KRIEGER: Urgency shows up too late for Nuggets

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

They were already asking Phil Jackson before the game how much rest would be optimum for the Lakers prior to their next playoff series.

Two days off is nice, he said. By the third day, you want to play.

Meanwhile, out in the arena, fans clad in Lakers yellow and purple were streaming in among the Nuggets faithful, like spies coming in from the cold. They chanted "MVP! MVP!" for Kobe Bryant while the home crowd tried unsuccessfully to drown them out.

"It feels like a home away from home," Bryant said with a smirk into a TNT microphone before departing the court at halftime.

On television, the Nuggets had become everybody's punching bag. Charles Barkley paved the road and now lesser lights were lining up to take their shots.

In short, the Nuggets had finally reached the place where they found prosperity most of the season. They had achieved desperation.

"We're a team of emotion," coach George Karl said before the game. "We've been a team of emotion most of the year. I think it's magnified because you're in the playoffs, but I think we've had similar situations."

Emotion had been working against the Nuggets for the first three games of the series, from the technical foul parade to Carmelo Anthony's admission of surrender following Game 3.

Finally, in Game 4, their emotion started working for them. Perhaps it was because the most common motivational lie in sports - "Nobody but us believed we could do it" - was quite literally true.

Being unable to get your game together until you're down three games to none must be a symptom of some fairly serious psychological issue, but fortunately for the Nuggets, Barkley was not in the TNT studio at halftime to diagnose it.

Their basketball issues were still clear enough. Even after finally showing the heart and determination their fans had been waiting to see for three games, the Nuggets gave up 64 first-half points in equally measured servings of 32 per quarter.

Suddenly, coming out after intermission, they began to play defense. Lakers center Pau Gasol, who had 18 points by halftime, added just one point in the third quarter after Kenyon Martin moved inside to cover the lane. Kobe Bryant, who had 15 at halftime, made 1-of-6 shots in the third.

If only in passing, the Nuggets were actually playing defense. Karl went back to Anthony Carter early in the third to get more defensive mobility.

"At this level, it's easy to get familiar with the people that you're playing, the personnel that you're playing against," Jackson had said. "It takes just a little change of personnel to do a different job or do something different."

You could only imagine what sort of series it might have been had the Nuggets brought the urgency and intensity of Game 4 to Games 1, 2 and 3. And you could only speculate on why they didn't.

"We're definitely a different type of team," Karl said. "All year long, we've responded in strange ways, some negative and some extremely positive that you feel very good about. The goal is to eliminate the bad and add to the good. We've done that more so than ever before. I think we're a stronger team than ever before."

By the measure of their 50 regular season wins, perhaps, but their postseason pratfall erased most of that good feeling. Even as they belatedly raised their level of play to the circumstance, there was a sense of great waste about it all. Why had it taken until it was too late? Why hadn't they cared when it still mattered?

They will have plenty of time to think about it. After losing four games to one in the first round for the past four years, they actually went backward this year, bowing out without the consolation of a single triumph.

When the Nuggets traded for Allen Iverson in December 2006, they thought he was the final piece to their championship puzzle. Since then, they are 1-8 in the postseason.

They were not alone in the delusion that one more big name would put them over the top. The Suns and Mavericks followed the same strategy this year, with what appears likely to be a similar result.

The Nuggets' mix, like the Mavericks, was not only ineffective when it mattered most but also extremely expensive, increasing the urgency of the coming reassessment.

The talent was there, of that there was little doubt. But the chemistry experiment was a disaster. The Nuggets became the first 50-win team to exit the playoffs without a single victory.

The urgency finally arrived in Game 4, but it was much too late. Now it is up to ownership and management to figure out what comes next.

One thing the Nuggets proved this season beyond any doubt: Talent is not enough.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com

• April 29, 2008

  7:34 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  RG2008 writes:

  Time to rebuild with the youth on this team and players that can play both offense and defense.

  Build around Nene, Kleaza, Melo, and JR

  That means trading Camby and Iverson for a true point guard that can lead this team. Maybe Artest?

  Keeping Martin only because he plays defense and can score unless you can find a young true center that will compliment Nene.

