When 39 and 11 isn't enough...

“You play selfish you lose selfish that’s all I’m saying about the game!”

think that was for Melo? Look, if Melo is going to have the ball in his hands pretty much the whole time, then it is his responsiblity to play at a Lebron/Wade/Kobe level. Kobe has the ball in his hands 99% of the time, but the Lakers win because Kobe gets the job done.

Just to clarify, I love Melo’s game. But unless he ascends to Lebron’s level, he needs to realize that Denver plays best when Carmelo Anthony is a good small foward, NOT a superstar.

It needs to be repeated. Last season, Melo averaged his lowest scoring average in like 4 years, and they got to the WCF. (22ppg-ish). He played WITHIN THE FLOW of the offense. He ran curls of screens, dive cuts into the paint, high-low passing game, etc.

This year, he just runs out to the high post/wing area, posts up, and demands the ball on every play. If he is going to play that way, then IT SHOULD BE EXPECTED that he plays like the greats.

What I’m trying to say here is this. I’m not throwing Melo under the bus. He was the best player last night by far. He is an absolute beast on the offensive glass. But if he wants to play isomelo and take the full responsibility of winning the game, then he can’t say that he needs help AFTER the game.

When Kobe hogs the ball for 99% of the game, and misses the game winning shot, would he go to the press conference and complain about how he needs help? No, he’d put it on himself.

Melo can’t have it both ways. Either he needs to go balls-out Kobe style, demand the ball on every possession and singlehandedly win the game, or he needs to revert to 09 Melo, and play within the flow of the offense. Right now, he’s hanging in between, and it is sending mixed signals to his teammates as well.

It’s certainly a valid opinion. It’s wrong….but its still valid

But I think it’s a team failure. I don’t see how we can expect Melo to singlehandedly carry everyone’s deficiencies.

When your frontcourt has played as poorly as the Nuggets has this postseason, I don’t know how it’s Melo’s fault. Nene and Bird have been complete no shows against a very inexperienced and small-ish Jazz frontcourt that they manhandled early in the season.

Melo can’t do it all.

This isn’t entirely up to him. If he doesn’t get the calls, there’s not much he can do about it. I don’t know what more the guy is supposed to do. Dwayne Wade can score 50, but that doesn’t mean the team is going to win the game.

I think George Karl is far more sick than anyone realizes. And I think the team knows.

whatever happened to JR pick n roll to nene, kmart and bird?

our offense basically consist of melo high post.
cb1 iso.
ty driving to the lane.

regarding the offensive fouls. REGARDLESS of whether they are good calls or not, it should clearly be established by now that such contact will draw a foul. So adjust your game Melo! Where is the one dribble step back J that he loves? Or the one dribble spin move off the pivot that he schooled Bron with.

After the first two games, it should have been evident that the refs weren’t going to let him do what he does, regardless of if it is a foul or not.

Part of being a player is adjusting to and playing the style the ref is calling. It has been horrible, sure, but it’s been consistently horrible. Every one of Melo’s charges, after a while, we all knew were going to be called charges. Was anyone here honestly surprised when Melo was called for his 9th charge of the series? No! I thought to myself “when are you going to learn Melo”.

We can sit here and bitch about the refs all we want. Players have to change.

We all know how talented the passers are on the Nuggets. Chauncey, Ty, Melo and even Nene are all capable of getting 5+ assists per game. When they cannot muster even 15, that speaks to a team that isn’t trying to get open looks or move the ball.

Again, it’s hard to get assists when everyone waits for someone else to get things moving. If Melo is doubled, EVERYONE must move. Rub off screens, roll to the paint, anything. It’s incredibly frustrating to hear everyone harp on Melo when Kenyon and Bird are jacking up 20ft contested jumpshots.

And we wonder why Melo tries to take the offense into his own hands?

and he kept saying “why is Melo the only one playing like he cares?” and that says alot about this team at the end of the season. The Nuggets lose leads big time when Bird is on the court. I’ve been saying for a couple months that Birds’ injuries are hurting the second unit and now it’s hurting the team. I’d rather the team play Petro than bring in an ineffective Chris Andersen.

