going to be ready to be a significant asset in the Spurs series. Mr. Karl's move goes under the category of too little, too late.

And just when you thought that the Coach could not be any more mean to J.R. Smith then he already has been, Coach Karl disrespected J.R. Smith in this game, hopefully but probably not by accident. Smith was put in with only 2:20 left in the 4th quarter, with the game long since decided. Not only was Smith the only Nugget from the doghouse who was not given substantial playing time in this game, he was by far the last one to appear in the game and was the only one besides Sampson given just a token amount of playing time. And the 2:20 he played was all in garbage time. It would have been better if Smith had not played at all rather than to be put in at the very end, as if he was not worthy of being on the team at all. I hate to say this, but if George Karl returns as the Coach of the Nuggets next season, which is very, very likely now, J.R. Smith would be much better off if he playes for another team next year. Even getting just 12 minutes a game on a different team would be an improvement over what he is getting from the Nuggets now, due to the fact we have a Scrooge for a Coach.

And before we leave the subject of who would be better off on another team, let me say that in my opinion it is time for Kevin Garnett to follow in the lead of Allen Iverson and try to get traded to a contending team. Or if that is not quite possible, he should try to get traded to any team, because after he arrives on a losing team, they have a good chance of becoming a contending team quickly. This would be at least as good for the Wolves as it would be for Garnett, as they could get truly valuable, mostly younger players for Garnett, and together with the draft make big strides toward becoming competitive, as they were for so many years until just a few short years ago.

The Wolves have the promising rookie guard Randy Foye, who led them in this game with 19 points on 6 of 10 shooting, and he had 9 rebounds and 5 assists. And keep in mind the Wolves have one of the better scoring centers in the League, Mark Blount, who had 18 points in this one on 8 of 15 shooting, along with 7 rebounds. Ricky Davis had 11 assists, but only 11 points on 4 of 12 shooting. Just these three alone could form the nucleus of a post-Garnett Wolves, dominated by promising younger players and a skilled veteran or two to help lead the rebuilding effort. If the Wolves just tinker around the edges in the off-season, than they will be in for more frustration next year. The Nuggets are most likely going to be even better when Kenyon Martin returns, the Jazz are going to hold their own as they always do, and either Seattle or Portland, but I'm not sure which, is probably going to be somewhat better next year too. So let the Wolves liberate Garnett and let the Nuggets liberate J.R. Smith if not George Karl, and let bygones be bygones.

DerMarr Johnson played 12 minutes and was 1/5, 0/3 on 3's, and 3/4 from the line for 5 points, and he had 1 assist and 1 block. Diawara played 24 minutes and was 1/3 and 2/4 from the line for 4 points, and he had 2 rebounds and an assist. Najera played 28 minutes and was 3/7 and 2/2 from the line for 8 points, and he had 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 assist. Reggie Evans played 20 minutes and was 3/4 and 1/1 from the line for 7 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, an assist, and a steal. As was the case in the early days of this season, when he got much more playing time, Evans produces almost every time he is on the court, and is the second most cheated player in terms of playing time this season, so he has the second strongest reason to play for someone else next year instead of for the Scrooge.

Blake played 34 minutes and was 2/6 and 1/3 on 3's for 5 points, and he had 10 assists.

Kleiza played 23 minutes and was 7/12, 1/5 on 3's, and 8/8 from the line for 23 points, and he had 10 rebounds.

Nene played 23 minutes and was 6/9 and 6/8 from the line for 18 points, and he had 10 rebounds and 3 steals.

Melo played 25 minutes and was 7/16, 1/1 on 3's, and 6/7 from the line for 21 points, and he also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal.

A.I. played 33 minutes and was 10/17, 1/2 on 3's, and 4/6 from the line for 25 points, and he had 3 steals, 3 assists, a block, and a rebound. Iverson made 5 of 11 jumpers and 5 of 6 layups during his great game.

The next game will be Wednesday, April 18 in San Antonio to play the Spurs at 6 pm mountain time. That is the final regular season game.

Old Nuggets Return & Lose to Grizzlies 133-118

The Nuggets could not keep playing at the very high level they were at when they beat the Jazz on April 11 and the Hornets on April 13, and were almost run out of the arena in the 4th quarter of this game by the Grizzlies. Denver lost 133-118, and the Nugget's season-long winning streak ended at 8 games. The Nuggets could not keep up with, nor slow down, the hard charging Grizzlies, who had 30 fast break points to the Nugget's 21.

The Grizzlies were playing after three days off, while the Nuggets were playing with no days off, but the Grizzlies were hurting from injuries and have the worst record in the league, so the external factors more or less offset, and the Nuggets had no business getting hammered in the 4th quarter 38-23 and losing the game 133-118. The old, bad Nuggets came back with a vengeance for this game. Not only did the Nuggets play lazy and inept defense, but they also had 21 turnovers just when you thought they had turned over a new leaf in that area. In the Oklahoma game the night before, the Nuggets had just 8 turnovers. In this one, Blake had 7 turnovers, Iverson had 6, and the other Nuggets combined had 8. The Grizzlies had 14 steals against the Nuggets while the Nuggets had just 7 steals against the Grizzlies. The average number of steals in an NBA game is 7, so surrendering 14 steals is too sloppy by a mile.

