they will win game 2, the Lakers will be so cocky and play like game 4/6 against us. oh and Kobe won't drop 40 again
If I had an account on Lakersground, I'd post this in all the threads crying about Shane's "illegal faceguarding" of Kobe.
Lakers in 6 games. Momentum will carry the Lakers in game 2. The Nuggets would take games 3 and 4 but They Lakers will finish the series in game 6.
I was leaning toward the Nuggets in 6. And I wouldn't call the series over. But being that close to a win and letting it slip away like that may be more demoralizing then they realize. It will be interesting to see how they respond in game 2.
There are two ways to look at it: 1.) We went in there and got horrible games from Billups, JR and everyone not named Melo or Bird (and to a lesser extent K-Mart), took the Lakers on in a place where we've only beaten them TWICE since it opened, and lost in a close game due to the fact that Karl out-thought himself and AC made a horrible pass. 2.) We were rested up, the Lakers were tired. We got an officiating crew that actually let the teams play (advantage: Nugs). Melo went OFF (seriously, that was one hell of a performance). We got out to a 14 point lead, and we blew it. I've been saying all along that the team needs to win one of the first two in LA. If we can somehow win game 2, we're in this thing. I don't want to say it's over if we come back to Denver down 0-2, but it's going to be a LOT harder.
Well. Kobe didn't even play that well last night and he ended up with 40 and the game winning free throws. There is absolutely, positively nobody on this nuggets team who can come close to guarding Kobe. All of the shots he got and even the ones he missed were wide open shots. The nuggets are in big big trouble. I still predict a sweep.
Kobe is going to have a field day on the Nuggets because for all the physical pounding they give they also are a team made up mostly of idiots who let the guy have more open looks in one half than he did in the entire series vs. Battier. Still, I think these playoffs are going to take a toll on Kobe. He looks older by the day to me. I wonder if he will enough in the tank to take on Lebron? I'm doubting it.
Nuggets don't have a Battier. But they have more offensive firepower than we did. They are capable of outscoring the Lakers in any given game.
If Billups played like he did in the first two series of the playoffs the Nuggets would have won by double digits. Billups just didn't shoot well, and those early shot clock high screen 3 pointers look great when they go in, but they missed more often than not and resulted in an easy fast break for the Lakers to take advantage of. I'd say give Fisher credit for defending Billups since Billups isn't nearly as fast as Brooks, but Billups got good looks. He just missed, and aside from the last couple of minutes I think he sucked it up. Good game by Billups= Win for Nuggets.
Chauncey Billups has never shot as well as he did in their 1st two series'...he's never even come close. It's to be expected that he would come back down to Earth (~41% fg% and 37% 3p%) at some point.
I missed the game and the replay too on NBAtv. One question. How the heck did the Lakers dominate the boards? Was it a team thing? I thought Nene, Birdman, and K-Mart, and the rest of the Nuggets would hold the rebounding edge or at least be even.
Kobe was all over him in the first 3 quarters before he switched to Melo, and Brown got his turns in between. Fisher didn't guard Billups baring a few switches.
Nuggets bigs were going for blocks like crazy, they got some, but for those didn't, they surely had less a chance to grab them.
It's funny -- the telecasters actually said the Lakers were "playing volleyball" against the Nuggets, a similar phrase they used when they were playing us. Actually, if you check their regular season matchups, the Lakers dominated them on the boards: Code: [B]LAL_REB DEN_REB[/B] 2008-11-01 @DEN 15 53 3 38 2008-11-21 DEN 13 43 14 39 2009-02-27 @DEN 22 53 11 50 2009-04-09 DEN 18 51 10 46 Denver, despite its athleticism and size in the front court, was not a good rebounding team. They were only 22nd in DREB%, and only 15th in OREB%. By comparison, the much more unathletic Rockets were 4th in DREB% and 17th in OREB%. The Lakers were 18th in DREB% and 3rd in OREB%. I would attribute the Denver's (and LA's, for that matter) poor defensive rebounding to being a team that likes to force turnovers and get out on the fast break. They sacrifice defensive rebounding discipline for transition opportunities.
hmmm, I did not know that. Well, the Nuggets better start using their size/length/athleticism to rebound better because nothing cures offensive mistakes better than second chances.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Chauncey isn't NOT as good as he played against the Hornets and Mavs. No way he could keep that up.
conspiracy theorist? hardly.. this ain't no conspiracy theory, this is a greedy commissioner trying to make some extra dough.. LeBron v$. Kobe >>>>>> Orlando vs. Nuggets.. and it's not even close.. I don't understand why some of you guys still refuse to "believe" that this league is rigged after the Donaghy incident and what he came out and said (but was then swept away under the rug by Stern/the media). Joey Crawford is an angel right? absolutely. he was "disciplinarily" suspended to make it seem like it's just an isolated incident, but he came back and as good as ever. It's a huge gang, and unfortunately you and even me fall for it every time and we continue to watch.. I'm not saying that the refs single handedly cost the Nugs the game, I'm saying that after the major choke job by the Nuggets, the refs ensured that the Lakers would come out as winners.. I wonder why no one is talking about Kobe hitting K-Mart straight on the stomach and Ariza sliding under JR, it must be because Stern is just an awesome great great great commissioner and us conspiracy theorist be hatin'
I hear this all the time. Exactly how does Stern benefit financially from a Lakers vs Cavs finals? Also, you say that the refs made calls to ensure that the Lakers would win. What about Billups 3 pointer where he stepped outside that made it a 1 pt game? Why didn't the refs call that if they were trying to ensure the Lakers win?
