Fourth Quarter de Mayo

They wanna know how many rhymes have I ripped and reppped,

but researchers never found all the pieces yet...

The Nuggets used another 4th quarter outburst to stifle the Mavs and take a 2-0 series lead...

-The focus has been on who of the Nugs' three big men can guard Dirk Nowitzki most effectively, but the real talk should be which of the Mavs' bigs can get a handle on Nene. The Nugs' big man again had a big night, leading the team in scoring and muscling his way in the middle. After two games it is obvious that Eric Dampier can't check him and Dirk practically looks hopeless on 'D' versus him. So the answer is probably none of them will be able to reel Nene in, so expect doubles and Nene to have to spot open cutters and perimeter players.

-Carmelo Anthony had stomach cramps that he believed hampered him. Guess that Cinco De Mayo nacho plate I sent to him for lunch wasn't such a good idea. My bad, Melo.

-Rick Carlisle pulled out all the stops in the game, and early on they seemed to temper the Nugs a bit. Putting the more athletic and bigger Antoine Wright in the stareting five gave them a toughness. Most noticable was his use of timeouts; he would call them after the smallest inkling the Nugs were about to go on a run and/or the crowd was being energized.

-JR Smith had his best defensive game of the year. He was extremely active in deflecting passes and sticking his mitt into the ball handlers' dribble. Not only did it force the Mavs to waste shot clock time in setting up their plays, it helped deny entry passes in the block to Dirk.

-Rick Carlisle...Jim Carrey's older brother. Kind of a Frank Stallone or Jim Belushi to his more famous bro? No? Just squint your eyes.

-Thanks to the network schedules, there's a four day gap before the next game. On the surface it would seem like this would be a huge advantage for the Mavs, they being older, Josh Howard and Eric Dampier's bum ankles, and just to regroup. But, the Nugs also have some work to do and two full days of practice will be key. The team still looks lost on some defensive switches in which a guard will end up on a big man. Also, set plays and end of quarter/half plays could use some looks, as evident by JR's brain fart/six point swing at the end of the half. And some good time for Melo to drain his system with some extended toliet time.

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