In last night's nearly perfect game in Oklahoma, the Nuggets committed only 13 fouls, while they were called for 31 fouls in this game. The Grizzlies were called for just 21 fouls, which is about 1 fewer than the average for an NBA game. Even allowing for the possibility that the referees in this game were a little tough on the Nuggets, it is clear the Nuggets were much less intense on defense in this game than they have been over the last few weeks, and therefore much less able to avoid hacking the guy on the other team who has the ball.

The Nuggets made 45 of 86 shots for an accuracy of .523. So on shooting, there was no dropoff from the outstanding shooting they did during much of the winning streak. This is positive, because it shows that the Nuggets are still much better now than they were six weeks ago. Up until 4 or 6 weeks ago, whenever the Nuggets broke down, they would break down defensively, on turnovers, and on scoring all at the same time, but now when they break down, they do so on just two out of three of those things, so that is real improvement for you.

However, the Spurs will win almost any game where the Nuggets break down in any one of those categories. The Nuggets need to figure out ways to bend without breaking down completely, and they need to do this really fast.

The Grizzlies were playing without starting PG Damon Stoudamire and without starting SF Mike Miller, as well as without rookie Rudy Gay, who has been starting at shooting guard. These three being missing was not a big problem against the self-destructing Nuggets, though. Tarence Kinsey, a rooke G-F who has been averaging 7.3 points a game, had 28 points in this one on 10 of 18 shooting, and he also made 4 steals. Chucky Atkins, the veteran PG, had 28 points on 9 of 14 shooting, and he had 12 assists and 2 steals. Also leading the Grizzlies was PF Hakim Warrick, who had 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting, and he added 11 rebounds and 1 steal.

For the Nuggets, Nene made all 6 layups and all 3 dunks attempted, and he had 22 points on 10 of 12 shooting and 10 rebounds. Although Camby had just 2 blocks, which is low for him, he had 11 rebounds, as the Nuggets were close to the Grizzlies in rebounding, at least. Although Blake had 12 assists, he also had the 7 turnovers, which was a surprising follow-up for his great game last night in Oklahoma. And Blake's scoring was not enough for a PG who plays 34 minutes: he had only 4 points on 2 of 5 shooting. The Nuggets have two players who simply don't take enough shots in many games, Najera and Blake. No playoff team can afford more than one such player, if that many. The Nugget's coaches do not seem to realize that no matter how much else a player contributes, you can't afford a player who plays alot of minutes but who does not want to try to score.

The most positive thing that happened in this game was Melo making 4 of 9 three pointers. Melo being able to make threes could get the Nuggets an extra win or two against the Spurs. Melo started this season with almost no three point shot, did better in December for a short time before he was suspended, and then had almost no long range shot again when he returned in January. And there was little improvement in February or March. Knowing he could not make many, Melo wisely did not take many three-point shots during all this time. But in April all of a sudden, Melo has made 11 of 27 threes, for a nice accuracy of .407. If this were to continue, it would be massive for the Nuggets, who will have to overcome one of George Karl's biggest mistakes, which is not understanding that you need to play players such as J.R. Smith, who sometimes has a few too many turnovers or a few too many fouls, but who can hit enough three-pointers, make enough fast break dunks, and get enough steals to more than make up for his mistakes. The Nuggets need J.R. Smith against the Spurs, it is that simple. But if Melo can partly make up for the absence of J.R. Smith by making alot of threes, that would help out alot.

To those who thought, based on the 8-game winning streak, that the Nuggets had totally transformed themselves and would go on to the Western Conference finals or even the NBA Championship series this year, my condolences, because you made the mistake that everyone who follows the Nuggets makes over and over until you learn your lesson, which is that you can not predict what the Nuggets are going to do from one game to the next. They don't just play a little differently in different games. No, they go from one extreme to the other, depending mostly on their confidence and discipline levels. And when the Nuggets are good, they are usually even better than the score indicates, and when they are bad, they are as bad or worse than the score indicates.

The Nuggets are a team that is highly skilled, but frequently undisciplined and unpolished. They are a team with alot of raw skills. They are a team that comes from the wrong side of the tracks and that never went to a fancy school. In basketball, a fancy school is a long playoff run. This is a team that wants to win at least as much and probably more so than any other team. And this is also a team that knows full well that it is equal to or better than any team in the League in terms of raw talent. So whenever the Nuggets take the court, they not only want to win more than anyone, they also believe they can win.

The Nuggets have the skills and the will to win, but they do not have enough experience, enough polish, enough discipline, or enough good coaching to make sure they win, as, for example, the Spurs usually do. And when the Nuggets fall behind quickly in a game and remain behind for most of it, as in this game, or else when they lose a substantial lead late in a game, as they have done many times, they know that something is wrong, but they don't know what. What is wrong, mostly, is that the Nuggets do not have enough experience, discipline, or good coaching to make sure that their raw skills result in real wins.

