Threes For Title

Play AT&T and check the three on your telephone:
D-E-F, then I left to break south
and left a herbal in her mouth...

After the Blazers won two games this weekend the thoughts starting creeping into my head. I Checked the schedule: home versus the Sacramento Kings. Home. I checked the standings: Sacramento Kings, last place, worst team in the NBA. Worst. I checked the roster of the Kings. Nobodies. Northwest Division title and a guarantee of at least a #3 seed on deck. Home court. Setting up to be the #2 seed. Second. Set the alltime Nugs' win record. Historic.

All right there. Should be easy, right?

They couldn't blow this, right? The vets on this team would step up. The crowd would be pumped. Chauncey Freaking Billups, the ultimate team leader, wouldn't allow a loss, right? The Nugs' bench had more talent than the Kings collection of has-beens and "who?"

Yet, there they were, trailing by 11 in the second. The crowd was dead, a strange feeling of "wait and see" the masses have had all year. Turnovers, frustration, some dude named Diogu going off in the post. Uncontested 3's being drained by the Kings.

They could blow this. Nervous fans in Houston, Portland, and San Antonio checked their out of town scores.

Things turned quickly for the Nugs. There was no impassioned speech. No diatribe by the coaches. Nothing Knute Rockne would offer a hearty smile for. Just Nuggets' Hoops we'ver seen all year. First, Chris Anderson got in their heads. A string of blocks, and the most uncounted stat: changed shots. Then Linas Kleiza stepped up, taking it to the hole while the remainder of the squad hung back.

Finally, JR Smith decided the hoops at the Can were liek the Pop A Shot at the carnival. 11 in total, draining them until he had the Nugs' record (sorry Micheal Adams) and one short of the NBA record. Not just regular threes, dude was taking shots that would make 8th graders goofing off from half court proud. The crowd finally sensed that there could be something to this squad...gee, only took 81 games.

One step remains, copping that #2 seed. Not since the days of Dan Issel, rainbow unis, Alex English's broken hand, and TR Dunn's curl have a Nugs' team been in position to play into the Western Finals.

All right there. Should be easy, right?

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