Wednesday, May 20, 2009

How to Rob

My life story I tell straight from the heart
When suckers tried to crash my shit straight from start...


The Nuggets suffered a gut-wrenching loss in game one of the Western Conference Finals last night in Los Angeles:

-The lowlight of the game had to be the inbound pass that was picked off by Trevor Ariza late in game. The play was especially troubling on so many levels.

One, why was AC in the game at that point? Down by two with 20 seconds is AC any sort of offensive option? If he gets the ball in it is basically four on five, because they will sag off him knowing he will not take the shot.

AC, you are a point guard on an inbounds pass, not Tom Brady throwing to Randy Moss in the corner of the endzone. Fire the rock into Chauncey, maybe a bounce pass. There was more air under than your grandfather after a plate of beans.

Finally, why take so long to foul after the turnover, letting the Lakers get the ball to Kobe Bryant. Foul Ariza, foul Derek Fischer. Ten full seconds elapsed before the foul was committed and then Kobe gets to the line, sealing the game. A four point lead with 10 seconds is nearly impossible, a four point lead with 20 seconds give some glimmer.

-Conspiracy theorists can have a field day with the last few minutes of the game. Nuggets are cruising to an extent, then the calls start to turn. Kobe has six free throw attempts in the final 30 seconds. Chris Anderson dives for a ball on the ground and appears to signal timeout, and Lamar Odom wraps him up for a jump ball. Earlier in the Dallas series, Melo did the same thing and was whistled for a foul. The ensuing jump ball looks like Odom stole the tip. KMart gets whistled for a ticky tack foul late when he pokes a ball away from Kobe. Bigfoot is roaming the corridors. UFOs spotted in Jack Nicholson's parking spot.

-Basketball theorists can have a field day pointing to the 12 missed free throws and dominance of LA on the offensive glass (17 to 7). Even Chauncey missed three free throws. Maybe he was distracted by Bigfoot.

-Melo was a straight beast in every aspect. When he checked Kobe it was physical, lots of pokes and arm movement. Even Kobe acknowledged the weight discrepancy between the two. He outmuscled him under the glass and save the technical he got, kept his cool a hell of alot more than Kobe. On the flip side, Dahntay Jones has no shot versus Kobe on an extended basis and the Lakers recognize it, posting Kobe up on him each time.

-Why Linas Kleiza got the minutes he got is strange. JR Smith needs Linas' time being that JR is more of a player who needs to find his groove in the game to get going. JR should've been on the court in the 4th instead of AC, when the Nuggets should've pushed the lead rather than try to protect it.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

never seen more people truly depressed about a loss. Everyone who knows a hoop from a hurt knows one got away. shit

1:12 PM  
Anonymous Spotwood said...

Yeah, I'm one of those. It's bad enough to lose to the Lakers, but that loss was excrutiating.

I'm expecting an LA blowout in Game 2. I just don't think they can play any better (save the obvious free throw issue) and they certainly can play a lot worse in a road game.

The AC out of bounds play was just confusing. At the very least, take your timeout and reset. The game was all set to be tied at that point and you HAVE to make that play.

2:13 PM  
Anonymous Joozy the flying walrus said...

Balkman was set to play but got hurt in warmups. Kleiza got those minutes and had a goose egg in stats.

3:11 PM  

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