So there is often a conflict between their belief they can win, and what is happening in a given game. When a game goes south, they start losing their confidence, because they do not know how to fix what is wrong. Once the loss in confidence reaches the red zone on the confidence gauge, the Nuggets play even worse, and the opposing team more or less runs away with a game, even though they are much less skilled than the Nuggets. That is what happened in the 4th quarter of this game, and it has been happening about once a week all season long. It will most likely happen for at least one game in the Spurs playoff series, as well. The Nuggets will get blown out by the Spurs in a game, and then come back the next game and play fantastic and win it, as if nothing had gone wrong in the previous game.

Every team occasionally loses some of it's confidence and then gets blown out, but this has been happening to the Nuggets often this season, and not very often at all to the Spurs. Those who think the Spurs will blow out the Nuggets are going to be correct if the Nuggets lose some of their confidence in more than one game at the most during the series. The Nuggets can afford one confidence or discipline breakdown game, and probably no more than that. The Nuggets and the Spurs are opposites; the Nuggets run on skills and confidence, while the Spurs run on experience and discipline. And even if the Nuggets always keep their confidence, and always think that they can win, they will still have the problem of the lack of experience itself, as well as the lack of adequate discipline problem. So they absolutely must keep their confidence to have a chance.

What can be done this late in the season about these confidence and discipline breakdowns? Nothing. Only playing more basketball will give the Nuggets the experience and the discipline that they need. It wouldn't hurt to get better coaching either. Had the Nuggets not made the playoffs, it would have meant no playoff experience this year for this squad, which would have been a big lost opportunity.

Najera played 18 minutes and was 2/4 and 1/2 from the line for 5 points, and he had 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Kleiza played 21 minutes and was 4/8, 0/3 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 10 points, and he had 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.

Blake played 34 minutes and was 2/5 and 0/3 on 3's for 4 points, and he had 12 assists.

J.R. Smith played 20 minutes and was 6/11, 4/9 on 3's, and 3/3 from the line for 19 points. Since Karl is so hung up on Smith's negatives, I'll report that J.R. had 0 turnovers and 4 fouls, nothing to go cry in the corner over.

Nene played 32 minutes and was 10/12 and 2/3 from the line for 22 points, and he had 10 rebounds and 1 assist.

Camby played 30 minutes and was 6/12 and 2/2 from the line for 14 points, and he had 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 assist.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 7/15 and 2/4 on 3's for 16 points, and he had 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 rebounds.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 8/19, 4/9 on 3's, and 8/10 from the line for 28 points, and he had 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

The next game is Monday, April 16 in Denver to play the Timberwolves at 7 pm mountain time.

Camby Blocks Hornets in Last OKC Game; Nuggets Win 8th Straight 107-105

The Nuggets rallied from a 13-point Hornets lead with 8 minutes to go and swiped what will now be the last NBA game in Oklahoma City for awhile, as the Jazz are going to return to New Orleans for the 2007-08 season, and when they lost to the Nuggets, the chances that they will make the playoffs went down to between slim and none. The Nuggets won it late, 107-105, to clinch the sixth seed in the West and a most probable playoff series with the San Antonio Spurs.

The Nuggets won the game with heavy scoring from in the paint, and from almost flawless execution. They had a season low 8 turnovers, and only 13 fouls. That was just about as error free basketball as you will ever see from any team in any game, and for the Nuggets, the 8 turnovers is phenomenal, because they average more than double that this season and until recently they were the worst team in the NBA with respect to turnovers. Now the Nuggets are 28th on turnovers, and the Magic and the Knicks are worse than the Nuggets.

The Hornets were more or less devastated with injuries. G-F Peja Stovakovic was lost way back in late November for back surgery. Stojakovic was averaging close to 18 points and 4 rebounds a game. Their other quality G-F, Desmond Mason, broke his nose and was lost for the season on April 5. Mason was averaging almost 14 points per game with a shooting percentage of over 45%, and he was also getting more than 4 1/2 rebounds a game. And rounding out the three injuries which killed the Hornets playoff chances was the loss of starting center Tyson Chandler, who injured his toe on April 5 and has not been able to return due to severe pain. Coach Byron Scott said of Chandler "It's that bad. But I know in his heart how much he wants to play. Am I ruling him out completely? No, because I know the type of warrior he is. It just doesn't look good." Scott had to put in Marc Jackson, who is more of a power forward, at center.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets are down to just one injury, the early November loss for the seaon of Kenyon Martin to knee surgery. Martin's rehabilitation from that, by the way, is said to be going very well, so if you think these Nuggets are good now, wait until this fall when Martin returns, because they will be even at least a little better then.

Carmelo Anthony, who had given up on his 3-point shot as a lost cause for much of this season, has made a few lately and attempted alot of them for almost the first time this season, making 2 of 6 of them. Also from long range, Iverson was 1 of 3, Kleiza missed both of his two tries, and J.R. Smith made 2 of 3 in 5 minutes of playing time. Overall, the Nuggets were a mediocre 5 of 15 from long range. Meanwhile, the Hornets, knowing they were hurting up front without Chandler, Stojakovic, and Mason, allowed G-F Rasual Butler to put up a dozen three-point attempts, and he could only get 3 of them to fall. Overall, the Hornets were a dismal 6 of 25 on threes but, led by quality play from PF David West, the Hornets were .473 overall from the field. West had 13 rebounds and 31 points on 13 of 22 shooting. But the Nuggets were a very impressive .524 from the field, enough to scare anyone including the Spurs and those like Charles Barkley who wrote the Nuggets off earlier this season.

