I don't want to play these guys in the playoffs...

by Andrew Feinstein on Apr 3, 2009 12:50 AM MDT

Nuggets/Jazz Recap...

A typical Nuggets game lasts about two hours, 15 minutes and produces about 40 personal fouls. Tonight's game against the Jazz - which produced the Nuggets' 50th win six games ahead of last season's pace - took two hours and 46 minutes and produced 66 personal fouls. And in the Nuggets previous contest against Utah, the game lasted two hours, 41 minutes and featured 58 personal fouls.

Should these two teams meet in the first round of the playoffs, an ever more likely scenario after tonight's Nuggets' victory, it will be a seven game slug fest. I could see the Nuggets stealing a road win at Houston, New Orleans or Portland, but not in Salt Lake City. In other words, as bad as Utah looked tonight, I really don't want to play these guys in the playoffs.

Like all of the Nuggets big time victories this season, we never get to the end result in the same way. Tonight, the Nuggets needed a pair of eights: eight three-point shots from J.R. Smith and eight blocks from Chris "Birdman" Andersen. Smith's previous season high for three-pointers made was seven, when the Nuggets barely beat the 76ers in Denver back in December, and Birdman's previous season high for blocked shots was also the number seven, in the Nuggets victory over the Lakers in February.

One pleasant surprise tonight was seeing head coach George Karl on his feet from the get-go, working both the refs and the Nuggets players, and actually getting a technical foul to take the pressure off his team after they got off to a shaky start. We'll need to see this up-and-at-em version of Karl in the playoffs if the Nuggets are to surpass his own (embarrassingly low) goal of winning "a playoff round." At least Karl gave us a better quote after the game when he said: "Last year, we were more macho. This year, we don't strut it - we just believe it." Well said.

On the "I'm slightly concerned" side, I didn't like the fact that 13 of J.R.'s 14 field goal attempts were three-pointers. I want to see J.R. taking the ball to the rack at least a third of the time the ball is in his hands to keep the defense honest. In games like this, J.R. reminds me of a pitcher who only has a fastball. It's great when your velocity is up and your accuracy is on target, but shouldn't you be mixing in a curve ball or a sinker now and then? And my second concern is Carmelo Anthony flirting with an another one-game suspension by picking up his 14th technical foul of the season tonight. On Wednesday, Anthony vowed to get no more technicals. But that was April Fool's Day.

Slight concerns aside, Denver sports fans needed a ray of sunshine tonight as the cloud of the Jay Cutler trade will likely persist for a while longer. 50 wins with six games to go is a remarkable accomplishment, and I haven't enjoyed rooting for the Nuggets this much since the 1993-94 squad.

Nuggets/Jazz Preview...

(It's nice to see Joseph Smith taking such an active role in the Denver Stiffs Virtual Chat today. I'm assuming he's a Jazz fan.)

When Denver Stiffs proclaimed that the Nuggets/Hornets game last Tuesday was the biggest game of the year to date, I noted in the column that there would be other more important games to come. Tonight's contest against the Jazz at Pepsi Center is that next great contest.

We all know what's at stake tonight. If the Nuggets win, they'd be 3.5 games ahead of Utah while also tying them in head-to-head matchups and division record (the two tiebreakers should the Nuggets and Jazz somehow have identical records at season's end) and it would take a colossal implosion by Denver combined with a miracle run by Utah for the Jazz to overtake the Nuggets at season's end. If the Nuggets lose, they'd be only 1.5 games ahead of Utah and the Jazz would own the tiebreaker should they end up with identical records, making the chances of the Jazz overtaking the Nuggets very real and very scary. Putting it another way, all of the Nuggets great efforts to date could be all for naught should they drop a home game to the Jazz tonight.

To the Nuggets credit, both head coach George Karl and the players seem to recognize when an extra important game is on the line. In the last five weeks alone, we've witnessed the Nuggets step up and beat the Hornets and Mavericks on the road, while besting the Lakers and Trailblazers at home. All four of those contests were crucial, must-win type games. For the Nuggets sake and ours, tonight's game better not be any different.