  Do it now!

• April 29, 2008

  9:07 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  m2spts writes:

  Was it here we read Nuggets in 5?
  The team needs a change in attitude, a change in direction, and changing of some diapers.
  Nuggets in five?
  You overestimated them.

• April 29, 2008

  9:53 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  TONE writes:

  I see the Nugget in the same situation as the Bronco. They were going for a quick fix trying to get the ring, but it doesn't work that way when you have guys that play individual ball. I like the young guys that we have, (Melo, JR and Klieza). I think we should biuld around these guys just like how the Bronco is building around there young core guys now. I don't know if there is any good point out there this summer, but we have a guy name Green on our roster that seems pretty good when he got those junk minute. We just don't need a point guard. We also need some one to take Gamby's place also. I like how Gamby plays, but man he was just being bully by Gasol and he looked small against him. What ever the case is, I hope the Nugget can find a 'TEAM' and not just individual player. Even JR was playing more team concept then AI and Melo. Good luck in off season and hope Nugget can finally find some piece to fit the puzzle.

• April 29, 2008

  10:15 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Condor writes:

  Dave, do you work for NBC news? You distort the facts like them.

  Kobe did not smirk, he was smiling through out that interview.

  Denver got beat by a better team. No more, no less. Make so trades and improve the team. That is what is needed.

• April 29, 2008

  10:24 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  PurpleFox writes:

  Why is anybody surprised about the Nuggets performance, when we have the worst coach in the NBA? George Karl hasn't been able to teach the Nuggets any kind of defense in several years. He also can't get them to play LIKE A TEAM. And, Oh yeah, they stink on offense, too. They have no offense, other than settling for a 20 ft jump shot most of the time.

• April 29, 2008

  11:33 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  glassguy writes:

  karl can't "make" them hustle either or give them any heart to play up to there ability. it does not matter what kind of defense you try to teach, if they don't want to play it, what difference does it make.why bother working your butt off to take a dump in the playoffs? AGAIN.

• April 29, 2008

  2:54 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  ravenclaw writes:

  I guess that I am under the illusion that basketball is a team sport. I think that precludes guys shooting the ball all the time. My sense is that the Nuggets need a true point guard and a small forward who can play defense and move without the ball. I may be off my nut but maybe they need to trade both A.I. and Melo. Guys can always shoot - defense: that is another matter. Defense needs to be taught and worked on. Also, working as a team needs to be taught and worked on as well.

  This may sound like sour grapes but I haven't seen the emphasis on a team concept or teamwork since Kiki left. I thought that the GM was the one who built the team? I don't see that kind of continuity right now with this team.

• April 29, 2008

  3:07 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  notknowitall writes:

  Team? What team? If the Nuggets were allowed to play one on one
  they would probably do real well. But, one on five just doesn't work. I'll bet that the Lakers passed the ball around 100 times to Denver's 10. That is what works, folks (not to mention playing a little bit of defense - that's always a plus)

• April 29, 2008

  5:58 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  duboisb writes:

  Talent is not enough. You need coaching. George Karl is 62-83 lifetime in the playoffs a coach. With the Nuggets, he is 3-16.

• April 29, 2008

  6:35 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  dbgager writes:

  I don't know why this information about Denver being the first team to be swept in the first round (even in a 7 game series) seems to be being reported by ESPN and as well appearing on different news sources, since it is clearly not true. The 2003-2004 Memphis Grizzlies a 50-32 team, where swept by the San Antonio Spurs in there first round matchup..
  http://www.nba.com/games/20040425/SAS...

• April 29, 2008

  11:44 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  sickandtired writes:

  Hey Krieger. How about a real article, or even a book. Stop taking the RMN paycheck for a living, and write a book about the REAL NBA - "The Fix is in League".

  Find out what's really going on with Stern and his gang. That's something I'd read. If you objectively watch the NBA, you've gotta wonder what's really going on. You're the only Denver writer that doesn't seem to completely belong to the teams and the leagues.

  Write a real article. Find out who's in Stern's little black book. Start with Popovich, Duncan, Parker, Kobe and Phil.

  Come on, do it. You know what I'm talking about.