Posts Tagged ‘Ty Lawson’

< Older Entries
Newer Entries >

Rick’s Tips: Start-Sit For Playoffs

March 25, 2013  ·  4:18PM

a

I’m back with five start-sit predictions before we all resume the fantasy playoffs tonight.

NBA.com/FantasyStephen Curry, Warriors: Curry re-injured his surgically-repaired right ankle on Saturday against Washington and although he walked through a portion of today’s shootaround, Curry is considered questionable to play against the Lakers. Problem is, it’s a three-game week for GSW, so if Curry sits tonight, you’re looking at a two-game week—at best. Given the recurring injures to the same ankle and the playoffs right around the corner, I think caution is going to win over competitiveness. Sit him.

Tim Duncan, Spurs: Typically, this is DNP season for Duncan, who frequently gets “maintenance” DNPs from Gregg Popovich to keep him fresh for the playoffs. However, this week sets up very nicely for Duncan’s Spurs, who host the Nuggets on Wednesday, the Clippers on Friday, and the Heat on Sunday. No back-to-backs, all three games at home, and all three games against elite teams should lead to Duncan starting all three games. Start him.

Dwyane Wade, Heat: D-Wade sat out Sunday’s blowout over Charlotte with a sore knee, planting doubt in the minds of his owners. The week brings four road games for the Heat: Monday in Orlando; Wednesday in Chicago; Friday in New Orleans; Sunday in San Antonio. My speculation is that Wade was given a night off against a bad team before a grueling roadie, where he will get back to work to help extend Miami’s 26-game winning streak. And given the way he was hamming it up after the Charlotte game, I’d say there’s very little to worry about with Wade. Start him.

Ty Lawson, Nuggets: After missing two games with a heel injury, Lawson returned to practice Sunday and is considered probable for Monday’s game. While that’s good news, it’s only a three-game week for the Nuggets. Plus, with Andre Miller and the bench playing so well, I don’t see a huge week from Lawson—even if he’s close to 100 percent. Sit him.

Joakim Noah, Bulls: Noah has missed the past two games to rest his oft-ailing foot, casting serious doubt on his upcoming three-game week. Noah took some time off to rest the foot in early February and he sat for seven days and three games. If Noah returns for Wednesday’s showdown with the Heat, he will have had five days (two games) of rest. Only the Bulls know if another 7-day mini-shutdown is in play here, but my guess is that Noah plays the warrior card and returns against the Heat. Start him.

Rick Kamla is an anchor on NBA TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @NBATVRick.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Fantasy / Comments Off /

Denver’s Whole Much More Than Sum Of Its Parts

March 24, 2013  ·  1:50PM

a

Back in 1985, give or take a generation depending on what year was dialed in, Doc Brown retro-fitted a campy DeLorean with a few spare parts he had around his workshop and spawned an entire time-traveling series of Hollywood comedies.

Nearly 30 years later, Denver Nuggets VP of basketball operations Masai Ujiri has cobbled together a roster largely out of spare parts, discards and items from the NBA’s great cutout bin and essentially made time stand still. As in another multiplex favorite, the one with Bill Murray and the rodent in which every day and night ends up the same: Win, win, win, win …

Consider the two hottest teams in The Association at the moment and how they came to be. The Miami Heat, aiming for their 26th consecutive victory Sunday evening against Charlotte, were conceived in a lightning bolt and thunderclap moment of AAU-comes-to-NBA inspiration, the brainstorm of the three key Hall of Fame-caliber players involved. Then there are the Nuggets.

Denver, which extended its lower profile winning streak to 15 games Saturday night, have made do – and made dangerous – with far more humble pieces than the crew in south Florida. At the risk of putting a silly “NBA.com has learned…” spin on something that’s been hiding in plain sight, it is worth looking again (if you haven’t done so recently) at the how the Nuggets’ roster was built:

  • Drafted (3): Kenneth Faried (2011, Round 1, No. 22 overall); Evan Fournier (2012, Round 1, No. 20 overall), and Quincy Miller (2012, Round 2, No. 38 overall).
  • Trades (9): Corey Brewer, Wilson Chandler, Jordan Hamilton, Andre Iguodala, Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Kosta Koufos, JaVale McGee, Andre Miller and Timofey Mozgov.
  • Free agents (2): Anthony Randolph and Julyan Stone.

