I hate to overly self-congratulate myself, but as I predicted two weeks ago, the Nuggets went 3-2 on their recent East Coast road trip, and then won both of their enormously important home games this week - against Dallas on Thursday and tonight against Golden State. If my predictions hold true, the Nuggets will win 51 games and make the postseason.Even as someone advocating for a coaching change, I must applaud Coach Karl's renewed enthusiasm and effort on the sidelines and in he huddle these past few games, and his excellent usage of the Nuggets bench, which I felt ensured tonight's most crucial victory. And even though it took up until 20 games ago to realize it, Coach Karl finally seems to be buying into the fact that J.R. Smith is an absolute star in the making, and must get at least 25 minutes per game from here on out.
And since I'm in a self-congratulatory mood, has anyone besides me noticed that Chucky Atkins and Nene have had absolutely nothing to do with this recent spate of strong effort-driven victories? I'm as happy as the next Nuggets fan to have these players back on the bench in uniforms instead of suits, but does this not prove that the "we've been without Nene and Chucky all season" excuse never held water whatsoever? Just like the "no pure point guard" excuse and the "Carmelo doesn't play defense" excuse never worked for me (or any intelligent Nuggets fan) either.
As I've repeated in this blog ad nauseum, the Nuggets are one of the NBA's most deeply talented and exciting teams. And therefore, it's most unfortunate that they're battling for one of the last two or three playoff spots, instead of one of the top two or three playoff spots. But who wants home court advantage anyway? After all, the Nuggets are only 30-7 at Pepsi Center.