See the additional editorial notes at the end for more details about late postings and how they are not going to be a problem any longer.
FROM APRIL 25 2009 AFTER THE NUGGETS LOST GAME THREE 95-93 BUT WERE STILL LEADING THE SERIES 2-1
Chauncey was the best player in the entire NBA playoffs in games 1 and 2, but that kind of extreme one man show can't last through a series.
What an outstanding game by Chris Paul, his time was almost but not wasted in this game.
Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith are limited at best in the playoffs in the Karl simplified offense. Also, Nene's inexperience came through in this one. Kenyon Martin can never beat you offensively. Summary: the Nuggets do not have experienced, consistent playoff-level NBA players.
Hornets had the game won but somehow collapsed in the last 2 minutes. That was sheer misery, but Melo of course could not win the game for the Thuggets when called on at the end.
Obviously D West needs to play better in game 4 or I don't see how the Hornets can win Monday. But he's due for a big game. I see that happening.
GO HORNETS! You can still win the series because Karl is a choker and as you saw in this game his simplistic offense is completely unreliable, and that neither Carmelo Anthony nor JR Smith are going to beat you.
BELIEVE it Hornets, you can still win this series.
You will have to stay physical and tough with the Thuggets, even getting a technical or two or three if necessary. The Nuggets are probably not going to go down unless you hang with them and force the referees to call more of their fouls by being tough yourselves. In other words, you need to, as Chris Paul did in this game, welcome being fouled and the opportunity to make free throws. The more free throws the better against this team.
Outstanding game, CP3, way to make Dahntay Jones (spelled it right) and Anthony Carter look like nothings.
Hornets in 6 games still possible, please make it so.....
FROM APRIL 25 2009 AFTER THE NUGGETS LOST GAME THREE 95-93 BUT WERE STILL LEADING THE SERIES 2-1
George Karl as a Coach goes back more years than I do as a close basketball watcher, so I don't know what his views have been regarding jump shooting and post play over his entire career. But I do know that in the last few years, and especially this year, he has decided that he doesn't want his teams to be shooting many jump shots, whether or not they are contested. This year, Karl has taken an extreme anti-jump shooting position. It is probably no coincidence that Carmelo Anthony, who at least used to be a dedicated and successful jump shooter, and who Karl wanted to trade last summer, is having one of his worst jump shooting years ever.
Sure, when Allen Iverson was on the team he was allowed to do whatever he wanted, but once he was gone, Karl preached driving to the hoop for fouls along with the traditional Denver fast breaking. like never before. AI did get to the foul line often enough to avoid making Karl nervous, but Carmelo Anthony both in recent years and this year has been hounded by Karl to get to the line more. Overall, this year Karl and the Nuggets adopted a very heavy reliance on driving into the paint and getting to the free throw line.
The Denver offense is simple and consists of the following:
1. Fast Breaking for easy scores in transition. Aggressive and intense defending is supposed to generate many of these fast breaks. Players such as Dahntay Jones and Chris Andersen, who normally would be total non-factors on offense, are able to score if the Nuggets can generate fast breaks from intense defending.
2. All Nuggets are supposed to often drive to the hoop for free throws, dunks, layups, and put-backs, especially by Chris Andersen.
3. Transition threes are acceptable, especially by Smith, and most especially by Billups.
Notice that there is a large number of ways to score which is missing from this offense: the following are some of the types of scoring MISSING from the Nuggets' simplified offense:
--Post Play is very limited, by Carmelo Anthony or anyone else
--Pick and Rolls are extremely limited
--A good passing game is not frowned on, but is not encouraged either. The passing of Chauncey Billups, and the bailing out passes of Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith is often about all there is to the Nuggets' passing game.
--Mid-range and even short range jumpers are almost totally absent and are discouraged. You almost never see any hook shots or other types of close in shots made by top paint scorers such as Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Yao Ming.
