Rockets vs. Nuggets recap: Balance wins the day...

Can it???

what happened w AAA on that technical? was he ready to bitch slap fat lowry?

Of J.R. getting back to back 3’s, stealing the inbound for a put back
to nip the Spurs in Game Seven.

And the best part some Stiff on the Spurs was left flopping at the buzzer.

Looks like my future daughter couldn’t wait to celebrate!

Didn’t think so.

Good win tonight. Everybody had a good game. It was very nice to see our original Nuggets back in action. But how bittersweet it is cause we all know this team wont be together for too long. I Know theres still a chance Melo could stay and I wish he does but we all know how little chance that is. It sucks but thats the way the cookie crumbles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysT8RA6JQks

If we weren’t intact. I mean the rockets hit a bunch of jumpshots, most teams whiff badly when they play in Denver on a b2b.
The way Houston played, they should have won, because I thought they were getting lucky and some help from the refs in the 2nd and early 4th quarter.
Somehow, we pulled out the W. Is it me or when Carmelo drives and get blocked, he gets fouled every other time.
I look at replays and he is getting pummeled by Jordan Hill or Battier each time, but the refs tend to swallow their whistle, and Melo’s FG % suffers for it. I appreciate that Melo goes to the rim instead of bailing out the defense taking jumpshots.

Time to see how we do on the road. I think we can take these next two, this team has transformed with KMart and Bird. Bird may suck on D, but he grabs a bunch of boards and brings an energy that inspires the other guys to play harder.

Melo did in fact have a good game tonight. He still needs to improve his quickness off the dribble, because I can’t tell you how many times, yet again, he got swatted going to the rim. I don’t mind people getting swatted, but when it’s happening 5,6 times a game, you need to try a different approach. Nevertheless, his aggressiveness can be deadly, and very useful come time to assert our self as the more dominant team. (Take that people who jumped my ass last post-game thread!)

I couldn’t agree more about the internal conflict of the contemporary Nuggets fan. It would make for an interesting piece to delve more into that topic. What I think is being widely under-examined, or discussed, at this point in time is the fact that Melo just turned 26 this past May. The extension we’re offering him is only three years, and would leave him the opportunity to leave as a free agent after just turning 30. Is 30 really too late to continue your quest for a title if you haven’t won one yet? Last I checked 30 is about the age Kobe won a couple of titles, and same goes with Paul Pierce, KG, Duncan, Ray Allen, etc. Point being, I really don’t think it’s too much to ask for Melo to stick around for another 3 years. Our window to compete out West will still be open for another year or two with the current squad, and that’s not even considering possible free agent acquisitions that could help us get younger and better. Melo’s been here for 7 years now and as I recall, we haven’t missed the playoffs in that time. Why would he think, with the roster at hand, that we’re going to suddenly start losing? Please Melo, as much shit as I give you, I still understand how important you are to our success. Just give us one more chance, and if we still haven’t impressed you enough, the you can be free to leave. But right now I, and a lot of other Stiffs out here feel you’ve got some unfinished business, and it would only be right if you gave it one more try to take us to the promise land.

Realistically, I know the chances are not good that Melo stays. But it’s breaking my heart to see such a talented squad be torn apart like this. I mean, age, injuries, contracts, that kind of stuff happens, but having your star player force his way out of town after leading the franchise to it’s most successful stint in history is tough to swallow, especially considering the team is better than it ever has been under his stint. I’ve said many times that I don’t think we can win the title, and I still strongly believe that right now, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that we’re good enough to compete with nearly everyone out West at the moment and that the Knicks are no closer to winning one that we are. The fact remains that with every win this season, Melo’s excuse to leave town looks more and more spurious than anything. We’ll see how this all ends up, but I have a feeling the more forward we go, the more real and exacerbated our “dilemma” will get.

According to ESPN’s stats, the Nuggets have SEVEN players scoring in double figures so far this year.

SEVEN.

ESPN’s stat page doesn’t keep track of stats before the 2001-2002 season, but NO Nuggets team from there until now has had that many players average in double figures. (Technically, the 2006-2007 team had 7, but that was the year we traded a bunch of players for Iverson mid-way through the season, so it doesn’t actually count)

SEVEN.

Even our WCF year in 2008-2009, we only FIVE. (Six if you count Iverson’s 3 games, which I don’t).

SEVEN.

And you know what’s also amazing? K-Mart, a 13.8 PPG scorer for his career who averaged double figures in PPG in every season but one (and that was 9.5 PPG, very close), has only played FIVE games for us and is only averaging SIX PPG.

Gone are the years of Melo averaging nearly 30 PPG and the rest of the team fighting for scraps. Even Chauncey’s scoring is down from near 20 PPG the last two years to just 16 PPG this season, and the rest of the team has answered by stepping up their scoring.

Melo and Chauncey are averaging a combined:
- 7.7 PPG less
- 4 MPG less
- 5.5 FGA less
than last season.

And you know what that’s resulting in? The SAME EXACT team PPG as last year, 106.5 PPG. That figure is also HIGHER than our WCF year (although the same could be said for last years disaster of a season/postseason, but there were other factors).

Take from these stats what you will, but I’d argue this could be the most balanced offensive output we’ve seen from our Nuggets in nearly a decade.

For actually being a force in the 4th quarter and not performing a disappearing act.
Nene gets criticized a lot for being soft, but I thought he played tough today.
I didn’t get the impression that KMart hurt his knee or was laboring. I saw him play some good D in the 4th and he came up with some nice slams as well.
I do think Kmart will rest for that Sacto game, but hopefully Balkman can play in that game.

LA is a mess, SA is old, Dallas is hurt. This is the perfect year for a healthy, deep Nuggets team to make the NBA finals. Let’s go for it!!

So, you mean to tell me that Nene actually got the ball in the 4th quarter? It’s a Christmas miracle!

My wife forgot to Tivo the game, but it sounds like we played well and I love that we have a bench that can absorb a 1-8 JR shooting night and still make a difference.

This type of balance, to me, means we can still compete when/if Melo leaves and attract some FO’s in the offseason to rebuild.