Camby Blocks Hornets in Last OKC Game; Nuggets Win 8th Straight 107-105

The Nuggets rallied from a 13-point Hornets lead with 8 minutes to go and swiped what will now be the last NBA game in Oklahoma City for awhile, as the Jazz are going to return to New Orleans for the 2007-08 season, and when they lost to the Nuggets, the chances that they will make the playoffs went down to between slim and none. The Nuggets won it late, 107-105, to clinch the sixth seed in the West and a most probable playoff series with the San Antonio Spurs.

The Nuggets won the game with heavy scoring from in the paint, and from almost flawless execution. They had a season low 8 turnovers, and only 13 fouls. That was just about as error free basketball as you will ever see from any team in any game, and for the Nuggets, the 8 turnovers is phenomenal, because they average more than double that this season and until recently they were the worst team in the NBA with respect to turnovers. Now the Nuggets are 28th on turnovers, and the Magic and the Knicks are worse than the Nuggets.

The Hornets were more or less devastated with injuries. G-F Peja Stovakovic was lost way back in late November for back surgery. Stojakovic was averaging close to 18 points and 4 rebounds a game. Their other quality G-F, Desmond Mason, broke his nose and was lost for the season on April 5. Mason was averaging almost 14 points per game with a shooting percentage of over 45%, and he was also getting more than 4 1/2 rebounds a game. And rounding out the three injuries which killed the Hornets playoff chances was the loss of starting center Tyson Chandler, who injured his toe on April 5 and has not been able to return due to severe pain. Coach Byron Scott said of Chandler "It's that bad. But I know in his heart how much he wants to play. Am I ruling him out completely? No, because I know the type of warrior he is. It just doesn't look good." Scott had to put in Marc Jackson, who is more of a power forward, at center.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets are down to just one injury, the early November loss for the seaon of Kenyon Martin to knee surgery. Martin's rehabilitation from that, by the way, is said to be going very well, so if you think these Nuggets are good now, wait until this fall when Martin returns, because they will be even at least a little better then.

Carmelo Anthony, who had given up on his 3-point shot as a lost cause for much of this season, has made a few lately and attempted alot of them for almost the first time this season, making 2 of 6 of them. Also from long range, Iverson was 1 of 3, Kleiza missed both of his two tries, and J.R. Smith made 2 of 3 in 5 minutes of playing time. Overall, the Nuggets were a mediocre 5 of 15 from long range. Meanwhile, the Hornets, knowing they were hurting up front without Chandler, Stojakovic, and Mason, allowed G-F Rasual Butler to put up a dozen three-point attempts, and he could only get 3 of them to fall. Overall, the Hornets were a dismal 6 of 25 on threes but, led by quality play from PF David West, the Hornets were .473 overall from the field. West had 13 rebounds and 31 points on 13 of 22 shooting. But the Nuggets were a very impressive .524 from the field, enough to scare anyone including the Spurs and those like Charles Barkley who wrote the Nuggets off earlier this season.

When Butler buried a three very late in the 1st quarter, the Hornets had a 16 point lead, 35-19. A jump shot from PG Jannero Pargo made it 45-29 with 9 to play in the half, but then Melo and Camby went to work and brought the Nuggets back into the game. In the final minute of the 1st half, Butler missed a three, Camby blocked Butler's put-back attempt, and then he blocked another layup attempt by PG Chris Paul. PF David West got the rebound, but the Hornets lost possession when Melo got a steal, and then Blake made a long 22-foot 2-pointer from near the right baseline with 15 seconds left. These are the kind of results you get when your team is firing on all cylinders, and when you have a center who is successfully playing basketball as if he was a goalie in hockey who can stop a whole lot of shots. So at the half, the Hornets big early lead was gone, and it was 56-53 Hornets.

In the third quarter, the Hornets got a bigger lead back, as Butler hit two threes and the Nuggets were held to 24 points in the quarter as they missed six of eight three-point attempts. The Hornets led 85-77 at the end of the 3rd quarter. After Marc Jackson made a three with 8 minutes left in the last quarter, it was 98-85 Oklahoma, and it looked like the Nuggets would lose despite the fact they were playing very well from a technical standpoint. But every one of the Nuggets starters were hitting their shots in this game, and every one of them were on the court for much of the final quarter, and all five of them: A.I., Melo, Camby, Nene, and Blake, helped the Nuggets to rally back from a 12 point deficit in the final 7 minutes. A Nene reverse dunk made it 101-98 Hornets with 3:06 left. And after Paul missed a jump shot, Melo made a layup, for 101-100 Hornets with 2:26 left. After SG Devin Brown made a dunk, Iverson made a 16-foot jumper, so it was 103-102 Hornets with 1:22 left.

Then West was blocked by Camby. At the other end, West was whistled for a foul on Melo, who made both free throws, so now it was 104-103 Nuggets with 49 seconds left. So whereas most other centers would be fouling or giving up the shot, or both, Camby was blocking and winning the game for the Nuggets. After Butler missed yet another three, Blake, yes, that Blake, made a layup, so now it was 106-103 Nuggets with 32 seconds left. Every Nugget including Blake has learned that you should go inside if at all possible very late in the game when you are trying to win a very close game.

