And that Stern wants his dream match-up. But the Lakers won this series with better discipline and better decision-making. Part of that is that many of the players had been here (and further) before. I think the Nuggets will learn from the mental errors that they made and come out hungry next year. We’ve got a great core coming back and I have faith that Kroenke and Wark will do everything they can to make another push at the Championship.
For me it was a dream season and I thank the Nuggets for causing multiple near heart attacks. I was elated with every win and devastated with every loss and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
A few more highlights:

Beating the pants off the Hornets in game 4 of the first round, tying the league record for most lopsided win by 58 points.

Melo scoring 33 points in the 3rd quarter against (can’t remember which team).

Nuggets got 2 wins in the WCF for the first time in franchise history (I think that’s right, right?)

- Nuggets Defense held opponents to 44% shooting in the regular season, best D in 15 years.

The Lakers shot 46.4% for the series, scoring 105.7 ppg. The Nuggets countered with 44.7% shooting and 102 ppg. The Nuggets first four games were solid defensively, as the Lakers never shot above 45.8%, and twice shot below 42%. But the last two games, the Lakers hit on 48.7% and 57.3% and the Nuggets defense fell apart.

- Chauncey made the Conference Finals for the 7th year in a row, while the pistons collapsed without him.

Billups has now lost 4 Conference Finals in a row, and is overall 2-5 in those 7 series.

-Nene had his best year, second in FG%, and went 12-12 shooting in a game against the Jazz.

Nene finished the series scoring 9.8 ppg, on 22 of 41 shooting (53.7%) and 28 fouls (4.7 per game). Other than the fouls, decent series, Nuggets should have tried to use him a bit more. (He only had 9 turnovers the whole series, too!)

-J.R. Had an excellent year; Second place 6th man of the year. He also set a franchise record 11 made 3-pointers in a game.

I totally agree, and I’d have to say his defense was much improved, and FAR better than Dahntay Jones (is it odd that Jones was the flagrant fouler, and NOT Smith?). If JR is not the starter next season at SG, something is seriously wrong up there in Denver.

-Birdman was a beast, second place in blocks at an average of 2.46 in about 20 minutes per game.

Birdman was AWESOME. Love him. The trade of Camby makes total sense. The Nuggets GM was brilliant in this particular move. Expect to be fending off the jackals who want to steal him (the Celtics, the Spurs, the Mavericks, etc.) like the Lakers will have to do with Trevor Ariza. No, you’re not getting him. :)

- Kenyon went 10-10 from the field in shooting against the Bull (11/23) for a season high 26 points.

K-Mart was a surprise the first two games, then relatively disappeared once players like Bryant, Gasol, and Odom started to get in his face for what I felt were borderline cheap shots in scrums and rebounds. His series totals were not great, once all said and done, with 4 fouls per game, 11.7 ppg on 46.6% shooting (after starting out hot with 14/24 shooting for 58.3%, he cooled off and shot 40.8% the rest of the series) and 7.2 rpg.

of all the conspiracy crap. LA was better, the effing refs didnt cost Denver a single game. Denver could have won this series, but did not. If I hear another clown say Stern is making the refs (or in a round about way implying that) ensuring LA plays Cleveland I will jhunt them down. Sure the NAB would love to have its 2 best players in the finals but to say thats what the NBA is making happen is crap. And anyone who parrots that is not a real fan of the league or even watches the games. Did anyone in the league office want a Cleveland/Spurs finals a few yrs ago. Give it a rest

while it was great, next year will be our year. Having Billups from the get-go will make a worlds difference.

Hooray for David Stern crying himself to sleep tonight! Lebron vs. Kobe ain’t happenin this year!