When Butler buried a three very late in the 1st quarter, the Hornets had a 16 point lead, 35-19. A jump shot from PG Jannero Pargo made it 45-29 with 9 to play in the half, but then Melo and Camby went to work and brought the Nuggets back into the game. In the final minute of the 1st half, Butler missed a three, Camby blocked Butler's put-back attempt, and then he blocked another layup attempt by PG Chris Paul. PF David West got the rebound, but the Hornets lost possession when Melo got a steal, and then Blake made a long 22-foot 2-pointer from near the right baseline with 15 seconds left. These are the kind of results you get when your team is firing on all cylinders, and when you have a center who is successfully playing basketball as if he was a goalie in hockey who can stop a whole lot of shots. So at the half, the Hornets big early lead was gone, and it was 56-53 Hornets.

In the third quarter, the Hornets got a bigger lead back, as Butler hit two threes and the Nuggets were held to 24 points in the quarter as they missed six of eight three-point attempts. The Hornets led 85-77 at the end of the 3rd quarter. After Marc Jackson made a three with 8 minutes left in the last quarter, it was 98-85 Oklahoma, and it looked like the Nuggets would lose despite the fact they were playing very well from a technical standpoint. But every one of the Nuggets starters were hitting their shots in this game, and every one of them were on the court for much of the final quarter, and all five of them: A.I., Melo, Camby, Nene, and Blake, helped the Nuggets to rally back from a 12 point deficit in the final 7 minutes. A Nene reverse dunk made it 101-98 Hornets with 3:06 left. And after Paul missed a jump shot, Melo made a layup, for 101-100 Hornets with 2:26 left. After SG Devin Brown made a dunk, Iverson made a 16-foot jumper, so it was 103-102 Hornets with 1:22 left.

Then West was blocked by Camby. At the other end, West was whistled for a foul on Melo, who made both free throws, so now it was 104-103 Nuggets with 49 seconds left. So whereas most other centers would be fouling or giving up the shot, or both, Camby was blocking and winning the game for the Nuggets. After Butler missed yet another three, Blake, yes, that Blake, made a layup, so now it was 106-103 Nuggets with 32 seconds left. Every Nugget including Blake has learned that you should go inside if at all possible very late in the game when you are trying to win a very close game.

After a timeout, PG Bobby Jackson made a layup and then Paul intentionally fouled Melo, who made just 1 of 2 free throws, so it was 107-105 Nuggets with 17 seconds to go. So this should have been an overtime game, or even a 1-point Hornets win in regulation, but everything is bouncing the Nugget's way these days, as they make up for some of the many games they really won but that went down as losses from earlier this season. The Hornets had three chances to tie or win the game and missed all three. Chris Paul missed a driving layup along the right baseline, Devin Brown fumbled a putback, and Bobby Jackson's 3-pointer from the right wing at the buzzer was way off.

So the Nuggets scrooged their way to yet another win, by the thinnest of margins. But since they lost so many games earlier by tiny amounts, they deserved this one and all of the other close wins they have gotten lately, didn't they? It's only fair. And don't get me started on how they lost 3 games due to David Stern's all-time biggest one-punch suspensions handed out to Melo and J.R. in December. In fact, the Nuggets have still lost at least five games more than they would have lost had things been bouncing their way half the time, and bouncing their opponents way the other half of the time. This means that the true underlying record of the Nuggets, poor coaching and all, is at least 48-31, which puts them right up there with the Rockets and the Jazz, in the second tier of the West, trailing only the first tier teams, the Mavs, the Suns, and the Spurs.

With Steve Blake playing great all of a sudden, the Nuggets at the moment have all five of their starters playing at the top of their games. Can any other team say that, including the Spurs? Well, actually the Spurs and the Suns can probably say that, so it may be out of the fire and into the frying pan when the Nuggets meet the Spurs in the playoffs. Blake led the Nuggets for 10 assists and he had 10 points on 5 of 11 shooting. George Karl brought out Yakhouba Diawara and Reggie Evens from the doghouse for a short time in the first quarter, but then changed his mind and rode his starters again for the whole rest of the game. There is probably no team in the NBA getting fewer minutes and fewer points from their bench than Denver, which means that the Nuggets are one injury to any of their starters, including Blake, from total self-destruction. The injury margin of safety is zero; even a minor injury to A.I., Melo, Camby, Nene, or Blake would most likely result in the Spurs winning every game over the Nuggets in the playoffs.

But George Karl, who may have perceived a threat to his job had the Nuggets not made the playoffs, and may in fact been secretly warned of that, went with these five with Kleiza in a supporting role from about the first of March on, and kept everyone else out of the picture. When all five finally learned how to play together like a well-oiled machine as of the 1st of April, this payed off at the last moment, just before the Nuggets dropped off the face of the playoffs and just before Karl would have dropped off the face of the basketball earth and would have had to go into hiding. And now that this has happened, it may be next to impossible to get that security blanket away from Mr. Karl.