AD also needs to bring in Graham to spell Melo. Why he doesn’t is beyond me.

Series over.

I don’t think a starting line up of AC, JR, Graham, Allen and Petro will make much of a difference.

Let’s get healthy in the offseason, hopefully address some needs and get ready for a big push next season.

1. nominee for me is the bench. Complete no-shows.

1. is cancer, without which the Nuggets might have won game 2 and thus made a series of this.

1. is the Nuggets’ F.O. for not making a move on a big before the trade deadline. How obvious does that look now?

1. is AD for not getting more run with Ty Lawson.

1. is the offseason, because 6 months is a painfully long time to wait.

Nuggets guard J.R. Smith sure was good in Game 1’s fourth quarter — he hit four 3s in the win — but that has been about it in this series. He has shot a combined 15-for-44 overall, and Sunday he just looked out of it, lacking spunk on both ends of the court. On a key fourth-quarter possession with Denver down just seven points, he didn’t even look to pass and missed a selfish shot.

“I’m frustrated at the level of play. The energy and intensity is not there at times,” Anthony said. “We start out the game good, then we’re down 10 points. Carlos Boozer is down there, pushing his big men away. (Jazz post Kyrylo) Fesenko. Fesenko? Don’t get me wrong, he’s playing extremely well and with a lot of confidence. But Fesenko?”

JR 15 for 44? Yeesh, I didn’t even think it was that bad. Melo hits the nail on the head.

the one play to sum up melo’s season is the game against ok city where melo knocked himself out. the way i always measured mike jordan’s greatness during his prime was he would do at least one thing that i never seen done on a basketball court each game. melo lowering his head and trying to dribble through a triple team and knocking himself out was a new one on me. that move should go into the stupid and selfish hall of fame. the only way he could inspire himself was to embarrass himself to the max. mike jordan was a 9 time 1st team all nba defensive honoree. carlos boozer and elton brand are career 20 point and 10 rebound players. boozer had 31 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 turnovers. melo had 1 assist and 9 turnovers playing 44+ minutes compared to boozers 38 minutes. melo is not coachable, never hustles and is a major defensive liability.

I knew we were in trouble when we grabbed a healthy lead in the fourth quarter, but the only people that had scored were Melo and Chauncey. ‘Melo can easily get going anytime, for the most part, it is the other guys that need the confidence and it seems like Afflalo and Lawson are the only guys that get it and try to be aggressive in making shots easier for themselves. These guys weren’t even on board last year and yet they look the part in their determination to play, the results don’t necessarily follow. I will call out Bird, Nene, K Mart, AC, and even Chauncey for playing like absolute Stiffs . . . MELO even needs to figure it out . . . I don’t know how many more times I can stand to see him dribble the ball of his leg out of bounds during a crucial possession. I don’t know what message the Nugs need to understand the value of each possesion because they have been treating them like game tokens at unlimited play day at the arcade.

but melo shouldnt attempt a shot in the 1st qtr. everytime melo starts the game HOT, the rest of the team slowly stops all movement. they jsut sit back and watch the melo show. force the rest of the team to STEP UP!

and i just want to add hastings’ preachin. is anyone gonna step up!?

http://twitter.com/scotthastings

Toughness comes in 2 forms physical and mental! We have the capacity for both! Its sad when u have neither! Just saying!

These times remind me of what my aunt ida use to say, “slap some vagisil on it and get back in there!”.

I think you are putting too much into the whole superstar thing. I think Melo is a superstar but it shouldn’t matter, there are five people in play. I recall LeBron playing up to super super-star levels in seasons past and Cleveland not making the finals. In the off season LeBron demanded of his team to surround him with good players. Melo should make some demands as well. He should tell the Kroenke organization to make some trades or count on him to move on when the time comes.

Melo is not the only superstar on the Nuggets. What about Mr. Big Shot Chauncey Billups, I thought he was superstar. A veteran with an NBA ring. You sure let him off easy on this one. He’s played too many games so it’s ok for him to be tired? He’s so tired that every time he gets the ball in his hands he shoots it. Poorly I might add. With a guard I expect some assists but Chauncey had 4, and not because he was busy running up 30+ either.

