One way or another (Nuggets/Bulls Recap)

is what a catch and shoot has been timed and calculated. the best way to determine if denver executes their half court offense are total assists AND free throw attempts. 20 assists and only 19 fta. the field goal shooting was less then 42%. the important thing was denver won, chauncey played less then 33 minutes and the nugs played at full strength with kmart and smith back in action.

I was happy with is 9 rebounds and 2/3 shooting. Not happy with the dropped passes and being absolutely flat-footed underneath. But he wasn’t the only big not blocking out Noah, who got 21 boards.

The only thing we aren’t seeing from Andersen is the thundering follow-up dunks and ridiculous Birdman posturing. I’ll take the offensive putbacks, but the theatrical shtick isn’t missed.

About the time left on the clock… if the Nuggets lost this game — and it was that close — I would be having a fit about how Noah was able to get a rebound and call time out in three-tenths of a second. Watch the replay of the miss, by the time her gives the signal to the refs, the backboard light is flashing. I thought the game should have been over then.

Vinny Del Negro may have wanted more time, but if ask me he got three-tenths of a second too many.

The correct team ended up winning in the end.

But: Don’t fret, Chicago. You have a good team that will likely cruise to a six-seed and get trounced and bounced in the first round by Cleveland.

Full strength Nuggets returned tonight to play some of their most cohesive D of the season and Karl put out some of his most competent rotations. I don’t know why he put AC out with Lawson, but beyond a few turn overs it didn’t hurt TOO much. Also, it’s good to see Melo still put up a clutch 2 with Deng absolutely smothering him. It’s getting frustrating to see him unwilling to pass out of double teams, but he is unwilling to defer responsibility when the seconds wind down. And that is one of my favorite aspects of his play.

Game was incredibly tight and honestly I wasn’t even heart-broken after Miller sank that shot. My snap reaction was frustration, but with a look that open almost anyone will hit that shot. I hope that Bulls fans don’t get too bent out of shape about it because the game probably should have been decided long before then with all the awful late calls (Chauncey’s missed FT should have been at most .1 second, Late call on Chauncey holding Rose, All the Nuggets rough play in that last second scramble for a steal, etc..) but I think the sham-sports link is pretty definitive and the officials would definitely have an aerial shot that clear at replay.

Great game, favorable outcome, deep play off teams. And Dallas still doesn’t like us.

It was excellent to see him on the floor. Turns out he was rusty but he played much better than the boxscore indicates and was a +12. We needed this, without JR our sloppy offense would have died as it did in the last 2 games, we lose and Melo gets his 25. I really feel JR and AA are going to give us something awesome this year. It can’t be understated how much Deng owned Melo and easily directed him into quadruple teams, bad shots, and turnovers. He did make a clutch shot though and will be fine when he realizes it’s not 2007 anymore. Overall a great game, the Chicago D is for real and the toughest we played so far. If they made a few more shots they probably win. But, I really like this team with JR back, the missing link hopefully replaces the weakest one for good

There is no way a shot can hit the rim, bounce off, somebody grab the rebound, then call time out in 0.1 seconds. The game should have been over at that missed free throw.
Defense was terrible to give that wide open of a shot. Why have Nene guard the inbounder? Final thought…scoring 19 points in the 4th quarter won’t win too many ball games. But we’ll take it.

didnt realize Nene played 40 minutes!

Karl needs to get over his sense of responsibilty, guilt, or whatever and regulate AC to his emerging role and stop giving him the minutes that he does. AC is not in the same universe as Lawson and “Afflac” . I almost get the feeling that Karl inserts him in the game as an obligation rather than for strategy. AC may have a “great attitude”, maturity, and he might be a nice guy but that is not the most important qualities for earning minutes—I know Karl is a very good coach but a good coach does whatever is neccessary to win games;if he is inserting AC because of a sense of responsibility to him, he needs to get over that. I don’t know if its true but I read somewhere that AC was quoted as saying before the season started that Karl promised him that his minutes would not be cut. I would like to think that Karl would not have said that, but if he did, the right thing for a good coach to do is to revisit that decision—Lawson and Affalo’s arrival have changed the dynamics of the team for the better. AC needs to be a new role player, last in the guard rotation, utilized during injuries, closing minutes when we have a commanding lead, etc.

AC should not be getting major minutes. But it is fine to use him in favorable match ups. Take Dallas for example, they’ve been known to have Kidd, JJB, and Terry all on the floor at the same time, and if one of our guards is fatigued from starting or whatever the circumstance, AC is a very capable player to come in and give you solid defense.
Last night was another good example to use AC I felt. The bulls were running a 7 man rotation basically, with AC’s 8 minutes he was in the game pestering the bulls guards and trying to make them exert more energy on the offensive end. While it allows for one of our key offensive players to rest.

He had a bad night shooting, but he’s a natural at that, so I’m not concerned. What I was most impressed by was the maturity of his game. He was agressive on the defensive glass and on offense he penetrated and got some great assists. Awesome first game.