--3-Point Shots not in transition are frowned on, except by good 3-point shooters (mostly Smith and Billups) who are open.
In this playoff game you saw how the Nuggets' offense breaks down. The sequence is something like this:
1. The Nuggets' aggressive and intense defense fails to disrupt and intimidate as much as it often does. Players such as Chris Paul learn that the key to beating the Nuggets is to hang in there, to reduce dangerous, turnover-causing bail out-type passing, and especially to draw fouls and get to the free throw line. With the other team getting to the free throw line often, and keeping contested jumpers to the minimum, the fast breaking is reduced substantially.
2. The Nuggets do drive and get to the free throw line a lot, but they start missing some free throws probably because they get worried about not getting those flashy and easy fast break points they are used to getting.
No team including the Nuggets can start driving to the hoop on almost every play. No team's paint defenders will permit that, and referees usually are less and less likely to call fouls the more a team tries to drive to the hoop to bail itself out of not having hardly any other way to score.
This is an unwritten NBA rule: teams are not really supposed to drive into the paint on the great majority of plays. You are supposed to have some kind of a balance between inside and outside shooting. The game is hoops, not rugby. You are supposed to be able to put the ball in the basket in more ways than one or two ways.
Even if the Nuggets make most of their free throws, as long as the fast breaking is limited, and as long as the other team has a decently coached offense with players who can pass and screen and hit a few jump shots, the Nuggets' can be defeated.
3. As the game wears on and the opponent continues to limit the Nuggets' fast break easy points by not falling for their defensive stunts and aggressiveness, the Nuggets eventually get a little frustrated and impatient. Then they start jacking up poorly selected jump shots, because there is nothing left for them to do but that.
Remember that Denver has very little half court offense. Nor do they have any 3-point shooting game per se. (But the Nuggets have been remarkably successful in 3-point shooting this year despite putting little emphasis on it, due to all the fast break threes.)
The Nuggets' passing game is very poor overall; The passing of Chauncey Billups alone is not good enough to make up a playoff-caliber passing game. If Denver can not get a certain number of fast break points, they have very little to fall back on other than Billups hitting almost every shot, which obviously is not a reliable thing.
The Nuggets' offense is unusual for the NBA playoffs, both in terms of how simplistic it is and in terms of how much it relies on disupting the other team's offense with intense defending to work.
Yes, defending is more important in the playoffs than it is in the regular season and yes, every NBA team in the playoffs tries to defend as well as possible. But the Nuggets have taken this to the extreme by basing their offense almost entirely on their defense.
As was seen in games 1 and 2 of this series, this offense can suceed despite how simplistic it is. An unsuspecting team can be steamrolled by the Nuggets because, for one thing, very few teams have ever tried this type of offense in the playoffs, and how to counter it may at first not be understood.
But as was seen in game 3, once the other team is aware of how this offense works, it can by earning more free throws, by boxing out and positioning in the paint better, and by hanging tough in general, cut this offense off at the source: it can limit the Nuggets' precious fast break scores.
Chris Paul and I think Byron Scott figured this Nuggets offense out either during or after Game 2. So they were able to defend against it very well in Game 3. The Hornets got to the line far more than in Games 1 and 2.
Now the Hornets have a chance to win the series, because the Nuggets' offense, when you draw back the curtain, is kind of shabby and nothing special.
========== Editorial Notes ==========
--The above was written in late April, 2009.
--As promised, we are finally posting material written and posted on forums in the spring. Obviously, if you have your own site, you should be posting at least simultaneously on your own site when you for whatever reason post elsewhere. But there has been a bad habit of not doing so, a bad habit that is being beaten down due to new content sharing regulations that have teeth.
========== VIDEO PLAYERS ==========
NEW ORLEANS HORNETS 2009 MOST POPULAR VIDEOS PLAYER
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DENVER NUGGETS 2009 MOST POPULAR VIDEOS PLAYER
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