AD is too easy to pick on. I watched the Spurs vs Mavs game last night. When one of the Spurs got floored Pop was off the bench yelling his head off. I recall Melo getting floored last night Dantly sat on the bench mumbling something under his breath. Although I will agree with him that the players should know how to play and he doesn’t have anything to do with them finding openings to exploit.

Chris Anderson aka Turdman aka I have a contract so now I can suck is a waste of space. People cheer for him way more than he deserves. Last season when he came back to Denver, nobody gave a shit about him and my wife and I were always screaming our heads off for him. His hard play really turned into popularity but now it is undeserving. This season has been a stinker for him.

Nene – After 7 years he hasn’t figured out laying on the floor after a foul is no substitute for running back to the other end of the court to play defense.

JR – I can’t wait til we get rid of him. He is living proof that if you chuck up enough 3 pointers in a game you may get to 30 pts and then he wants to tweet that Melo is a selfish player! He has no team solidarity on or off the court. When he took his shoes off during game 3 I immediately associated him with Rodman.

Last but not least, for most of the last 20 games, you almost never see anyone in the paint trying to get offensive rebounds. It was the same thing over and over, Melo with the ball, nobody else within layup range of the basket, Melo shoots, nobody from Denver within 20 feet of a rebound.

If the Nuggets had won last night it would be because the rest of the team remembered how to play or at least if one other person lived up to their average PPG. If we had won last night, everyone would be talking about how great Melo is.

to Wade/Lebron is fair because they’ve openly criticized teammates after big games plenty of times. Lebron even going as far as calling his team his “supporting cast” a la Jordan. Wade has persisted that he needs help all year and Lebron was still passionate about help until they surrounded him with the best 3-pt shooting team in the league and a formidable frontcourt to bolster those stats you speak of. 39 and 11 is enough on any given night. Wade had 6 tos last night and Lebron had crucial tos in their loss the other night. Sometimes the cards just don’t fall right on a great night. I just don’t think its fair to criticize him criticizing his teammates if you can’t point out a particular player who was playing better than he and indeed he was playing selfish because 1 ast tells two stories. He wasn’t passing to open men and when he was passing they weren’t making it.

This team is letting HIM down. By Letting Melo down they are letting US down. I’m sick of this double standard that’s applied to Melo. When you have Birdman who has teams go on 22-3 runs when he’s on the court….how doesnt box out….who’s so injured he can’t box out or even leap getting less criticism than the guy who’s actually giving effort this is a strange world.

Melo needs to HOUND this front office in the off season to get some help out there. The lack of big man help is sickening and is directly because the FO did NOTHING this offseason and at the trading deadline.

A superstar hits three pointers with defenders draped over him to give his team any chance at a comeback. Check, Melo. A superstar grabs 11 rebounds because his front line can’t grow a pair of balls. Check, Melo.

The fact is, he’s going up against another superstar in Deron Williams. With all due respect to Steve Nash and Chris Paul, this guy has it all. He’s the most talented player I’ve everseen on the Jazz (and yes I grew up in the Malone/Stockton era).

It’s not Melo’s fault that Chauncey Billups is getting absolutely abused by Williams. It’s not Melo’s fault that instead of fighting through picks, our guards are switching Nene onto one of the quickest players in the league. It’s retarded.

Bad article. Honestly, Melo needs to improve defense. He’s not on Lebron or Kobe’s level yet.
But saying Durant willed himself to victory while Melo didn’t is a little unfair. Durant had a functional point guard and Jeff Green and James Harden also had solid games. Did anyone do jack shit for Denver? Even D-Wade got decent contributions from Richardson, Beasley, and Haslem, not to mention stellar defense.

team is playing horseshit defense and that is why they will not win game 5 either.