So when you think of the Nuggets, and how the Nuggets might do against the Spurs, don't worry about what J.R. Smith or Reggie Evans or Diawara or DerMarr Johnson might contribute, because they most likely will play very little and will have alot of bench rust when they do play. So the Nuggets will stand or fall with fewer players than any other team in the playoffs, just six. Or six and a half, if you count Najera, with Najera counting as only 1/2 because he seldom if ever does much of anything offensively against tough defensive teams such as the Spurs. The Nuggets are not going to win any games with a surprise huge performance off the bench, if hardly anyone from off the bench is playing, whereas the Spurs very often win that way.

It would seem that relying only on your starters and Kleiza would be especially foolish when playing the Spurs, since they are a defensive powerhouse. Frequently, the only way to upset a top defensive team is to have someone that team is not worrying about defensively come off the bench and have a big night largely from the perimeter, but that is not going to happen here unless Karl has some bizarre plan in mind of using J.R. Smith as a kind of secret weapon, to be brought out on a rare occasion and used to try to shock the Spurs into defensively breaking down. If there is no such bizarre plan, and Karl really intends to keep J.R. on the bench for the Spurs series, then the only hope for the Nuggets may be to be blown out by the Spurs in the first two games, which may force him to play Smith rather he wants to or not.

Because if the Nuggets were to be bounced 4 games to none, Mr. Karl's huge doghouse of unused players would look very foolish and Karl himself would be in the doghouse of the Denver front office and probably also the doghouse of the owner. Now that the Nuggets have won 8 straight, which makes them on the surface anyway the hottest team in basketball, a 4-0 sweep by the Spurs now would be regarded as a complete failure and much of the blame would go on Mr. Karl if that were to happen. And a 4-1 Spurs win in the series would be almost as bad. At this point, the Nuggets would have to win at least 2 games against the Spurs in the series or Mr. Karl's scrooge-like coaching style will be considered a failure despite all these late season close wins.

Najera played 18 minutes and was 3/5 and 2/3 from the line for 8 points and he had 2 rebounds, 1 block, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Kleiza played 16 minutes and was 1/3 and 0/2 on 3's for 2 points, and he had 2 rebounds.

Blake played 39 minutes and was 5/11 and 0/1 on 3's for 10 points, and he had 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Nene played 37 minutes and was 6/9 for 12 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.

Camby played 34 minutes and was 6/10 and 3/4 from the line for 15 points, and he had 9 blocks, 11 rebounds, and 2 assists. Camby has run away from everyone else in the NBA for most blocks per game, and is averaging 3.3 blocks per game for the season, but more like 5 blocks per game since the all-star game. If he continues on this path, and averages 5 or more blocks per game against the Spurs, and the Nuggets pull the upset, then it will likely be the first playoff series in many years where the margin of victory was provided by a player who has mastered the extremely difficult skill of blocking a shot without fouling the player. You might see history in the making, so stay tuned.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 9/21, 1/3 on 3's, and 4/7 from the line for 23 points, and he had 7 assists and a steal.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 12/22, 2/6 on 3's, and 5/6 from the line for 31 points, and he had 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. Melo was an excellent 5/10 on jump shooting.

The next game will be Saturday, April 14 in Memphis to play the Grizzlies at 6 pm mountain time.

Nuggets Play at Very High Level in Win Over Jazz 115-106

The Nuggets took a 31-30 lead with 8 1/2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter when Yakhouba Diawara assisted Linas Kleiza on a three pointer, and led the whole rest of the way, although as usual they could not resist giving their fans a little scare at the end. In the end they soundly defeated the Jazz 115-106, and are in the playoffs with at least the seventh and more likely the sixth seed. The Nuggets had 24 points off fast breaks while the slumping Jazz managed to get only 10.

Since the horrible blowout in Phoenix on March 30 when most had thought that the inconsistent play, the huge roster changes, and the general craziness of the season had caused George Karl to lose his mind, the Nuggets have won 7 straight games. That should teach anyone to avoid making any predictions about this fundamentally unpredictable team. Since the all-star break, the Nuggets have crashed and burned, then flown high and steady, over and over again, in 6-7 game blocks. It appears that this winning streak has more substance behind it, because of the unprecedented offensive balance and attention to detail on defense but do not, if you are a Nuggets fan, make the mistake of making any generalizations or predictions. There is time for one more crash and burn, one that would get them routed out of the playoffs quickly. On the other hand, they might beat the Spurs 4 games to 2 if everything goes right. Just don't make a fool of yourself by making predictions, unless you are a very lucky guesser.

Trust me, I have been riding the Nuggets rollercoaster for months now, and you have to avoid predictions with this team at all costs. There are large negative forces with this team that can overwhelm the skills and basketball intelligence of this team at any time, making anyone who has claimed the Nuggets are on a par with the top teams in the League look like a fool. All you can say by way of a prediction is that watching this team is like watching a science fiction movie such as Star Wars. While their great skills are always with them, the forces of basketball evil, such as soft defense and too many turnovers, are very strong as well. And this is real life basketball and not a movie, and the forces of good do not always win in real life. I guess all teams have basketball good and basketball evil on them, but the Nuggets probably have more good and more evil than anyone, even more so than the Lakers.