After a timeout, PG Bobby Jackson made a layup and then Paul intentionally fouled Melo, who made just 1 of 2 free throws, so it was 107-105 Nuggets with 17 seconds to go. So this should have been an overtime game, or even a 1-point Hornets win in regulation, but everything is bouncing the Nugget's way these days, as they make up for some of the many games they really won but that went down as losses from earlier this season. The Hornets had three chances to tie or win the game and missed all three. Chris Paul missed a driving layup along the right baseline, Devin Brown fumbled a putback, and Bobby Jackson's 3-pointer from the right wing at the buzzer was way off.

So the Nuggets scrooged their way to yet another win, by the thinnest of margins. But since they lost so many games earlier by tiny amounts, they deserved this one and all of the other close wins they have gotten lately, didn't they? It's only fair. And don't get me started on how they lost 3 games due to David Stern's all-time biggest one-punch suspensions handed out to Melo and J.R. in December. In fact, the Nuggets have still lost at least five games more than they would have lost had things been bouncing their way half the time, and bouncing their opponents way the other half of the time. This means that the true underlying record of the Nuggets, poor coaching and all, is at least 48-31, which puts them right up there with the Rockets and the Jazz, in the second tier of the West, trailing only the first tier teams, the Mavs, the Suns, and the Spurs.

With Steve Blake playing great all of a sudden, the Nuggets at the moment have all five of their starters playing at the top of their games. Can any other team say that, including the Spurs? Well, actually the Spurs and the Suns can probably say that, so it may be out of the fire and into the frying pan when the Nuggets meet the Spurs in the playoffs. Blake led the Nuggets for 10 assists and he had 10 points on 5 of 11 shooting. George Karl brought out Yakhouba Diawara and Reggie Evens from the doghouse for a short time in the first quarter, but then changed his mind and rode his starters again for the whole rest of the game. There is probably no team in the NBA getting fewer minutes and fewer points from their bench than Denver, which means that the Nuggets are one injury to any of their starters, including Blake, from total self-destruction. The injury margin of safety is zero; even a minor injury to A.I., Melo, Camby, Nene, or Blake would most likely result in the Spurs winning every game over the Nuggets in the playoffs.

But George Karl, who may have perceived a threat to his job had the Nuggets not made the playoffs, and may in fact been secretly warned of that, went with these five with Kleiza in a supporting role from about the first of March on, and kept everyone else out of the picture. When all five finally learned how to play together like a well-oiled machine as of the 1st of April, this payed off at the last moment, just before the Nuggets dropped off the face of the playoffs and just before Karl would have dropped off the face of the basketball earth and would have had to go into hiding. And now that this has happened, it may be next to impossible to get that security blanket away from Mr. Karl.

So when you think of the Nuggets, and how the Nuggets might do against the Spurs, don't worry about what J.R. Smith or Reggie Evans or Diawara or DerMarr Johnson might contribute, because they most likely will play very little and will have alot of bench rust when they do play. So the Nuggets will stand or fall with fewer players than any other team in the playoffs, just six. Or six and a half, if you count Najera, with Najera counting as only 1/2 because he seldom if ever does much of anything offensively against tough defensive teams such as the Spurs. The Nuggets are not going to win any games with a surprise huge performance off the bench, if hardly anyone from off the bench is playing, whereas the Spurs very often win that way.

It would seem that relying only on your starters and Kleiza would be especially foolish when playing the Spurs, since they are a defensive powerhouse. Frequently, the only way to upset a top defensive team is to have someone that team is not worrying about defensively come off the bench and have a big night largely from the perimeter, but that is not going to happen here unless Karl has some bizarre plan in mind of using J.R. Smith as a kind of secret weapon, to be brought out on a rare occasion and used to try to shock the Spurs into defensively breaking down. If there is no such bizarre plan, and Karl really intends to keep J.R. on the bench for the Spurs series, then the only hope for the Nuggets may be to be blown out by the Spurs in the first two games, which may force him to play Smith rather he wants to or not.

Because if the Nuggets were to be bounced 4 games to none, Mr. Karl's huge doghouse of unused players would look very foolish and Karl himself would be in the doghouse of the Denver front office and probably also the doghouse of the owner. Now that the Nuggets have won 8 straight, which makes them on the surface anyway the hottest team in basketball, a 4-0 sweep by the Spurs now would be regarded as a complete failure and much of the blame would go on Mr. Karl if that were to happen. And a 4-1 Spurs win in the series would be almost as bad. At this point, the Nuggets would have to win at least 2 games against the Spurs in the series or Mr. Karl's scrooge-like coaching style will be considered a failure despite all these late season close wins.

Najera played 18 minutes and was 3/5 and 2/3 from the line for 8 points and he had 2 rebounds, 1 block, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Kleiza played 16 minutes and was 1/3 and 0/2 on 3's for 2 points, and he had 2 rebounds.