Overall + / – (the difference in team score while a player is on the floor)
__________All 4 games combined___vs._______3 Losses combined
Ty Lawson:_______ +20_________________________+4
Nene:___________+4 __________________________-5
Carmelo:_________+3_________________________ -14
Petro:____________0___________________________+3
Birdman:_________-9__________________________-23
JR:_____________-12__________________________-26
Afflalo:___________-18__________________________-10
Billups:__________-23__________________________-26
KMart:___________-31__________________________-40

Sorry about the messed up formatting but I think this shows a couple of things.
1. KMart isn’t himself, and shouldn’t be averaging 33 minutes a game.
2. Chauncey is getting creamed out there while playing 35 minutes a game while our best weapon (Lawson) is only averaging 19 minutes.
3. The problem isn’t Melo.
It’s important to note that +/- doesn’t take into account a players individual performances. So while KMart may be doing a great job defending his man (which he hasn’t been doing) he may still end up with negative numbers if Melo (or any other player on the floor) is letting his man get easy dunks. However, in this case the +/- seems pretty accurate.
In the 3 losses, the Nuggets have been outscored by 40 points while KMart is on the floor. In those same three losses, the Nuggets have outscored the Jazz by 4 when Lawson was on the floor.
Another stat to note. Afflalo was -8 in Game 1, but made adjustments on defending DWill and was -10 (combined) through three losses.
I’ll post some more gems in a minute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VyzII09Hos&feature=related

its not over yet look what the bo sox did in 2004. hope to see the nuggets in the 2nd round!

Nene is shooting 63% through 4 games, but only attempted 4 shots in game 3 and 3 shots in game 4. He needs to be more aggressive, especially on the road. I will say though that he has averaged 9 free throws per game, so he’s doing something right.
Carmelo is shooting a blazing hot (considering the type of jumpers that he’s been forced to take) 51-97 or 53% for 138 points. To put that into perspective, JR has 47 points on 44 shots and KMart has 38 points on 35 shots.
JR is 10 for 10 from the charity stripe, Melo is an astounding 30 for 32 (94%), Chauncey is 19 of 22 (86%), while Nene is a piss-poor 21 of 36 (58%). Oh, and the referees’ golden child, DWill, is 41 for 51. Yes, he’s shot 19 more free throws than Melo.
Chauncey has 26 assists to 14 turnovers while Ty has 10 assists to 4 turnovers. If you expound that out to a PER 48 Chauncey would dish 9 assists and turn the ball over 5 times while Ty would offer up 6 assists with 3 turnovers. Basically, we need to pass the freaking ball. Oh, and Melo has 18 turnovers in this series, take care of the ball big guy.
KMart leads the team with 37 rebounds in 4 games, Melo and Nene have 28 a piece. You hear that Nene? You have the same number of rebounds as our SMALL FORWARD! On another note, JR outrebounds Melo and Nene on a PER 48 basis, 8.8 to 8.4 for Melo and 8.7 for Nene. Come’on Nene, now you’re being outrebounded by a shooting guard. Step the #@ up!
The problem stat I see is the 76 assists and 57 turnovers. That’s pathetic. 19 assists and 14 turnovers PER GAME?!? It’s even worse if you take out our 29 assists and 8 turnovers from game 1. In the three losses we had 47 assists and 49 turnovers. Anyone suprised that they didn’t win those games?

Why doesn’t AAA take a charge on DWill when D Will just lowers his shoulder. I swear DWill is predictable when he lowers his head in transition. Just stand in front of him ad flop like the Jazz do and force the refs to call it. They have been calling charges on us so I wouldn’t see why it wouldn’t work the other way.
Also our only chance at winnin is getting DWill into foul trouble so keep attacking him.

A complete and utter disintegration of team chemistry. here’s the thing-we’ve seen this over and over again in these embarrassing first-round exits. And as much as AD sucks (and he really, really sucks) we cannot pin this all on GK’s absence, because he has resided (and actively contributed to) three other instances of the same thing. It’s a god damned broken record, and last year really was an aberration. Along with some favorable matchups, CB was the reason for last year’s success. For some reason he has completely lost touch with this team. It probably has to do with grappling with his own crappy recent performance, but I really don’t know. What I do know is I’m really fucking sick of these first-round implosions.

because I think people are starting to appreciate Melo more. I doubt that was your intention….but thank you nonetheless

Not even worth a response

It’s funny how there’s really only one player in this series worth mentioning on our team

For everyone else, there’s an excuse. Oh, they faded down the stretch. They’re hurt. Too many minutes. George Karl. Waaaaaaah

The difference is Wade and Lebron aren’t surrounded by egos like Melo is. It’s why Chauncey has become the most overrated Nugget on this team, and Birdman is hoisting 20 foot jumpers with a bum hand the way he’s been playing.