Looked at as a group, the ensemble nature of what Denver and coach George Karl are doing this season – 15 straight, 49-22, fourth-best record in the league with a legit chance to catch OKC to claim the Northwest Division and the West’s No. 2 seed – is amazing and undeniable. That whole sure had better be greater than the sum of its parts, because its parts, on paper especially, wouldn’t scare hardly anybody.

Faried’s sleeper status out of Morehead State has gotten wide play by now. But it’s indicative of Denver’s recent draft history, with the Nuggets stuck at No. 20 or lower for their last 10 picks overall. The last single-digit guy – heck, the last lottery guy – by the Nuggets? Carmelo Anthony in 2003.

As for player acquired via trades, look how many current Nuggets were disappointing Something-Elses before they made it to Denver. Brewer, Randolph and Koufos, huge contributors on a surging team, were left at the curb by Minnesota. So, in a pre-arranged draft night trade, was Lawson, on the same date the Timberwolves spent the No. 6 pick on Jonny Flynn.

Andre Miller was considered old and broken-down by some at age 34, after five teams and 12 seasons. Chandler, Gallinari, Mozgov (and Quincy Miller, as a future pick) were, at the time of the Anthony trade, the best Ujiri and the Nuggest could do when faced with a marquee player who wanted out. Hamilton was a throw-in from Dallas to Portland to Denver on the night he was drafted in June 2011 at No. 26.

McGee? He was classic addition-by-subtraction for Washington, eager to reduce the knuckleheads quotient of its locker room. Even Iguodala, so helpful at both ends and in a leadership role, had fallen out of favor in Philadelphia.

Ujiri, early this season, referred to the process as a “rough two years.” Yet the Nuggets did not drop out of the playoffs in that span. They did not, obviously, sit and pine for pricey, big-name free agents they weren’t going to get anyway.

They took what was available and, with Ujiri working as hard in the front office as Karl on the sideline and the players on the court, rigged it MacGyver-style into something special. Gourmet chefs, three-star restaurants and the finest meats and veggies often make for great meals, but occasionally so do leftovers used creatively in perfect balance.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized / Comments (41) /

Brewer Is Scoring … And Coming Up Clutch

March 22, 2013  ·  12:41PM

.

HANG TIME SOUTHWEST — Corey Brewer is no longer just a smiling, string-bean of a kid who likes to remind people he’s a two-time NCAA champion. Nope, the 6-foot-9 Brewer is now a smiling, string-bean of an NBA man.

Finally having found a home with the Denver Nuggets where he can stretch his legs and exploit his raw athleticism, Brewer is also becoming something else: Clutch.

Brewer saved the Nuggets’ winning streak that reached 14 Thursday night with a career-high 29 points that included outscoring the Philadelphia 76ers, 6-0, in the final 9.2 seconds to secure the improbable 101-100 victory. Brewer first drilled his fifth 3-pointer of the game on a play out of a timeout in which Danilo Gallinari, Denver’s most dangerous 3-point threat, got the ball to Brewer open on the wing to make it 100-98.

Sixers guard Evan Turner then missed both free throws with 7.1 seconds left to set up Brewer’s final act, calmly sinking three consecutive free throws after inexplicably being fouled by Damian Wilkins on a deep 3 that didn’t seem to have a prayer. Brewer, a 67.5 percent foul shooter this season (but much better the last two months), hit them all.

After the first and second free throws, he walked to mid-court, could be seen talking to himself, then walked back up to the line and buried the shots that kept the streak alive.

Nuggets coach George Karl has talked a lot recently about his high level of trust with his team and he showed it in leaving Brewer in for the crunch-time minutes. The emerging sixth man has done it before. According to NBA.com/Stats, Brewer has scored 12 points in eight minutes while playing in the final minute of games that Denver either trails or is tied.

During those confidence-building opportunities, Brewer is 3-for-4 from the floor, 2-for-3 from 3-point range — where he’s just 30.4 percent on the season — and 4-for-4 from the free throw line. His plus-minus rating is a plus-16.