The huge skills and new defensive hustle of these Nuggets have now resulted in their clinching at least 7th position in the West, so the Nuggets are going to have at least one playoff series despite all the upheaval, inconsistency in offensive quality, and generally poor defense of this season. Even given the great skills of the Nuggets starters, it took Iverson to put all the pieces together, and he was able to do so just in time, just before the season blew apart. Iverson was like the hero of an action movie with respect to the Nuggets season this year, working and scheming hard while the villains were getting ready to blow things up, and then overcoming the evil just in time before the explosion. Now everyone waits to see if Iverson can engineer something at least as impressive, a first round upset or at least a 7th game against the Spurs or the Suns, with the Spurs being more likely.

The Sixers came to take Allen Iverson for granted, while, after 2001, never being able to include on their team enough weapons to make them a serious contender. The Nuggets have weapons, so you might say that Iverson is now both dangerous and armed. Armed with Marcus Camby who blocks shots as if he was a hockey goalie on defense while avoiding the fouls that almost anyone else would get if they tried to do what he does. Armed with Nene, who with his post surgery knee pains under control, has become more and more of a defensive force inside, while becoming one of the more dependable layup, dunk, and tip-in forwards in the League right now. Even his hook shot and midrange jumper are improving. Armed with Kleiza, who started to see his long range jumpers fall about a month ago and is now often dangerous from that distance. Armed with Blake, who made a series of three-pointers in this game, who is 8 of 19 from long range in April, and whose huge minutes from George Karl, conservative shot selection, and shooting results during March and April have made him a more substantial problem for opponents to deal with. And armed with the Melo machine, whose jump shot has become phenominal this year and who has a virtual lock on 26-32 points a game. And finally there is the secret weapon of J.R. Smith, who George Karl has irrationally turned against and mostly refuses to play very much, but who is the best three point shooter and the best fast break generator on the team, and whose defense has markedly improved in the last six weeks.

These are alot of weapons for A.I., and the fact that he has a blunderbuss coach who does not manage games very well and whose decisions were turning wins into losses until recently is a surprisingly minor problem lately, since that coach loves smart guards who can make decisions on the court which cover up most coaching shortcomings and mistakes. Iverson covers up the mistake of playing Blake for too many minutes by playing the point himself so well, even when Blake is out there, and he partly makes up for the not playing J.R. Smith mistake by finding Kleiza and Blake for open threes, by slashing and crossing over in classic A.I. style to punch holes in defenses and scoring in ways that are kind of like fast breaks even though they are not officially fast breaks, and by making a few three-pointers himself. In fact, with the weapons at his disposal, and with much experience in the task, having to make up for coaching errors might bring out a better Iverson than you would get if the coach was making all the right moves. Iverson is nothing if not someone who responds to adversity well, and he aggressively tries to fill any gap and make up for any shortcoming that exists on the court at any time.

Iverson has learned rapidly and now knows what his new teammates can do and what they can not do, and what they like to do most and want space for, and what they want to do only in rough situations. When you have A.I. running things, it is like having your guitar tuned up by a professional; the music you can make afterwords is sweet indeed.

And the Nuggets were sweet against the Jazz, that is for sure. Melo had 32 points, Camby had 7 blocks and 12 rebounds, and Iverson had 12 assists, all in the same game. All of the Nugget's starters had 13 or more points, and the overall shooting was 38 of 71 made shots for a percentage of .535. With Steve Blake almost unable to miss any threes, making 4 of 5, and with Carmelo Anthony making 2 three pointers for only the sixth time this season, the Nuggets almost shot the lights out from long range despite the absence of J.R. Smith, and were 10 of 21 overall from that distance. Making three pointers against the Nuggets is usually like a walk in the park, and the Jazz made half of theirs, 7 of 14, but if Melo is going to start making some, if Blake is going to maintain his April level, if Kleiza is going to be a threat while having the sense to ramp it down when he is off, and if Iverson is going to be heard from as well, the Nuggets are going to have a walk in the park themselves sometimes against any team which concentrates only on Melo and Nene inside and underestimates the new perimeter shooting potential of the Nuggets.

I can just hear Popovich and the Spurs now: "The Nuggets?, we'll just shut down everything inside and be done with it." That could be a big whopper of a mistake, made even worse whenever the Nuggets get referees who have enough respect for the game to call most of the fouls instead of just some of them. For the second game in a row, the Nuggets drew a huge number of shooting fouls, and backed up their pinpoint shooting with a drubbing of their opponent from the free throw line. With Melo making a perfect dozen of them, the Nuggets made 29 of 33 free throws, while the Jazz made 9 of 13. Melo had 3 offensive fouls called against him and 5 fouls altogether, and Nene had 4 fouls, but the Nuggets as a whole had only 18 fouls, whereas the Jazz had 25. The fifth Melo foul was very late, and the foul trouble cost Melo only about 2 or 3 minutes of playing time.

The Nuggets led 55-48 at the half and then really went to town in the third, with every player on the court hitting shots. The Nuggets were 12 of 19 from the field in the quarter, and 5 of 7 on 3's. By the time Nene dunked it and drew a +1 foul from Matt Harpring with 1:47 left in the 3rd quarter, the Nuggets had built an 86-72 lead. After the Jazz closed the period with a 6-0 run, the Nuggets led 86-78 after 3 quarters.