Melo is the lone bright spot for this franchise’s future

While AD’s rotation have been very suspect I think a lot of the blame needs to rest on Chauncy and his inability to distribute the ball effectively. He looks a lot more like JR when JR is playing bad. I am so tired of Chauncy trying to post up d-will or shoot contested 3-pts early in the shot clock. Especially before we have any rebounders in place. Right now Chauncey has 26 ast to 14 Turnovers and 6 of 20 from three point line. Most of those three being misses whent right back to the Jazz and early in the shot clock. A PG is suppose to facilitate the offense. He is suppose to look for assist first then shot. Not shoot first and killing all the offenses rythm and flow.

This reads like an angry fan rant with no attempt at perspective, humility, or just being able to accept truth for what it is. The Jazz are run like a real team, they are better prepared from the outset of the game and never deviate from their plan. Their great players can beat you in isolation but it’s only ever used as a last resort. From the very beginning of the game we are being out-executed in every facet. That’s why we are being dominated in this series.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/2010/04/26/chauncey-on-karl-we-miss-his-voice-we-miss-his-leadership/

Asked if George’s absence has affected team, Chauncey Billups said this afternoon: "Absolutely. That’s no slight on A.D. He’s done a great job trying to maintain and handle the guys we have on this team. But yeah, definitely. I think you’d see that from any team that lost their head coach for the second-half of the season."

Asked what is the difference, the point guard said: "George won over 900 games, man. A.D.’s been coaching 9, 12 games. That’s the difference. (Karl) is a head coach. A great head coach. You’ve got A.D. filling in who probably will be a head coach but hasn’t had the opportunity to do that. We miss his voice, we miss his leadership, we miss the plays he draws up at timeouts, we miss the halftime speeches, we miss everything. But that’s not an excuse at all. I think A.D. has done a wonderful job."

on april 26, 2008 carmelo anthony is quoted as saying, “WE QUIT. EVERYBODY. FROM THE COACHES TO THE PLAYERS WE QUIT. AND I SAID IT.” sounds like melo can dish it out but cannot take it. andersen takes an ill advised 18 foot shot a melo let him have it. the entire season melo, billups and smith took bad shot after bad shot game after game. now melo wants to make it an issue with andersen over 1 shot. melo bitched at the refs all season over no calls while the player he was supposed to guard took the ball the other way and scored layups. the last game against utah he had 11 rebounds. 6 were offensive off of his own missed shots. compared to the cheap shots melo has taken coach dantley pointing out melo had 9 turnovers is nothing in comparison. melo shoots 90% free throws and follows all of his shots he would lead the nba in scoring. it will never matter how many points he scores on offense because he is a liability on defense. melo will never make an all defensive team. he is a great offensive player but his overall game and leadership is seriously flawed.

I’m actually more disappointed in Chauncey than Melo. When GK went down, and they replaced him with the “personality” that is AD, someone on the team needed to step up and take control of how the team played. AD doesn’t appear to be capable of doing so, and frankly, it just isn’t part of Melo’s personality to be an in-your-face, demanding leader like MJ or Kobe. Plus, often times, I’ll agree with Andrew here, he can be part of the problem by not busting his ass on both ends of the floor.

But I really thought that Chauncey would step it up and be that on floor leader that would demand that everyone step it up a notch or 10, and would start distributing the ball around to get more people involved. But he hasn’t. Plain and simple, he has really let me down. In fact, during one reg season win after Karl was gone, I remember AC (of all people) actually doing a better job at the point than Chauncey was doing. And last night, Ty was clearly a more positive factor than Chauncey on the floor.