On a side note, the Nuggets will be wearing green jerseys tonight as part of the NBA's inaugural Green Week, a league-wide campaign to generate awareness about environmental issues. So don't adjust your TV screen color settings if you're watching the game from home tonight.

Go Nuggets!! We need this one!!

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Go Nuggets!

By Cutler...

by KarlSucks on Apr 2, 2009 4:15 PM MDT reply actions

Green week? I thought St. Patty's was like a month ago. Anyway we gotta win tonight, just for some peace of mind for Denver sports fans. It's been a hell of a year in 2009 already.

Did anyone else catch this Karl quote?

http://sportsradiointerviews.com/2009/04/02/the-denver-nuggets-are-not-winning-an-nba-championship/

His fat ass makes me sick. What kinda coach says this? Why?

by joelsopinion on Apr 2, 2009 4:27 PM MDT reply actions

Clearly the biggest game thus far.

Next up, I guess the Nuggets will try to hoist those elusive first-round titles.

by E on Apr 2, 2009 8:30 PM MDT reply actions

That quote from GK is BS. Just getting out of the first round is enough? Reminds of the time Karl said we didn't need home court advantage in the playoffs. Then we promptly lost to the Clips. Hope the nugs bring it tonight.

by HowlinCoyotes on Apr 2, 2009 8:36 PM MDT reply actions

Any one who is a Birdman fan needs to check out this vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8D6rrYFl78

Anyway I thought it was a good game. I don't agree that Smith should have been slashing to the hole. He CAN, but he was on fire and he knew it. Melo had a poor shooting night, but he went to the hole time after time and earn some time at the charity stripe. He also got a lot of different Jazz players in foul trouble. Nene used his speed to get into the paint for some baby hooks. Kleiza is still awful. BIRDMAN WITH A CAREER BEST 8 BLOCKS. GEORGE KARL WITH A TECHNICAL FOUL EARLY to set the tone. Oh, and Carter horrid 3-point attempt from the corner was comedy. And before I forget, it was K-Mart who carried us offensively to start the game. It was weird to see him go at the basket like that. He hasn't done that much in Denver, but of course then he strains his rib cartilage.

Defensively, Melo did an excellent job of denying Utah's bigs the ball and he also locked down Deron Williams on a couple of possessions. Carter did well defensively as well, as the steal and finger roll to end the half was key. Did I mention that BIRDMAN HAD 8 BLOCKS? The glaring flaw I saw from Denver tonight was the inability to pace the game using defense. Deron Williams had too many and ones in the 4th. I appreciate the defensive effort, but at that point in the game it would have been better to take the layup and get the ball back up the court to keep the clock moving. Luckily non of those free throws turned into offensive rebounds. But they still gave up 3 points instead of 2.

by E on Apr 3, 2009 1:24 AM MDT reply actions

Well I'm glad someone else has officially taken the title of "longest poster" ^. The game tonight I thought was great. I loved watching JR channel his inner Earl Manigault and do it up like he was in Rucker Park heating up. I am happy for Birdman, finally getting that kind of exposure on national TV. And if that quote is true, wow, I mean, does it surprise me? No, but just when our team is starting to gain confidence you go and do something like that. I STILL can't wait to see Karl's fat ass gone. But wtf is up with Balkman's minutes these days? Tonight was the first time we saw him since forever and he only got a few mintues. How has he not replaced Kleiza on the depth chart?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

by Goldennugget on Apr 3, 2009 2:17 AM MDT reply actions

TNT announcer a couple of months ago to Sir Charles, "Got any love for the Nuggets?"

Barkley replied with a succinct "Nope."

Last night he called the Nuggs "one of the elite teams."

So, we had to be one of the top 4 teams before Barkley sort of got backed into a corner and HAD to say something decent about the Nuggets.

That being said, the national media really seems like talking about the Nuggets causes them pain.

Well, with the possibility of us ending up in second place in gthe West, they might have quite a bit of pain.

Serves them right...

by SpokenWar on Apr 3, 2009 7:51 AM MDT reply actions

I don't want to play these guys in the playoffs either.

Positives: the Nuggets have some momentum as the playoffs approach. They're not backing in or fighting for the 8th spot for once.