In the fourth, the Nuggets answered a mini Jazz run that made the score 92-87 with a timeout, with some nice inside defending, and with two long jumpers from Melo, a 20-footer and a 24-foot three. With 3 minutes to play, and the Nuggets leading 107-99, Center Mehmet Okur sunk a three. Nene cleaned up a Blake shot that was blocked by PG Deron Williams, but then Carlos Boozer layed it in, so it was 109-104 Nuggets with 2:16 left. Then Iverson, who attempted six threes when he realized that Kleiza was not on fire and that J.R. Smith was not even present, missed a three, which was followed by a little jumper by Boozer, so now it was 109-106 with 1:40 to play. Then Melo was called for an offensive foul on Harpring, and long suffering Nuggets fans thought they were going to witness another 4th quarter collapse loss, with this one being especially outrageous. But Harpring missed an 18-foot jumper and Camby snagged his 12th rebound off that miss. Then Blake went to Nene, also known as the Bank of Brazil, who was cutting inside, for a layup, so it was 111-106 Nuggets with 50 seconds to go. Matt Harpring then turned it over with 40 seconds left and the Jazz, who most Nuggets fans think of as the Darth Vaders of basketball, were defeated.

Najera played 19 minutes and was 1/4 and 2/2 from the line for 4 points, and he had 3 rebounds and a block. Kleiza played 19 minutes and was 3/8, 2/6 on 3's, and 1/2 from the line for 9 points, and he had 2 assists. Blake played 35 minutes and was 5/8, 4/5 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 16 points, and he had 4 assists and 2 steals.

Nene played 36 minutes and was 7/8 and 5/6 from the line for 19 points, and he had 8 rebounds and a steal.

Camby played 38 minutes and was 6/8 and 1/1 from the line for 13 points, and he had 13 rebounds, 7 blocks, 2 steals, and an assist.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 7/16, 2/6 on 3's, and 6/8 from the line for 22 points, and he had 12 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal. His scoring was in the classic A.I. mode, with the two threes and two other long twos sunk.

Melo played for 38 minutes and was 9/19, 2/4 on 3's, and 12/12 from the line for 32 points, and he added 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Melo attempted alot of midrange jumpers in this one with good results.

The next game will be Friday, April 13 in Oklahoma City to play the Hornets at 6 pm mountain time.

Nuggets Beat Lakers With a Huge # of Free Throws 115-111

With Marcus Camby rejecting shots left and right, and with Melo, A.I.. Nene, and Najera drawing fouls left and right at the offensive end, the Nuggets as usual surrendered a 4th quarter lead, but they rallied themselves after a 13-2 Laker 4th quarter run, and closed relatively well at the very end of the game to defeat Kobe Bryant and the Lakers 115-111. It wasn't a totally fair fight, because the Lakers were playing a back to back on the road and the Nuggets were playing with a day off.

The Denver Coach's playing time allocations were a little better than in recent weeks, with J.R. getting almost 20 minutes, Blake kept almost within reason at 26 minutes, and Najera, back from a contusion, getting 26 minutes. Najera took and made 4 shots, so that he largely made up for the absence of Nene, whose minutes were reduced to 18.

Najera, in fact, had one of his best games of this season. He was so active on defense that he almost fouled out. He got his 5th foul with 9 minutes left in the game. Numerous players from both teams almost fouled out in this game, and PF Ronny Turiaf actually did foul out with 49 seconds left. The other Laker PF, Lamar Odom, who is the mainstay of the Laker front court, was called for his 5th foul and was taken out of the game with a minute and change left in the 3rd quarter, and he did not return until only 3:29 was left in the game. Meanwhile, Vladimir Radmanovic has been out since the all-star break with a shoulder separation from an injury on a Utah mountan. At the center position, Andrew Bynum, who started at center because Kwame Brown was out with a left ankle sprain, was called for his fifth foul half way through the 3rd quarter, and left the game and never returned to it. So the Lakers had their starting center out with an injury, the backup center out for most of the second half due to severe foul trouble, their second string power forward (Radmanovic) out with an injury, and both their starting and their sub power forward in serious foul trouble.

Overall, the Lakers were whistled for 33 fouls, whereas the Nuggets were called for 25 of them. The Nuggets had a feast at the free throw line; they made 39 of 49 free throws, whereas the Lakers made 20 of 29. Recently, Melo has gotten his share of calls, unlike as recently as January, and Iverson has been generally getting his fair share of calls for many years now. The Lakers had only 11 turnovers and the Nuggets had 16, but the avalanche of Laker fouls more than offset that. The Lakers had 10 steals and the Nuggets 7. Najera made 3 steals and Melo made 2. But the Lakers could not take advantage of all their steals and other Nuggets turnovers. In fact, the Nuggets outscored the Lakers on fast breaks 25-16. After a very odd struggle of a game on Friday night versus the Mavs and a somewhat defensive game on Saturday night against the Clippers, the Nuggets were mostly back to their running and gunning style in this game.