Lebron does not control whether his teamates make shots. if they dont make shots, he doesnt get assist and u would not be making this aurgument. A grown ass man cant MAKE another 1 show up to maybe the most important game of the season. He didnt make them step up when orlando beat them in the ECF. and what did ppl say? o, well u know, lebron is the best, hes the king, but HE CANT DO IT ALONE. period. If Melo wasnt the only one who showed up last night, he atleast gets 3-4 assist. CB1 would have way more than 3 and im sure they would have won the fuqn game. and guess who would get all the credit. probably chauncey. And why is melo being bashed for not having a lot of asist THATS THE PGS JOB!!! u say we dont win when melo plays meelo ball, but we dont win when our starting pg gets 3 fuqn assist and forces 14 shot attemps

I don’t mind insults, but username “anonlakersfan” crossed the line. He’s banned permanently.

That’s a good one. Still seemed like u were busting in melo though.

they are about to talk about melos comments. this should be interesting

Andrew….I respect you and love you as a Nuggets fan. All of you in fact. It’s tough to watch the team you love fall apart in front of your eyes. we are emotionally invested in our team and sometimes it manifests itself in frustration. I know we all love Melo in different ways and I hope he knows that.

Fuck the haters. We are Nuggets fans dammit. I hope everyone remembers that on Wednesday when we prove people wrong….everyone else can go screw off.

I have mad respect for the Nuggets…they are a great team. I will be rooting for you guys to move on to the next round. There is also no guarantee that my lakers are gonna move on.

I believe that teams have to play other top teams on their way to an NBA championship. And, to me you guys are def better than the Jazz. And we all know that when the nuggets play the lakers, they bring their top A game and it is always a fun matchup. I honestly do not believe that the Utah jazz will be strong enough to beat my lakers in a series. but you guys are. It’ll be a fun filled dog fight.

So both our teams need to get to get their act together and meet in the Western Conference Semis.

The Nuggets have lost a home game. Sure, they lost two stinkers on the road as well, but isn’t that exactly what the Lakers did?
We’re in the same boat as Dallas. Not a good boat to be in, but not the end of the world. If we can take care of home and steal one on the road, we’re on to the second round.

We win game 5 and then we’ll see where we’re at. It’s too early to be jumping ship.

if anyone wants to see the Carmelo and Andersen incident (which i don’t remember seeing on TNT)

click here

it’s a Jazz broadcast tbw

I think you are way off Andrew, Melo is the only one who consistently gave a damn last night and if 39/11 isn’t enough then what is? Lebron is playing the Chicago Bulls, they are awful, the one time his team made it to the Finals it was because the East was it’s usual atrocious self. Melo’s press conference was refreshing, I didn’t read it as egotistical but instead a recognition that he can’t do it himself. This is something a superstar doesn’t always grasp.

Unfortunately, I just got the bill for next years season tickets.

I would like to see us stop pussying around and lay some of those Utah players out. I’m totally laughing whenever Miles or Williams flop. They are actually grinning as they hit the ground.

After reading most all of them though, the common theme I find is that our “TEAM” is losing the 1st round badly and as Fans go, most are pretty pissed. Seems to be plenty of blame to go around. When players air their dirty laundry in public, it generally means the end is near. BTW:

A little digging finds that about 60% of teams that fall to 3 – 1 lose in 5 games. Roughly 20% lose in 6, 15% in 7, and 5% win the series.

My “stats”? Everything in life is 50/50. We either will win this series or we won’t. Hey, that’s better than Vegas odds.

Go Nuggets!

