The Quest for the Ring 3: Nuggets Starters Run Out of Gas, Lose Game 2 to Spurs 97-88

As I expected, the Nuggets were not capable of a second miracle 5-man game deep in the heart of Texas. They were, in fact, unable to put up much of a fight against the Spurs at all. A.I., Melo, Nene, Camby, and Blake had an even bigger letdown from their huge game one performance than I thought they would have. In game 1, the Nugget's bench, with it's scarce minutes, was able to get 6 points, while in this game it exploded for 7 points. So predictably, the Spurs took game two 97-88, to even the series at one game each.

Coach Karl seems to think that the game is decided by who scores more points among the starters. If he were correct, the Nuggets would be up 2-0 in this series, as the big five starters for the Nuggets outscored PF Duncan, C Elson, SF Bowen, SG Finley, and PG Parker 81-67, after burying them 89-53 in game one. The Spurs bench totalled 94 minutes in this game while the Nuggets bench was given only 42 minutes. There are 240 player minutes to allocate in a game, so you can see that A.I., Melo, Nene, Camby, and Blake took up over 80% of the playing time by themselves. The Spurs starters took up about 60% of the playing time, leaving a generous 40% for the role players.

What George Karl is doing is exactly opposite what title winners such as Greg Popovich and Phil Jackson do. They generously rotate in every role player who can contribute from off the bench, while at the same time making sure that their key performers, in this case Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, do not run out of gas. With the possible exception of Iverson, the five players that Karl is over relying on are all subject to getting a little bit tired in the second half when they are left in for almost the entire game. More to the point, they are going to be a little more tired than the Spurs players on the court at any given time.

To be specific with regard to this game, Popovich had Duncan play 33 minutes and Parker play 38 minutes, while Karl had Melo play 44 minutes and Iverson play 45 minutes. In a tight game between two evenly matched teams, the fact that Iverson and Melo are a little more tired than Duncan and Parker could be the difference between winning and losing. In this game, neither A.I. nor Melo were fully feeling their jump shots, and they were both getting mangled on layup attempts at the hoop, so when the Spurs had the extra step on them later in the game, it just made a bad situation worse. By not resting A.I. and Melo for roughly half of the the 3rd quarter, the Coach blew an opportunity to see if J.R. Smith or Linas Kleiza could shoot the Nuggets back into the game.

About half way through the 4th, a weary Melo and a weary A.I. finally tapped that last small reserve of athletic adrenalin that they were saving for the last desperate minutes, but it was not enough. Iverson buried a three with 45 seconds left to make it 91-88 Spurs, but Duncan then calmly iced the win for the Spurs by making a little 9-foot banked jumper with 27 seconds to go for 93-88 Spurs. Anthony said after the game: "Tonight we showed that we're going to fight. Whether we're down 50 or we're down two, we're going to fight you until the last whistle blows." He might have added, "or until we drop from exhaustion". The Nuggets were literally outnumbered by the Spurs, who kept enough fresh role players on the court at all times to guard well their absolutely necessary victory.

George Karl refused to budge on his refusal to share substantial playing time outside of the five starters, with J.R. Smith not even playing quite a quarter and Linas Kleiza getting only 16 minutes. When they were playing 20-30 minutes a game, Smith was the key factor in at least 6 of the Nuggets 45 regular season wins this season, and Kleiza was the key extra factor in at least 4 of them, but such contributions are ignored by Mr. Karl in Scroogeland. Most coaches would be using Kleiza to give Melo some breathers and Smith to give Iverson some breathers.

Of course, many coaches would have Smith starting at shooting guard and Iverson starting at point guard, with Blake coming in from the bench. At one point earlier this season, Karl did start A.I. at the point and J.R. at SG, and it worked quite well. That ended in less than two weeks, though, when J.R. upset Karl's delicate sensibilities when he had a few too many turnovers and made a few too many bad-looking shots in two or three different games. Even the J.R. shots that went in were counted as a negative by the Coach, if they looked awkward or if they were taken when someone else had a better open look. In recent weeks, Smith has been late to practice a time or two, and late once for the team bus, which caused Karl to bury him even deeper on the bench. As for Kleiza, his main problem is that he is not A.I., Melo, Nene, Camby, or Blake, since Karl thinks that five should be enough. Also, Karl apparently worries that Kleiza is too young to be dependable in a high pressure playoff situation, which is one of those theories that only a pessimistic scrooge could adopt.

