The Quest for the Ring Express Version: 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