Brewer, who turned 27 on March 5, has been coming on strong over the last couple months and particularly during the win streak. Traditionally an inconsistent shooter, Brewer has averaged 14.9 points in March and is shooting 48.9 percent from the floor and 34.4 percent from beyond the arc. His free throw shooting is also vastly improved — 76.3 percent in February and 72.4 percent in March.

His plus-minus rating might be the most significant jump of all. In November, December and January, Brewer was a plus-two overall, meaning the Nuggets outscored their opponents by two points with Brewer on the floor. In February and March he’s an astounding plus-87.

Brewer has found the perfect home for his raw talents with Karl’s up-tempo Nuggets. Brewer languished on a young Minnesota Timberwolves teams in the post-Kevin Garnett era, and as part of the blockbuster Carmelo Anthony trade, he landed with the New York Knicks, but was released and signed by the Dallas Mavericks.

He played sporadically for the Mavs, but provided the key energy boost in the third quarter of Game 1 of the 2011 Western Conference semifinals against the Lakers. He then played a total of 11 minutes the rest of the way as the Mavs won the title.

Dallas then traded Brewer and Rudy Fernandez to Denver for a bag of beans (2016 second-round draft pick).

On Thursday, Brewer provided the energy and scoring punch (10-for-18 shooting and 5-for-6 on 3s) for a Nuggets team playing without Ty Lawson and Wilson Chandler. It marked his 12th double-digit scoring game during the win streak and eighth in a row, and it was his third game in the last 10 to score at least 20 points.

But none were bigger than six he dropped on the Sixers in the final 9.2 seconds.

“It’s a pretty big highlight,” Brewer told the Denver Post of the frantic finish, “Probably my best highlight since I was in the NBA.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in HT News / Comments (11) /

Underestimate Nuggets At Your Own Risk

March 19, 2013  ·  6:01PM

.

Overlooked is fine. Underrated? No problem. Neglected isn’t an issue with the Denver Nuggets even, because it’s a fairly easy thing to do at the moment. Coach George Karl and his bunch headed into their game Tuesday at Oklahoma City with the NBA’s second-longest active winning streak. Trouble is, that’s a distinction that’s akin to Sham’s “place” finish in the 1973 Kentucky Derby, what with the Secretariat-like Miami Heat out front chasing history.

But underestimate the Nuggets at your own peril.

Asked for the umpteenth time this week about Denver, its perceived shortcomings (no superstar to serve as “closer,” playing too fast a pace) and its prospects for reaching The 2013 Finals, Karl bristled a bit. “Definitively yes. I’m tired of the damn question,” he told a group of reporters at Chicago’s United Center Monday.

“First of all, 50 percent of all games are won at the defensive end – I think 70 percent of the games are won with your defense,” Karl said. “The go-to mentality, Ty [Lawson] has gotten good there, Gallo [Danilo Gallinari] has been very good there. Have they gotten into the echelon of a Kobe or a Lebron? I remember you all saying LeBron wasn’t a closer three years ago. Maybe two years ago.

“It’s about making basketball plays. It’s not about a guy making shots. It’s about stops, possessions and efficiency.”

The Nuggets knew they were going to be stronger in the second half of this season. They opened with 22 of their first 32 on the road and lost 14 of the roadies. Since then, though, they are 8-5 away from Pepsi Center and 29-7 overall. Their home mark is 30-3.

Denver leads the NBA in assists per game and in scoring points in the paint, a by-product of playing at the second-fastest pace. It ranks third in offensive rating (110.2) and 12th in defensive rating (105.2).

The improvement in defense can be traced to a good degree to Andre Iguodala‘s arrival. Karl stops short of calling him the best defender he’s ever coached only because he doesn’t want to “get shot” by former Seattle star Gary Payton. But Iguodala’s versatility, athletic ability and demeanor have been a huge influence.

“Any time you have a player you can put on the point guard one night, Kevin Durant the next night and probably, if he had to, [Carlos] Boozer [another night]… He can cover almost anybody on the court,” the coach said. “That’s a great luxury to have as a coach. I think his intensity, his focus is somewhat contagious to some of our younger players.”

The closer-by-committee approach, while it doesn’t five the Nuggets any one player who can reliably get to the foul line late in games, does afford them options.

How does Karl choose from game to game?