Their bench is awesome. They have a solid all around team with different guys capable of stepping up at any time.

Their D was much better than at this time last year.

Karl looked like he cared.

Negatives:
They still abandon team basketball at times ... sometimes for long periods of time. Carmello last night was a complete ball hog, and bricked gimme layins, mid-range shots, and 3 pointers. I wonder if the same formula will work against the Nuggets in the playoffs this year, i.e. load up on Melo, watch him try to take 3 guys on because he refuses to pass the ball, eventually get frustrated/lazy and start doing the stutter step/jump shot.

I don't know, I guess it's petty to complain about a win and reaching the 50 game mark, but the Nuggets are capable of doing so much better.

Kleiza looks like he's sleepwalking out there. He looks completely unhappy. What the hell happened to him?

by grantarchy on Apr 3, 2009 8:37 AM MDT reply actions

First off, I love the "throw 10 different guys at Deron" tactic. It's not often that 1-4 can legitimately switch and mostly contain a perimeter player. I have never been a big K-mart fan but he has been playing well recently.

Yeah, where the $#&@ was Balkman. Kleiza guarding Okur? When we were getting drastically outrebounded? Against longer, bouncier teams he had better be out there or we are going to get destroyed.

Spoken War, yeah, it's fairly obvious, but on the other hand I just let myself start thinking that these guys could actually do some playoff damage. Their immaturity is well recorded. I would rather have them go under the radar than believe in themselves too much and get arrogant.

Anyone else hear the Karl and COY reference by the TNT announcer. Wow. Calm down guys, the bandwagon hasn't even left the station.

by NugzD on Apr 3, 2009 9:13 AM MDT reply actions

Anyone know whether or not Melo's technical foul/threat of suspension scenario carries over into the playoffs? Or, does he start from scratch??

by Bee on Apr 3, 2009 9:46 AM MDT reply actions

I don't think that playing the Jazz in thew first round is such a problem in terms of being able to beat them, particularly since the Nuggets would have home court. The big problem I see is that going into the second round they would be so beaten up that there wouldn't be much fight left for the next round.

Thursty

by Anonymous on Apr 3, 2009 9:56 AM MDT reply actions

don't know if the criticism of Smith is apt this game, seems like he took the ball to the basket but the defense would swarm and he'd pass it off. seven assists tonight. i'm excited by the win but continue to have no idea why smith doesn't start -- so evident why he should after another terrible opening few minutes. i'm going to start turning the games on 6 minutes into the 1st.

by Anonymous on Apr 3, 2009 10:02 AM MDT reply actions

I just saw this.

JR, "It was unbelievable. I was shocked with myself with some of the shots."

Great, nothing like confidence.

by NugzD on Apr 3, 2009 11:55 AM MDT reply actions

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STIFF LIST (as of 4/26 by Andrew Feinstein)

1. METTA WORLD PEACE

Metta resorted back to Ron Ron last Sunday by clubbing James Hardenwith an "inadvertent celebratory elbow", landing him a 7-game suspension. Apparently, changing his name didn't prevent NBA commissioner David Stern from overlooking Metta's past behavior problems.

2. CHARLOTTE BOBCATS

The 'Cats are on the verge of securing the worst winning percentage in NBA history. Given that the guy who runs the team - Michael Jordan - had previously drafted Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison, should this really be a shock?

3. OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
The team that was supposedly built to overcome the lockout-shortened season managed to lose 7 of its last 14 games, ceding the Western Conference's 1-seed to the Spurs in the process. Their reward might be a first round matchup with defending champion Dallas.

4. BILLY HUNTER AND DEREK FISHER

With report after report coming out about NBPA union head Hunter's shady, nepotistic dealings and questions arising about Fisher's own role in dealing with NBA owners behind Hunter's back during the lockout, this off-the-court scandal could prove to be more exciting than the playoffs themselves!

5. STEVE NASH AND THE PHOENIX SUNS
The Suns are on this list for squandering the last few great seasons from Nash. Nash is on this list for his stupidly stubborn loyalty to a franchise as awful as the Suns.