Unreal. I remember back in the day at the old Stiffs site when 50 comments was groundbreaking for a recap. Anyways, good read Andrew. I think you are putting a little too much on Melo. We all know he’s not the smartest tool in the shed, and isn’t the leader that he should be but he’s still playing at a high level right now, and you can’t knock him for that. I think this is more on Chauncey and the rest of the team personally. When Chauncey came here last year it was like we suddenly had a second coach. Now, it seems like he’s just trying to blend in with all the other guys. These last few games have been gruesome to watch, but I have come to accept this team for what it is, so I don’t get as emotional as I guess I should have. I remember all too well the days when playing like we have the last few games was just how we played all the time. So, I am happy with this team, even if we do lose this series because I know that it would have been a totally different story had Karl been here. It’s just too bad because this might have been the year.

he was the only one trying, diving and he actually got us down to atleast 5. it was just a matter of being too much to handle, meaning for us to comeback everyone needs to pull their weight not just carmelo

about Melos record in elimination games. I agree 0-5 possibly soon to be 0-6 will not get it done. I’m a Melo fan all the way, but he needs to lead his team. Good to see him in birds face, but untill he commits all of his game both ends of the floor, they won’t listen. Its a start though…

I just got more and more pissed as I read it. He showed great leadership and intensity every minute he was on the floor last night. He didn’t play his best game, but it was pretty damn good, and he single-handedly helped us maintain a prayer of winning while literally every single other Nugget played like a horse’s ass. This anti-Carmelo drivel is the worst part about this blog, and if I read another one of these moronic diatribes I’m done. Are you going to claim that Wade is no longer a superstar when he doesn’t score 46 next game and the Heat get blasted out in 5. Game 4 down 3-0 isn’t a must win in the NBA; once you’re down 3-0 it’s fucking over anyway. Game 3 was the must win, and Wade wasn’t that great in that game, so I guess he’s not a real superstar. GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK! Of all the shitty play in that last game, you’re highlighting our only top corps player who actually showed up from start to finish, and if you ask me, had what I would call a fucking superstar performance. In no way could you say he padded his stats when it didn’t matter (a Feinstein special), so what the fuck more do you want from a guy whose teammates are giving him nothing! I’m punching holes in my keys as I type this I"m so outraged.

It’s in the title: “When 39 and 11 isn’t enough” then obviously other people have to step up.

Would you rather he just settle for jumpers? No! You’d be fucking killing him for that, too.

For MJ to win a single game against the celtics in a post season series…. and I’m sure it’s because he played ME-J and the rest of his team were pissed at him and didn’t play. absurd. Just like Carmelo isn’t a superstar. ridiculous. Melo has the best shooting percentage in the league when the game is on the line. shooting to win or tie under 30 seconds in a one possession game, Melo is 50%; better then Bron, Kobe or Wade or anyone else for that matter. Superstars come through when the game is on the line and you have to deliver, Melo has proven this over and over during his career. Right now, this Nuggets team is a shell of the team that went to 2 inbounds passes away from it’s first Finals appearence. That and The Jazz are a well coached 53 win western conference team…

Andrew, let me ask you this….

One of your points was Melo needs to get to the FT line, which is fairly dependent on the referee.

If Melo were a Laker, a Celtic, a Spur or a Cavalier, does he get the benefit of the ref’s whistle? I propose he does, and goes into superstar status.

There are MANY reasons that the Nuggets are losing this series and MOST of them could be mitigated by higher level coaching strategy and even the lower level, Coaching 101 things like Time-Out usage!

Someone said that Melo lacked that Hero Quality. I agree with that, even though I know he can be clutch. He just seems to be missing that extra something special and that ability to take over when it counts. He’s more of a quiet scorer. He can have 30 points and I won’t remember one basket. Why did Wade win All-Star MVP, even though Melo played well? He’s boring, that’s why.

Durant seems to be what Melo could have been, but never developed into. The kind of superstar you’d want hanging with your kid. Just more marketable, I guess. More exciting. An actual leader, too.

I agree that if we had a system with actual plays he and Nene would be monstrous. I’ve been saying it forever, and I would go back through to comment where it’s appropriate, but I’m too lazy right now. But I’m beginning to feel like I did a couple years back, when it was surprising every time somebody scored. You just never knew what was going to happen in the streetball atmosphere. This year isn’t quite that bad, but it’s getting there.

Wish I could post more often, but I’ve just been too busy. Appreciate all I’ve been reading, though.

MattressKing has been fun. Next year it’s back to “Do We Have Any Plays?” I think.