“It’s a combination of matchups, what has worked successfully as a play and what player is having a good game,” he said. “And do I want to make a decision or do I want to make a shot? If it’s a decision, you might put the ball in Andre’s hands because he’ll make the pass. I’d say Gallo, because of his size and length, to go get a shot within three seconds, you might put the ball in his hands. And Ty has gotten to be pretty good in situations where teams are giving soft pick-and-roll coverage. So it comes in different packages.

“I think that’s enough. I think it’s more than enough.”

The Nuggets players are aware of the limits being placed on them by outsiders, based on perceptions of what a Finals team should or must be. They like it about as much as Karl does.

“That’s all on how people view the game,” Iguodala said after Denver’s overtime victory against the Bulls Monday. “Sometimes fans, sometimes even players, they don’t know the game sometimes and they look at numbers or they use smoke-and-mirrors as far as who’s a top 15 player, who’s a top 20 player. I think we have guys like that on our team.

We can match up with anybody. I just think as a team we have to mature. And not feel satisfied with the regular season.”

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized / Comments (77) /

Durant Targets Another Scoring Title, Place In Elusive 50-40-90 Club

March 18, 2013  ·  2:23PM

.

DALLAS – With 15 games to go Kevin Durant remains positioned to capture a fourth consecutive scoring title and could join the ultra-select 50-40-90 club.

His margin for error, however, is slim on both counts.

After recovering from a slow start Sunday to score 31 points on 10-for-19 shooting (2-for-5 on 3-pointers) in a 107-101 win at Dallas, the Oklahoma City Thunder superstar has put together four consecutive games of 50-percent-or-better shooting. That’s critical to Durant’s quest to shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the free throw line, especially since his overall field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage have slipped since the All-Star break.

Durant is attempting to become just the sixth player in NBA history to accomplish a 50-40-90 season. But Durant is shooting 45.3 percent from the floor (105-for-232) and just 33.3 percent (17-for-51) from beyond the arc in the 14 games since the All-Star break. He’s maintained his free throw shooting, hitting 91.7 percent (122-for-133).

(It should be noted that while his scoring — 24.9 ppg — and shooting percentages have dipped since the All-Star break, Durant has averaged 8.9 rpg and 5.1 apg, both better than his season averages.)

When OKC plays host Tuesday night to the streaking Denver Nuggets, who beat the Thunder on March 1 on Ty Lawson‘s buzzer-beater and limited Durant to 25 points on 9-for-20 shooting (1-for-4 on 3s), Durant will bring shooting percentages of 50.6, 41.1 and 90.8.

His overall field-goal percentage is most vulnerable. A couple of 6-for-19 nights like he had last month against Chicago could ruin his chances.

“I hope so,” Durant said Sunday when asked if he thinks he’s snapping out of this mini-slump. “The Utah game (23 points on 7-for-13 shooting, but 2-for-7 at halftime) was the same way. [Sunday's] game was the same way. I just got to stick with it. I think I have to be aggressive to start the game. If I do that it gets me in a rhythm a little bit earlier and I have to be able to make shots.”

Against the Mavs, Durant had 12 points on 3-for-9 shooting after three quarters. Then he took over in the fourth with 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting, doing damage with one-on-one brilliance by starting at the top of the circle and beating his man and double-teams.

“I thought at some point in the game he kind of got frustrated a little bit and it was good that he was able to turn it around and just work harder and get some baskets,” Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha said of Durant. “That was great on him. He showed maturity on his part.”

As for Durant’s pursuit to become the first player to win four consecutive scoring titles since Michael Jordan won seven in a row from 1986-93, his two closest challengers, Carmelo Anthony (sore right knee) and Kobe Bryant (sprained left ankle) are both holding steady, injured and out of action.

Durant leads the league at 28.3 ppg. Anthony, who is unlikely to play for a third consecutive game tonight at Utah, is second at 27.5. Bryant, who missed his first full game of the season on Sunday and isn’t expected to play tonight at Phoenix, is at 27.1. LeBron James  (26.5) and Durant’s former teammate James Harden (26.3) are playing, but each would need a monumental closing kick to catch Durant, who despite his scoring slowdown, has still topped 30 points three times in 10 games this month.

