Last night, your Denver Nuggets defeated the San Antonio Spurs, one of the NBA's elite franchises. But afterward, coach George Karl (pictured) blistered his players in private before expressing his disappointment in their performance to the collected media. And good for him.
First of all, the Nuggets were at home, where they need to be able to beat squads like the Spurs on a regular basis if they're going to develop into a legitimate championship contender. Secondly, the Spurs sat their three
TNT studio commentators Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.
The Denver Nuggets' 106-90 victory last night over the Portland Trail Blazers is being portrayed by most of the local media as a dominating performance, and that makes sense. After all, Carmelo Anthony put up 38 points after serving a one-game suspension for being a baby (a.k.a., refusing to come out of a game when coach George Karl tried to substitute for him), and the team as a whole looked much more together than it did
Chris Anderson as he appeared in a November 2008 issue of Denver magazine.
The Nuggets' brutalization of the New Orleans Hornets on Monday night make it abundantly clear that the team will finish off Chris Paul and company tonight; thanks to a drive and focus we haven't seen around here for ages, a let-down seems about as likely as cable-news coverage of the swine-flu story that stops short of hysteria. And if the Nuggets do indeed qualify for a second-round matchup with the Dallas Mavericks, w
Mark Cuban.
On ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning show today, hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic declared the just-completed Denver Nuggets-New Orleans Hornets series to have been the most lopsided in NBA history, given that the Nugs outscored the Hornets by an average of over 24 points per contest even though they lost one game.
Of course, stats lie, and these do, too: Last night's game was tied 49-all at halftime and was fairly competitive most of the way. That said, the outcome was
Linas Kleiza.The Denver Nuggets' loss yesterday of backup forward Linas Kleiza, who signed a two-year, $12.2 million deal with the Greek team Olympiakos, has prompted a collective shrug by most members of Nuggets Nation, probably owing to Kleiza's underperformance last season, when many observers expected him to have a break-out year. But his absence will definitely be felt. Even though he's been inconsistent, he runs the floor very well for a man his size, and he often stepped up scoring