The devastation to the Laker front court was too severe for even Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson to make up for. While the Nuggets have had Kenyon Martin out for the season, and Camby and J.R. Smith out for numerous games, which has hurt bad, the Denver injury problems have been less severe than those of the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant may now have a large lead over Melo for the most points per game this season, but in this game, although he had 10 assists, his scoring touch mostly deserted him. Bryant respected the Nuggets inside defense more than he probably should have, and settled for jumpers all night, but could not make anywhere near enough of them to take the pressure off the other Lakers. Whereas Bryant had only 5 free throw attempts, Iverson had 9 and Melo had 16 attempts. Bryant made 7 of 25 jump shots, and he made 9 of 30 shots overall, for 23 points. Kobe Bryant is roughly what you would get if you blended Melo and A.I. together, a true multifaceted superstar.

In his postgame comments, Bryant said that the mysterious and unpredictable Nuggets are coming together and are really hot right now. Sorry though, he didn't go any farther than that. He didn't, for example, predict that the Nuggets would seriously challenge or defeat the Suns or the Spurs. Around the all-star break, Bryant also said that he thinks Melo is one of the very best up and coming basketball stars. That Bryant is a nice guy.

With all the foul sit-downs and injuries causing havoc, Phil Jackson extracted as much output from his remaining bench as possible, as 9 Lakers saw serious playing time. But there were no miracles from off the bench as there have been so often on Phil Jackson coached teams in the past. Many of Jackson's basketball strategies and tactics are more or less the opposite of those of George Karl, but in this game the injuries and the foul trouble were a one-two knock-out punch, and there were no explosions from off the bench, though Jackson threw everything but the kitchen sink on the court to try to get one. Whereas Jackson is proactive and flexible, and generally doesn't overreact if a player has a bad game, George Karl is reactive, more inflexible, and does overreact from time to time. Jackson has nine titles to Karl's none. But they say that every dog has his day.

Marcus Camby had 22 rebounds and Eduardo Najera had 9 as the Nuggets out rebounded the Lakers 49-39. Despite this, the Lakers scored 48 of their points in the paint, whereas the Nuggets had 40. Whereas Camby dominated the rebounding for the Nuggets, no one was the go-to rebounder for the Lakers. Odom and Bynum were getting called for fouls about as often as they were rebounding in the paint.

The Nuggets were leading 32-23 after the 1st quarter and 65-58 at the half. Half way through the 3rd, the Lakers were within 2, at 72-70, but then Melo made 3 of 4 shots and Iverson buried a 3, while at the other end of the court Camby was blocking and stealing and defending without getting even close to foul trouble. When Kleiza buried a 3-pointer with 2:49 left in the 3rd, it was 88-74 Nuggets. The Nuggets still led 104-95 half way through the 4th, but the Lakers closed quickly in the next two minutes as they were hitting most of their jump shots and the Nuggets were missing most of theirs. When SF Brian Cook made a three-point shot with 4:20 to go, the Lakers took the lead 105-104, and so the Nuggets were toying with their fans and tempting fate again. Cook made three long range shots in the quarter, but Bryant was still cold, the rest of the Lakers were either cold or cool, and Camby was still menacing anyone who went inside.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets got a huge Blake three after a series of passes around the perimeter, which got the the lead back. After that, they showed that they have graduated from Basketball 101, because they knew enough to go inside over and over again late in the 4th quarter, where they were repeatedly fouled by the now tired out Lakers. With the score 111-109 Nuggets with 30 seconds left, Cook missed a layup and Camby snagged the rebound. With 9 seconds left, a kicked ball of all things, by Sasha Vujacic, with only about 5 seconds left in the Nuggets shot clock, caused the shot clock to reset, whereupon the Lakers were now forced to foul, and Melo made one of two free throws, for 112-109 Nuggets with 9 seconds left. Anthony fouled Bryant with 8.3 seconds left before he could set up for a game-tying 3-pointer and Bryant sank both foul shots. Anthony was fouled on the inbounds and also sank both of his shots, giving Denver a 114-111 lead with 7 seconds left. Then Kobe Bryant had an open look for a left side three, but he rushed the shot a little and made it out of balance and the ball rattled out.

So the Nuggets fought hard and earned the win, but made it miserable for their fans anyway by allowing the Lakers back in. Kobe Bryant did not have enough gas in his tank to steal it from the Nuggets, who now have a 1 1/2 game lead over the Lakers for the 6th spot in the West.

Najera played 27 minutes and was 4/4 and 6/8 from the line for 14 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists. Kleiza played 25 minutes and was 6/9, 2/5 on 3's, and 3/3 from the line for 17 points, and he also had 2 rebounds and 1 assist. Blake played 26 minutes and was 3/7 and 1/2 on 3's for 7 points, and he had 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

J.R. Smith played 20 minutes and was 3/7, 1/4 on 3's, and 2/3 from the line for 9 points.

Nene played 18 minutes and was 1/1 and 6/8 from the line for 8 points, and he had 4 rebounds.

Camby played 39 minutes and was 1/9 and 1/2 from the line for 3 points, and he had 22 rebounds, 7 blocks, 3 assists, and a steal.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 8/22, 1/5 on 3's, and 7/9 from the line for 24 points, and he had 5 assists, and 2 rebounds.

Melo played 38 minutes and was 9/19, 1/4 on 3's, and 14/16 from the line for 33 points, and he had 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals.

The next game will be Wednesday, April 11 in Salt Lake City to play the Jazz at 7 pm mountain time.