| 2012/2013 NBA Regular Season: Game 48 | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
vs |  |
| 15-31 (8-16 on the road)
|
1-0 Nuggets |
|
| February 1, 2013 – 7:00 PM (MT) | ||
| Pepsi Center – Denver, Colorado |
||
| TV Altitude / 950 AM / 104.3 FM The Fan | ||
| Probable Starters | ||
| Greivis Vasquez | PG | Ty Lawson |
| Eric Gordon | SG | Andre Iguodala |
| Al-Farouq Aminu | SF | Danilo Gallinari |
| Anthony Davis | PF | Kenneth Faried |
| Robin Lopez | C | Kosta Koufos |
| Notes | ||
| At the Hive | Blogs | Denver Stiffs |
| None | Injuries | JaVale McGee (shin) day-to-day, Wilson Chandler (groin) probable |
| Eric Gordon is shooting 37% from three this season on 4.4 attempts per game for the Bugs or Birds | Stat | Take out the first quarter and Gallo is shooting 41% from three-point land this season (80-195), still he is shooting 37.2% on the season from deep |
George Karl's pregame presser:
Karl on being named Coach of the Month for January:
"I look at it as a reward to the organization and to the players. I get it on my name and on my watch, but I'm excited about the team. I think this is good attention coming after no-one gets All-Star consideration. At least the league is aware we are in a good place and playing good basketball.
"The more respect [the players] get because of our record, the more successful we can get. I'm glad there is some national recognition coming to the team. For me, I'm too old to worry about things like that. I think I've won it 10 or 11 times, I'll trade those 10 in tomorrow for 10 or 11 wins in February."
Karl on Greivis Vasquez:
"Great story. We put A.I. on him last game because we wanted to switch some pick-and-rolls and stay big because of that. Tonight it's going to be harder to switch onto [Ryan] Anderson. As the game goes on, I actually think Vasquez actually has more touches and more involvement than Gordon does. If you had to say who is more important to their team right now, I would have to say Vasquez is."
Karl on Timofey Mozgov:
"He's great. He works so hard and he's so professional about his job. I know he can play in this league. I know he's a 20-minute NBA player. I just don't have 20 minutes to give him and I feel bad for him. The way we are rotating the team, it has been successful. Changing it up right now, I think it has to be dictated by injuries – which is happening right now.
"Timo has stayed very much ready. There is not even a day when we have to give him a pep-talk. He works every day on his own. He's committed to the gym. He actually makes our assistant coaches complain about how much they have to be in the gym with him. He's a very focused, disciplined player."
Difference between Hornets young and Nuggets young:
"A lot of our core players have had a couple years playing … Ty, Gallo, and really JaVale. Four or five of our guys 24 years and younger have played a lot and I think their experience has shown. But I also have to say, I think our guys are mentally tougher and in tune to the challenge than most young guys I've coached. We push them a lot, we prod them when we feel they need more focus, but what I like about this team is when we've had a bad game or played badly against the Clippers, Oklahoma City – we come out angry the next night. In the way of a veteran team. We learn from the experience, we watch some video, they take the thoughts and they've come out with two big wins because of it."
Anthony Davis vs. Kenneth Faried:
"It's an interesting match-up and we talked about it this morning at the coach's meeting. Anthony is really good at underneath the defense and Kenneth and Kosta [Koufos] are really good at playing what we call "underneath the defense". Our offense is run by the Kentucky team. A lot of our gap stuff, of course Vance Walberg was in Kentucky for a couple years. On video there are some things we go, "Wow, he does that better than we do." So, we really like him. I think Davis could blow up in the second half this season."
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