This is going to be a sweep, I wish the Warriors would have made it in not Nuggets. Would have been a better series.
No doubt. Not to mention that the GSW are just a lot more entertaining to watch and a lot more unpredictable. But oh well...
I was just thinking that after that game was over. It would be one thing to get beaten by a superior team (which LA obviously is), but to come out in the most important game of the year adn play like you already have your bags packed to go on vacation has GOT to be maddening for their fans....at least the ones that really care. Hey Nugs4, we wouldnt think less of you if you wanted to cheer for the Rockets after Denver mails-in their next game. At least our guys seem to care. my sympathies. ftr....I have been cheering on Denver in hopes that they could upset the Lakers, but that was a delusional hope.
We talkin bout half time. We talkin bout half time. Not the real game time. We talkin bout half time.
Nuggets are a horrible 50 win team, I can't see Golden State being any worse. I know they would have one at least one game right now, and not making the Lakers look like dynasty type team. Don't get me wrong the Lakers are playing great, but from the body language of the Nuggets they don't seem to care very much.
So do I. I have a lot of stories from yesterday's game, none of which were good, but I'm going to save them until Tuesday when the Nugs are finally eliminated and I can go back to enjoying basketball again.
I feel for you, Nugs4. At least we can kinda fall back on the "we're without Yao" excuse- the Lakers don't even have Bynum and they're still blowing out the Nugs. It's going to be hard to sell that to the fan base. You know, I would think a starting lineup of Iverson, Anthony, Kleiza, Smith, and Najera wouldn't be too bad (the one that had the highest efficiency rating), with maybe Martin off the bench. It'd be hard to bench Camby due to his DPOY status, so maybe they have to get rid of him. I know the popular trend is to blow up the teams after playoff failure, but I think they just need 1-2 pieces like the Rockets. You probably know better than me, but I'm just not impressed with Carter or Camby in the starting lineup. Then again, who's going to be your point guard? Do you really want to have Iverson as your starting shooting guard- is he big enough? Is Anthony the way to go? I really think you have some very good pieces in Smith, Kleiza, Najera, Nene, and Iverson/Anthony- maybe one has to go. Interesting offseason decisions.
There are like 20 on this board because of me. Will go more in-depth later, busy today, but just wanted to update you guys that it's been announced that Karl will be back next season.
Man Warriors shoulda made playoffs, woulda been a better series. I hope they fire their current coach - HE SUX!
Put up or shut up, Melo Carmelo Anthony didn't man up. The Nuggets' "superstar" gave up and laid down — again. He couldn't do a layup or a standup against the Lakers, then he wouldn't shut up or back it up on Saturday. This is the end of these Nuggets, and it should be the end of Anthony with the Nuggets. No more, please. He's become the biggest disappointment with the Nuggets, and to Denver, since David Thompson's game and life blew up. Melo is no longer melodious or acceptable. There's quit in the Nuggets and embarrassment in Denver. Los Angeles Lakers 102, Denver Quitters 84. On the bench in the fourth quarter Anthony repeatedly screamed at coach George Karl: "Don't just sit there!" Later Anthony spewed like Regan in "The Exorcist": "We're not just losing. We're getting the (expletive) beat out of us. It's about us giving up as a whole. We quit . . . everybody from the players to the coaches. "There's no way I can lay down on my team the way we laid down (Saturday afternoon). . . . I'm surprised at how we laid down like that. In my five years (with the Nuggets), that's the first time I've ever felt like this." In Anthony's five years the Nuggets have won only four of 19 playoff games — 21 percent. They've never won a postseason series, never won more than one game in a series, never looked this awful before. And they're about to lose this series in four straight. They've already given in. It will be mercy elimination. The Nuggets aren't in the same hemisphere as the No. 1-seeded Lakers, but there was absolutely no reason in Game 3 for the Nuggets to show no enthusiasm, show no cohesiveness, show no defense, show no offense, show no sense of purpose or urgency, show no reason for being in the playoffs. There was no reason for the Nuggets to show up. They didn't men up. And if Anthony can't accept responsibility for 5-of-22 from the field, a horrifying majority from under or near the basket, and one Submit Your Question Post sports columnist