I'm ready for Carmelo Anthony to come back now...

Tough matchup tonight. If my math is correct, Orlando has the most wins in the NBA, is 5-1 in the second game of back to backs, and just finished sweeping the Lakers. Oh, and Carmelo Anthony still has a broken hand and George Karl is still the coach. A win here would be bigger than beating Boston earlier in the year.

They get 8 timeouts a game, some of them forcefully used for TV timeouts. Let's see if coach dilfer manages to up his total for the last 30 seconds from 3 to 4 timeouts left.

Rocky Mountain News has a poll about how the nuggets season will end. 0 picked missing the playoffs, while almost 20% have them winning the title. What do you guys think?

In all fairness Jameer Nelson was drafted to be traded, seeing as how we had just signed Miller and Boykins that off-season. I really hope Orlando is tired because damn they are good. Nene/Kmart will have their hands full with Superman, and now there can be no argument, Orlando has the most legitimate true center in the league, if we traded for Petro to grab some boards and help eat some minutes, tonight would seem like a night for him to get in.

let dwight score and take away the orlando three ball. if they don't shoot well from the outside, they're in trouble. don't give them 23 threes.

Andrew,
Birdman has been playing well. My question is, do the Nuggets check him randomely? I'm not hating on Birdman, this is a legit question about a person who has been sick. How do the Nuggets maintain his health? He's a decent person who I wouldn't want to be sick again.

portland + utah lost as well. so its ok :)

WTF!!!!!!!!!! we had a brief Balkman sighting, and then nothing in the second half. NENE gets five fouls and they stay with the 3 big rotation. I really dont get why they trade for Petro and then dont use him for a minimal 4 minute rest for kmart and nene.
and this bologna that "the team" turns into a jump shooting team in third quarters is garbage. It keeps happening, so that means its karls coaching.

Not even close tonight.

I'm a bit confused by how they can play so well against the pick and roll game of the Suns and then get completely owned by the Magic's pick and roll strategy. AC was atrocious trying to stay in front of Jameer Nelson.

Horrible game... that's the truth.


Let's hope we can beat Houston on the road and then build a winning streak beating the Kings and the Jazz @ home. Houston and Utah's games are very very important for trying to keep us in the top of the West without Melo. I think we can definitely win both games.

Balkman took two jump shots. One was within the flow of the offense and he missed it. The other was the kind that a bench player takes in a hurry because he knows he'd better shoot if he has the chance. He missed that one too. Right or wrong he was benched for taking that shot.

I had been looking forward to this game for awhile, and up until the fourth quarter it didn't disappoint.

I liked the scuffle between Nene and Howard in the first. Howard is kind of a dirty player, albeit with an innocent smile. He kind of reminds me of Eddie Haskel. I'm glad Nene didn't put up with it.

There was alot of what I mentioned the other day. I was so delighted that we were actually able to score that I almost forgot that we have no offensive plan. For a PG Chauncey sure does take alot of shots. Where's the distribution? Oh yeah, probably with the cutting...

The Magic's D was suffocating. Very Van Gundy-esque.

I'm surprised we did as well as we did. This game points out many of our shortcomings, with or without Melo.

And I don't know who the guy in the JR Smith uniform is, but I hope the real Smith comes back, and soon.

Oh, and big props to Kleiza. It's like he's gone rogue, and it's working. Way to step it up and take command!

Ok, imagine putting yourself in Balkman's shoes. You come to this team in the beginning of the year, play absolutely fantastic defense which the coach had been preaching all summer, the fans adore you, then suddenly you are put on the bench for over a month without seeing a minute of playing time. You probably figure at that point the coach doesn't like you and that you will be riding pine for however long your contact is guaranteed for. Then all of a sudden you get the call to go in and play. What would your reaction be? I know I wouldn' play good at all, in fact, I don't think anybody would. The next topic I have got to talk about is shooting. Does anybody else realize that the only people on our team who can actually take an in game jump shot comfortably and on a consistant basis are Melo, JR and Chauncy? And even out of all of those Melo is the only one who relies on it as part of his game. It' sad. These guys are in the NBA, enough said. If I were George, first of all I would do a lot of things if I were George, but the day after the game I would hold a practice where all I would do is shoot jumpers. I went to my first Nuggets game at Pepsi Center last night, and it is kind of wierd to actually watch the game in real life, I am not sure I like it. Mainly because I honestly, honestly, felt like I could do a better job than most of the guys out ther and I have never played organized ball in my life, still I am damn good, not to brag or anything, haha. Maybe it was just that game, we will have to wait and see. I think my favorite part of the game was the last 3 minutes when Petro, who probably can actually shoot the ball yet is on the bench, got to play as well as Weems who did a great job (he can also shoot as well). Ok, and I think I am finally seeing why JR doesn't start. Here is his time to shine, to show everyone why he deserves a big contract and a spot in the starting rotation and he is giving us this. Now I see. Oh, and one more thing, Petro scored half the points Nene did while seeing only 1/10 the time Nene did. They were both guarding Howard too.

This was a loss even with Melo. Orlando is finally legit.