And he showed once again Sunday night at Dallas that just because his first three quarters don’t go great, there’s always the final 12 minutes to get it right.

“The fourth quarter, coach [Scott Brooks] always tell me it’s my time,” Durant said. “I just have to come through.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in HT News / Comments (26) /

Nuggets Way More Than Mellow As Anthony’s Return Game Nears

March 10, 2013  ·  2:23PM

a

If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse, according to many NBA team builders.

It’s an admirable mindset, encouraging risk and aggressive personnel moves. But in the case of the Denver Nuggets, it was entirely accurate.

From 2003-04 through 2010-11, Denver won an average of 48.5 games – never more than 54, never fewer than 43 – and qualified for the playoffs eight straight times. But it advanced beyond the first round only once, making it to the Western Conference finals in 2009. Year in, year out, the Nuggets relied on Carmelo Anthony‘s heroics to carry the greatest load – and to outweigh Anthony’s theatrics.

Then Anthony fussed his way out of the Mile High City completely in February 2011 and, lo and behold, the power still was on at the Pepsi Center the next day. Life continued. Denver didn’t nosedive. George Karl got a chance to flex his coaching and player-development skills without butting heads with a younger, equally stubborn star player and what the Nuggets might have lost in the quality of that one guy (Anthony), it believed it made up in the combined skills of quantity.

With Anthony due to face his former team Wednesday for the first time in Denver since the trade, the Denver Post’s Benjamin Hochman looked at the Nuggets’ decision to swap marquee power for the strength of ensemble. He spoke with GM Masai Ujiri about the transformation, more than two years later:

“I think it was a win-win for both teams,” Ujiri said. “Both teams have moved on, even though people talk about it. We’re happy with the growth of those players. It’s kind of what we hoped it would be.”

The Nuggets lost again in the first round against the Lakers last spring, but at least the formula had been changed – and the days of Anthony clamoring for help around HIM were over. The roster has been overhauled, starting but not ending with the ‘Melo trade, and Denver plays differently, is less reliant on one man’s hot hand, has quickened its pace and takes pride on defense in ways that never happened in the Anthony era.

Guard Ty Lawson is Anthony’s only Denver teammate who remains. And he told Hochman, with all due respect for the guy who’s gone, that the Nuggets are better positioned now with the likes of Danilo Gallinari, Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller, Wilson Chandler, JaVale McGee and others sharing responsibilities.

“We’ve gotten better on defense,” Lawson said. “I think we’re a little more dangerous. You don’t know where our scoring is coming from. With ‘Melo, everybody had their focus on him. With us, JaVale might step up. Gallo, Iguodala, we’ve got weapons all over the place.”

The Nuggets have been on a tear, winning nine of their past 10 and 16 of 20 to reach 42-22, building a virtual floor beneath them in the West’s No. 5 spot. Their 28-3 mark matches Miami for NBA’s best, Karl is assured of his 21st season as a head coach finishing .500 or better and, at a micro level, Denver has strung together two games hitting at least 50 percent of its field-goal attempts, 45 percent of its 3-pointers and 80 percent of its free-throw attempts.

The Nuggets still have a game against Phoenix Monday to navigate before Anthony’s homecoming. And after two years, it’s hard to say how much vitriol or emotion remains (in the stands, probably plenty). But based on recent comments from Karl, you can assume there will big-time significance just below the surface when the Knicks show up Wednesday. As noted by Hochman:

“Most of the people are going to say, ‘You can’t win without a star.’ I’m tired of it. I’m fed up with it. I’ve been angry about it,” Nuggets coach George Karl said last week on the, give or take, seven bazillionth time he’s talked about winning without a star. “It’s a team game. I know Miami won the championship and had a superstar, but they were the best basketball team. Our job is to try to become the best basketball team. I honestly think it can be done. I think it’s silly to not even have one person stand up and say it could be done.”

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized / Comments (65) /

Nuggets Eyeing Grizzlies, No. 4 Spot?

March 5, 2013  ·  10:53AM



.

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Give the Denver Nuggets credit for being realists.

They’re not going to spend the next two months chasing the pipe dream of chewing up the San Antonio Spurs’ eight-game cushion and winning the Western Conference’s top spot in the playoff chase.