Woody Paige fields your questions. Look for Woody's Mailbag every Thursday. assist, and zero defense — as usual — then he must take his act elsewhere. How long do we have to wait for Anthony to take charge? In fact, how long do we have to wait for him to take a charge? The only time Anthony gets up in anybody's chest is when he's jawing at an official. Anthony spent more time Saturday staring at the ref than he did at the basket or his defensive assignment. Anthony has sold Denver 76 trombones. And the 76ers sold Denver Allen Iverson. The Answer is a question, and Anthony is not the solution, but just a problem. The two leading scorers were 10-of-38 and uninterested. Too bad Eduardo Najera and Linas Kleiza aren't more talented. They, and J.R. Smith, came to play. The others came for no discernible reason — except to watch the NFL draft, which they did before the game. "We chart our layups, and we were 1-for-20 in the game. Melo and A.I. missed most of those," a disheartened Karl said. "We missed a lot of easy baskets in the first half. Melo missed a lot of those." It's obvious that Karl and Anthony, who've maintained an uneasy peace since last year, have broken the truce. Anthony has snapped. Their relationship won't survive. One or the other, or both, will be gone. Pick your side. "I know that Melo is very emotional right now," Karl said when asked about Anthony saying the team and coach quit. "I don't think I quit. . . . In the fourth quarter I was trying to find answers." Anthony is correct that Karl can't continue to sit there on the bench. The players are overreacting to the refs' calls and uncalls, but they're not getting any support from the coaches. And Karl isn't defending them any better than they are defending the Lakers. But Karl can't shoot for his players, and he can't get them to buckle down or liven up. Anthony was busy doing his smiley-face for much of the game, but he should have frowned after he missed bunny after guppy, lay-in after tip-in, easy opportunity after simple shot. He should do something or get out of the way. Truth is, the Nuggets have played much better in this series with Anthony off the court. A longtime basketball expert from Los Angeles said at halftime: "What's the big deal about Anthony? I don't see anyone that special. He doesn't look or play much like LeBron, does he?" The Nuggets were tied with the Lakers at 42 in the second quarter. If they had cared, the Nuggets would have been up by 12. But, per custom in this series, the Lakers steamed away by 17 points. In one 30-second stretch, Anthony missed a layup, glared at an official and totally ignored the Lakers, who converted a layup. Anthony missed another shot. While he pouted, the Lakers scored again. Scream at yourself, not at the coach. Scream in an empty room, Carmelo. For the fifth year in a row, Anthony has not become The Man in the playoffs, and the Nuggets are down, and soon out. Quit it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Carmelo Anthony: We quit In the waning moments of Saturday’s game, the song, “You Dropped a Bomb on Me’’ blared out of the loudspeakers at the Pepsi Center. It was appropriate since the Los Angeles Lakers had just dropped a bomb on the Nuggets’ season. The Lakers defeated the Nuggets 102-84 at the Pepsi Center to take a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven first round series. No NBA team ever has recovered from such a deficit. “We quit,’’ said Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony. “Everybody. From the coaches to the players, we quit. And I said it.’’ Anthony’s statistics were dismal. He shot 5-of-22 for 16 points. Denver’s other star didn’t do any better. Guard Allen Iverson shot 5-of-16 from the field for 15 points, and was benched by Nuggets coach George Karl for the game’s final 10:49. Iverson was quite disappointed after the game. “To not go back in, I don’t understand that,’’ Iverson said. “And (Karl) didn’t even say nothing to me even afterward . . . I played every game with a broken finger and all. I always came to play, every game we had. So why not tell me nothing?’’ It was that type of afternoon for the Nuggets, who have lost in the first round of the playoffs 4-1 for four straight years. The way the Nuggets, who will try to avoid total embarrassment in Monday’s Game 4 at the Pepsi Center, have played in this series, 4-1 now wouldn’t look too bad. The Nuggets had talked about coming out with a sense of urgency, but there was little of that Saturday as they fell behind by as many as nine points in the first half and the crowd never got into the game. Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who scored 49 points in Game 2, led the Lakers with a pedestrian 22 points. He was quite content to play distributor, handing out eight assists. The Nuggets missed easy inside shots all night long. They also rarely got to the free-throw line, shooting 15-of-19 while the Lakers were 20-of-33. “I’m not blaming anyone,’’ Anthony said. “I’m not pointing the fingers at nobody. I didn't play worth a damn . . . and I can accept that. But as a competitor, there's no way that I should lay down and quit and lay down on my team like we did tonight . . . We all just gave up.’’ The Nuggets fell behind 53-46 at halftime, and were soon down 69-51 early in the third quarter. They did make one run to cut the deficit to 69-59. But that was it for the night. The Lakers pushed the advantage to 83-64 at the end of the third quarter, and were up by as much by as much as 96-74 in the fourth. “Well, I don’t think I quit. I quit on not passing the ball,’’ said Karl, when asked about Anthony’s post-game comments. “In the fourth quarter. I tried to find some answers. I tried to find, ‘Is Chucky (Atkins) going to help us?’ . . . I think Melo's emotional right now. He’s frustrated right now, as we all are. And keeping our composure and a maturity to it is probably the best way to go.’’ Karl had this to say about benching Iverson with 10:49 remaining in the game and the Nuggets trailing 85-66: “I took him out because I was going to rest him and I was hoping that we'd get it back to a reasonable number to where we'd put him back in. But I didn't think that ever came and my response was to search for some answers,’’ One obviously wasn’t The Answer. The Lakers, though, had all the answers. “We got back on defense and cut back on those easy transition points,’’ said Lakers center Pau Gasol, who scored 14 points. “We made them take a lot of tough shots.’’ Well, maybe not. Karl began his press conference by saying Anthony and Iverson were 1-of-20 on layups. “That’s the way we live our life,’’ Karl said of Anthony and Iverson usually able to get to the rim for easy baskets. No Denver player scored more than Anthony’s 16. Forward Linas Kleiza had 15, but Kleiza, bothered by a hyper-extended right elbow, was ineffective shooting from the outside. “I thought our defense packed it in on them, but they missed some easy shots,’’ Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “I thought over the course of the game. I told the team at halftime, ‘They're not going to shoot like this for the whole game. They missed some close shots, some shots they usually make. ‘We'll have to play better defense in the second half.’ But they never showed up. They never got it going.” Bryant was held in check after his huge Game 2 outing, and shot 9-of-19. But, at the end of the game, with many of the fans having gone home, Lakers fans started a chant of “MVP. MVP.’’ Anthony had said Friday “things aren’t going right if they start doing that.’’ Things definitely weren’t going right for the Nuggets. “Our main focus is to take the crowd out,’’ Bryant said. The Lakers sure did that. The Nuggets didn’t come out with the energy that Karl believed they would. “It was a heavy game and, yeah, I mean there’s no question that you're frustrated that the game, because of the refereeing, the missed shots, L.A.'s defense.’’ Karl said. “I take my hat off to them. I thought L.A. going into this series was a good defensive team but they're a little better than I thought they were.’’ Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin, though, said it’s more of a case the Nuggets are “definitely not playing to our potential.’’ The Nuggets still have a chance to rectify that. But everyone knows it won’t be easy. “It’s going to be hard,’’ Nuggets forward Eduardo Najera said. “At the same time, it’s a challenge. Everybody has to stay positive. We’ve definitely been down before. Not 0-3, but there’s more pride than anything.’’ The Nuggets haven’t had a bomb dropped on them this season like the one the Lakers have.
That suggests to me that the roster overhaul could be significant. I still think Karl has mellowed & lost his nasty/jerky fire and he can't successfully coach without it.
The Melo-Karl thing has reached a breaking point, and it sounds like the front office has made it's decision who they'd rather hitch their cart to. It'll be interesting to watch tonight's game to see if the team even tries. AI was pretty pissed after the game, Melo was heckling Karl during the game, KMart was pissed...
it's broken... send the detector in for repair I was being sarcastic hence the wink Just with all the Tmac hate going around I couldn't resist.
Sure, let's trade for a guy who's had even less playoff success than T-Mac. Hell, at least T-Mac gets 2-0 and 3-1 leads in series before losing.
The T-Mac hate broke it. I can't tell what is what anymore. Ever since I saw T-Mac for Maggette anything is possible.