There is a parallel problem going on, due to Karl's refusal to play rebounding and in-the-paint defensive specialist Reggie Evans. Nene has gotten noticed by the entire basketball community for his ability to neutralize Tim Duncan, and Camby is a blocking and rebounding ace second to no one except maybe Kevin Garnett, but a big man such as Nene and a complex multi-dimensional center such as Camby can only play so many minutes before they start missing layups, missing blocks, and causing the refs to blow their whistles. In this game, a running low on gas Camby fumbled an open dunk with 1:52 to go that would have made the score 89-85 Spurs. Would Camby had blown that dunk if Reggie Evans had given him the kind of rest that most players his age and condition get? I seriously doubt it.

The game was like a big cry from the gang of five: "we need a little help here, George." Camby's blown dunk was just the tip of the iceberg. The starting five were able to make only 15 of 34 layups, which would be miserable for any junior high team, let alone a pro team playing for the ring which, ironically, Camby said during the day was attainable for the Nuggets this time around. Careful, Mr. Camby, that's alot easier said than done and you don't want to overwhelm everyone. It's supposed to be one game at a time, you know. Meanwhile, the Spur's starters made 10 of 13 layups, with the steady but cautious Duncan making 5 of 5. Overall, the Spurs made 16 of 24 layups, while the Nuggets frantically made only 16 of 37.

The Nuggets shooting was a pathetic 38.6% while the Spurs shooting was held to 43.8%. Other than the shooting, the rest of the production was remarkably equal between the two teams, a bad sign for the Spur's prospects in Denver. The Spurs were supposed to dominate in rebounding in this series, but both teams had 44 rebounds in this game, with Denver getting 14 offensive rebounds versus just 10 for the Spurs. The Nuggets, who just about led the League in turnovers this year, had a very reasonable 12 turnovers, while the Spurs, who had fewer turnovers than almost anyone, had 13. Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili combined for 15 of the 20 Spurs assists, while Blake (7 assists) and Iverson (5 assists) combined for 12 of the Nuggets 17 assists.

Tim Duncan had five blocks and Marcus Camby had three. But the Nuggets beat the Spurs on steals 7-5. A.I. made three steals and Camby made two steals. SF Bruce Bowen made three steals for the Spurs.

From 3-point land, Melo, Iverson, and Blake all stepped up and made clutch 3-pointers, as the Nuggets actually did better from long range than from shorter range. In another sign that the Spurs are likely to lose the series, the Nuggets were able to keep the Spur's big 3-point shooting advantage to a minimum for the two games in San Antonio, despite the fact that Kleiza and Smith were non-factors.

So the Nuggets are standing or falling based on how just those five do, and they followed their incredibly outstanding performance in game one with a very weak three and a half quarters in this game, with a too little too late rally in the last half of the fourth quarter. The 4th quarter rally, at least, gave the Spurs a little bit of a scare, and informed them that the Nuggets are not going to go away quietly in this series.

No, this is going to be a six or seven game series. And I will now proceed to the good news, and reward with a big shot of confidence any Nuggets fan who has read this far and soaked up the bad news. The biggest story of all from this series so far is that the Spurs have played poorly in both of their home games. That is a major shock, and obviously means that the Nuggets can and should win both of the upcoming games in Denver, as long as they avoid a shooting disaster like the one that occurred tonight, which is little to ask for.

In a remarkable development, Nene, with some assistance from Camby, have neutralized Duncan two straight games in his building. As long as Nene and Camby keep hustling enough to keep harassing Duncan, who is overwhelmingly the go-to guy in the Spurs front court, the Nuggets in theory need only to avoid an A.I.-Melo combined shooting disaster to win both games in Denver. If one of those two is hitting, it will be close, but the Nuggets, with some assistance from extremely loud fans, would be favored. And if both A.I. and Melo are making shots, you can turn the lights out in San Antonio for this season.

Najera played 14 minutes and was 0/3 for 0 points, and he had 2 rebounds and an assist.

Kleiza played 16 minutes and was 2/4 and 1/3 on 3's for 5 points, and he had 1 assist.

Blake played 35 minutes and was 3/5 and 2/3 on 3's for 8 points, and he added 7 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

J.R. Smith played 12 minutes and was 0/4, 0/3 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 2 points, and he had 3 rebounds.

Nene played 36 minutes and was 8/15 and 1/2 from the line for 17 points, and he had 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block.

Camby played 39 minutes and was 4/11 and 2/4 from the line for 10 points, and he also had 18 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. This was well above Camby's normal playing minutes and well above the minutes played by comparable players in similar situations.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 9/25 and 2/3 on 3's for 20 points, and he had 5 assists and 3 steals.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 8/21, 2/4 on 3's, and 8/9 from the line for 26 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.

The next game, which will be game 3 of the series, will be Saturday, April 28 in Denver, against the Spurs, of course, at 6 pm mountain time.

IT WAS UNTHINKABLE THAT SPURS COACH GREG POPOVICH
WOULD BE SCROOGED BY GEORGE KARL TWICE IN A ROW