Instead of trying to do the impossible, the Nuggets have set their sights on the very realistic goal of passing up the Memphis Grizzlies for the fourth spot behind the Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Clippers. Nuggets coach George Karl is the man responsible for this pragmatic approach. His team has won five straight games and is in a great groove right now.

But Karl knows that this is not the time for great (and generally supersized expectations). As Karl explained to Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post, focusing on the team directly in front of them is the best plan of action for his team:

The Nuggets’ goal is singular and sincere. With 22 games left, they want to surpass Memphis in the standings and grab the fourth playoff seed in the Western Conference.

It’s likely that Nuggets vs. Grizzlies will be the No. 4 vs. No. 5 matchup in the West’s first round of the postseason, but home-court advantage is up for grabs.

After their 108-82 victory Sunday at Orlando, the fourth-place Grizzlies are 39-19.

“I think it’s going to take at least 51 to 52 wins to get to No. 4,” said coach George Karl, whose Nuggets are 38-22 heading into Monday’s home game against Atlanta. “It might take more.

“But I’d probably take 52 and take our chances. And I’d like the tiebreaker with Memphis. I’d take 52 and the tiebreaker.”

The Nuggets are aware of the Ides of March. Memphis comes to Denver for a March 15 matchup, the final regular-season meeting of the teams. Denver leads the season series 2-1.

The Nuggets, the NBA’s third-youngest team, have only nine more road games. They have 13 left at home, where they are 25-3.

Twelve of their 22 remaining games are against current playoff teams, the toughest stretch coming when Denver hosts the Carmelo Anthony-led New York Knicks on March 13 and the Grizzlies two days later, followed by road games against the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder on March 18 and 19.

“This team is not afraid to play the best teams. In fact, they like to play the best teams,” said Karl, whose Nuggets knocked off the Thunder 105-103 in a Friday thriller at the Pepsi Center. “I think the team is understanding that the playoffs aren’t that far away.

“Right now we’re in a good place to make another step. We need to tighten our defense up and not have mental lapses and continue to grow.”

This is a refreshing dose of sensibility at a time of year when players, coaches, teams and their fans are big on making bold proclamations about what they have in store for the final weeks of the regular season and into the playoffs.

The Nuggets have figured out exactly who and what they are and play like it on a nightly basis. If they catch you at their home, the Pepsi Center, they’ll run you out of the building.

So it should surprise no one that Karl has his team locked in on earning home-court advantage for a first-round series.

Their prospects in that first-round series between the No. 4 and No. 5 seed changes dramatically if they are have (or don’t have) possession of home court.


Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in HT News / Comments (28) /

Nash Battles Back Pain, Embraces Role

February 25, 2013  ·  12:19PM

a

DALLAS – The last thing the old-and-slow Lakers (Kobe’s words, not mine) need is more bad injury news. Yet there was Steve Nash sitting straight as a light pole in his locker room chair, his back stiffening up, after scoring 20 points Sunday afternoon to grab a big win over the Mavericks.

Nash played through considerable pain for a second straight game due to a lingering back ailment that he says isn’t related to the issues he’s endured for years that would force him to lay on his back on the baseline when he came out of games instead of sitting on the bench.

“This is different,” Nash said. “I don’t know if I made some kind of movement or if I got hit or something, but my vertebrae kind of locked up on me and the muscles therefore overcompensated so I had little spasms back there. I just don’t have that much freedom in there, but if I can get through one more [game], we have a softer week, so hopefully I can get through it. If I had a few days in between I think it would go away easily.”

Nash’s back will be put to the test tonight against speedy point guard Ty Lawson and the up-tempo Nuggets in Denver’s thin air. Then L.A. doesn’t play again until Thursday at home against Minnesota and then Sunday at home against Atlanta, so Nash catches a bit of a break there.

He hid his discomfort rather well Sunday after an awful shooting game Friday against Portland. Nash logged nearly 34 minutes and scored a season-high 20 points — 13 in the second half — and knocked down a season-best four 3-pointers on five attempts. His 25-foot swish with 1:44 to go put the Lakers up 99-95.

“He came out in the second half and really gave us a big boost. He was very aggressive offensively,” Kobe Bryant said. ”It forced them defensively to make some changes to the coverages, which freed up a lot of the shooters. He’s big-time, extremely clutch and makes big plays, of course, off the pass, off the dribble and knocking down shots.”

Kobe also should have mentioned, off the ball.

Because that’s how Nash is playing much of the time this season with Bryant taking it upon himself to share ball-handling and facilitating duties.

“I still think I have more to give, but I have to embrace playing off the ball sometimes because we can’t play five different styles,” Nash said. “We’ve got to try to meld and conform and try to play together. I can’t be over there without the ball worried about having the ball, I have to try to be active and anticipate, be on the balls of my feet, a bounce in my step, bright eyes, and be ready to attack instead of worrying about, ‘this is uncomfortable, this isn’t the way I’ve played.’ That would be a detriment.”

Nash’s 7.2 apg is still good enough to rank him in the top 10 (although he doesn’t officially qualify having played just 33 games), yet he’s 3.5 assists below last season’s average in Phoenix. He’s finished seven of the last eight seasons with a double-digit assist average, and the one year he didn’t he averaged 9.7.

Nash had four assists Sunday, which was the sixth time this season he’s finished with four or fewer assists in a game. In 62 games last season, that happened twice.

He’s had five or fewer assists 10 times this season. That happened four times all of last season.

The strangeness of the Lakers’ collective season is certainly not lost on Nash, who, for one, never figured he’d ever wear a Lakers’ uniform. Then he fractured his leg in the second game of the season and unexpectedly missed two months. Then came Kobe’s facilitating mode that pushed Nash off the ball.

Now he’s dealing with a back issue at a most critical time when every game for the Lakers has an impact on their playoff chances.

“At this stage you just got to try not to think about it and play and try to help your team,” Nash said. “If you’re not much help, it’s up to the coach to decide. I’m just going to try to do what I can.”

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized / Comments (18) /

Blogtable: Title Without A Superstar?

February 13, 2013  ·  10:45AM

Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Week 16: All-time favorite Dunk Contest dunk? | On LeBron’s hot streak … | Winning it all without a star

Can a team win it all nowadays without an MVP-type superstar?

-

.

Steve Aschburner: Don’t want to say “can’t” about a superstar-deficient roster surviving to win the NBA title but I do think it’s a long shot. The ability to ride one (or better yet, two) hot hands and the role that free-throw opportunities can play in pivotal games — built off of star power, in many cases — are the things of which champions are made. It would be fascinating to a lot of hardcore pro hoops fans to see, say, a Nuggets-Pacers Finals, but it wouldn’t thrill the marketing types or maybe even the folks in Olympic Tower. But I don’t see them having to fret beyond the conference finals round.

Fran Blinebury: This is like the old kids’ riddle about how many balls of string would it take to reach the moon?  Just one, but it better be big. Of course, a team without a superstar can win it all. But it had better be talented, tough, unselfish and have enough players who could make all the big and little plays in the clutch. The stars have to be perfectly aligned to produce the 2004 Pistons again.

Jeff Caplan: OK, so the star-less Detroit Pistons won it all against the bickering, last-of-the-line Kobe-Shaq Lakers nearly a decade ago. The Chauncey Billups-Rip Hamilton-Tayshaun Prince-Rasheed-and-Ben Wallace Pistons remain the lone example, an exception to the rule. So, no, I don’t believe a team without a bona fide superstar in today’s NBA can win it all. We’ve seen that it’s nearly impossible for a lone superstar to take his team to the top. Dirk Nowitzki finally managed that task with one of the great postseason runs of all-time in 2011. And let’s be real, those Mavs caught a collapsing Lakers team with Phil Jackson having one foot out the door, a very young Thunder team just getting their feet under them and the Miami Super Friends in their first season together. I truly enjoy watching George Karl‘s squad run up and down the floor, but a team has got to have a go-to-guy who can create his own shot when the game turns into a halfcourt grindfest and when crunch-time demands an isolation takeover.

Scott Howard-Cooper: Possible, but it makes the odds much longer. The team does not have to have an MVP-type superstar, but it needs to have a player able to beat coverage to hit a pressure shot coming out of of a timeout in the final seconds. It also needs to have the player strike a fear in defenses, enough to create an opening for a teammate if Player X himself does not take the shot. That usually describes a superstar.

John Schuhmann: I think so. It would take great defense (like what we’ve seen from the star-less Pacers and Bulls) and an offense with shooting and ball movement (like the Spurs in Chicago on Monday). Of course, I don’t think the Nuggets have what it takes. They’re not good enough defensively, not good enough on the road, and not good enough from behind the 3-point line to thrive in at a slower, playoff-like pace.

Sekou Smith: It’s only been done once in my time eyeballing the league, by the 2004 Detroit Pistons. And they did it with one of the most meticulously crafted rosters I can remember seeing that was didn’t have a true MVP-type anchor (Chauncey Billups or Ben Wallace came close). I love the Nuggets and the way they are playing this season. The committee approach only goes so far in the NBA playoffs these days. Sooner or later you run into a team built around a superstar player (or players, in most instances).

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Blogtable, HT News / Comments (48) /

After Home Blitz, Nuggets Rising in West

February 9, 2013  ·  10:07AM


a

a
HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – Who’s the league’s hottest team either side of San Antonio? Don’t look now, but it’s the Denver Nuggets.

With a grueling road schedule to open the first two months of the season, some observers predicted a hard charge up the standings once the schedule turned in Denver’s favor, which it did starting Jan. 1 with 15 of 18 games to be played in the Mile-High City.

On cue, the sky’s been the limit for George Karl‘s bunch, which is riding an eight-game win streak — while averaging a whopping 115.0 ppg — as part of a larger 15-3 run since New Year’s Day. They’ve won 13 of those 15 home games and have gone 2-1 on the road.

On Dec. 29, the Nuggets had dropped to 17-15 after an ugly 82-71 loss at Memphis. At that point, Denver had played a discombobulating 23 road games, stood seventh in the West and were just one game ahead of — believe it or not — the Los Angeles Lakers. L.A. was 15-15, the last time that outfit would sniff .500.

Now the high-octane, well-balanced Nuggets are 32-18 and have pushed past Houston, Golden State and Memphis to slide into the No. 4 position in the West, a hugely significant spot for a team that’s 22-3 at home. The top four teams in each conference earn home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Only the smooth-sailing Spurs have fewer home losses (22-2) among teams in both conferences, and no team has more home wins (San Antonio and Oklahoma City each also have 22).

Of course, Karl’s previous seven seasons in Denver have been marked by first-round disappointments six times and twice the Nuggets have wasted a top-four finish by not getting out of the conference quarterfinals (2006 and 2010). Only the 2008-09 Nuggets, who finished second in the West, made it out, with Carmelo Anthony finally taking the team all the way to the West finals before losing to the Lakers.

So home-court advantage isn’t a free pass into the second round, but would the run-and-gun Nuggets rather play four of seven games in the high altitude or, say, in the madhouse that is Golden State’s Oracle Arena?

So now the schedule evens out. Denver has played 25 games at home and 25 on the road (10-15), and next up is a four-game Eastern Conference road swing, including two back-to-backs: Cleveland (Saturday) and Boston (Sunday), followed by Toronto (Tuesday) and Brooklyn (Wednesday).

The Nuggets will look for their two pace-setters to continue their brilliant play that has led to the team’s longest win streak of the season. Neither point guard Ty Lawson nor forward Danilo Gallinari will be in Houston for the All-Star Game, but had they put up these kind of numbers earlier, both might have finally made the squad.

Gallinari is averaging 19.9 ppg during the eight-game win streak and is shooting the 3-ball at a 44.7-percent clip to boost his previously slumping season percentage to 37.3.

Lawson over the last eight games is averaging 18.9 points — more than three points better than his season average — and 8.1 assists — pushing his season average to a career-high 7.0 apg. After posting four double-doubles through the first 42 games, Lawson has two in the last three games and four of his six on the season have come in the last 15 games.

Add Kenneth Faried‘s (12.2 ppg, 9.7 rpg) relentless motor, a deep roster with six players scoring in double figures, and a seventh, Wilson Chandler, back from injury and averaging 9.7 ppg, the Nuggets have a team that can simply gas opponents.

Especially on their home floor.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in HT News / Comments (33) /

< Older Entries
Newer Entries >