Blake played 39 minutes and was 5/11 and 0/1 on 3's for 10 points, and he had 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Nene played 37 minutes and was 6/9 for 12 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.

Camby played 34 minutes and was 6/10 and 3/4 from the line for 15 points, and he had 9 blocks, 11 rebounds, and 2 assists. Camby has run away from everyone else in the NBA for most blocks per game, and is averaging 3.3 blocks per game for the season, but more like 5 blocks per game since the all-star game. If he continues on this path, and averages 5 or more blocks per game against the Spurs, and the Nuggets pull the upset, then it will likely be the first playoff series in many years where the margin of victory was provided by a player who has mastered the extremely difficult skill of blocking a shot without fouling the player. You might see history in the making, so stay tuned.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 9/21, 1/3 on 3's, and 4/7 from the line for 23 points, and he had 7 assists and a steal.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 12/22, 2/6 on 3's, and 5/6 from the line for 31 points, and he had 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. Melo was an excellent 5/10 on jump shooting.

The next game will be Saturday, April 14 in Memphis to play the Grizzlies at 6 pm mountain time.

Nuggets Play at Very High Level in Win Over Jazz 115-106

The Nuggets took a 31-30 lead with 8 1/2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter when Yakhouba Diawara assisted Linas Kleiza on a three pointer, and led the whole rest of the way, although as usual they could not resist giving their fans a little scare at the end. In the end they soundly defeated the Jazz 115-106, and are in the playoffs with at least the seventh and more likely the sixth seed. The Nuggets had 24 points off fast breaks while the slumping Jazz managed to get only 10.

Since the horrible blowout in Phoenix on March 30 when most had thought that the inconsistent play, the huge roster changes, and the general craziness of the season had caused George Karl to lose his mind, the Nuggets have won 7 straight games. That should teach anyone to avoid making any predictions about this fundamentally unpredictable team. Since the all-star break, the Nuggets have crashed and burned, then flown high and steady, over and over again, in 6-7 game blocks. It appears that this winning streak has more substance behind it, because of the unprecedented offensive balance and attention to detail on defense but do not, if you are a Nuggets fan, make the mistake of making any generalizations or predictions. There is time for one more crash and burn, one that would get them routed out of the playoffs quickly. On the other hand, they might beat the Spurs 4 games to 2 if everything goes right. Just don't make a fool of yourself by making predictions, unless you are a very lucky guesser.

Trust me, I have been riding the Nuggets rollercoaster for months now, and you have to avoid predictions with this team at all costs. There are large negative forces with this team that can overwhelm the skills and basketball intelligence of this team at any time, making anyone who has claimed the Nuggets are on a par with the top teams in the League look like a fool. All you can say by way of a prediction is that watching this team is like watching a science fiction movie such as Star Wars. While their great skills are always with them, the forces of basketball evil, such as soft defense and too many turnovers, are very strong as well. And this is real life basketball and not a movie, and the forces of good do not always win in real life. I guess all teams have basketball good and basketball evil on them, but the Nuggets probably have more good and more evil than anyone, even more so than the Lakers.

The huge skills and new defensive hustle of these Nuggets have now resulted in their clinching at least 7th position in the West, so the Nuggets are going to have at least one playoff series despite all the upheaval, inconsistency in offensive quality, and generally poor defense of this season. Even given the great skills of the Nuggets starters, it took Iverson to put all the pieces together, and he was able to do so just in time, just before the season blew apart. Iverson was like the hero of an action movie with respect to the Nuggets season this year, working and scheming hard while the villains were getting ready to blow things up, and then overcoming the evil just in time before the explosion. Now everyone waits to see if Iverson can engineer something at least as impressive, a first round upset or at least a 7th game against the Spurs or the Suns, with the Spurs being more likely.

The Sixers came to take Allen Iverson for granted, while, after 2001, never being able to include on their team enough weapons to make them a serious contender. The Nuggets have weapons, so you might say that Iverson is now both dangerous and armed. Armed with Marcus Camby who blocks shots as if he was a hockey goalie on defense while avoiding the fouls that almost anyone else would get if they tried to do what he does. Armed with Nene, who with his post surgery knee pains under control, has become more and more of a defensive force inside, while becoming one of the more dependable layup, dunk, and tip-in forwards in the League right now. Even his hook shot and midrange jumper are improving. Armed with Kleiza, who started to see his long range jumpers fall about a month ago and is now often dangerous from that distance. Armed with Blake, who made a series of three-pointers in this game, who is 8 of 19 from long range in April, and whose huge minutes from George Karl, conservative shot selection, and shooting results during March and April have made him a more substantial problem for opponents to deal with. And armed with the Melo machine, whose jump shot has become phenominal this year and who has a virtual lock on 26-32 points a game. And finally there is the secret weapon of J.R. Smith, who George Karl has irrationally turned against and mostly refuses to play very much, but who is the best three point shooter and the best fast break generator on the team, and whose defense has markedly improved in the last six weeks.

These are alot of weapons for A.I., and the fact that he has a blunderbuss coach who does not manage games very well and whose decisions were turning wins into losses until recently is a surprisingly minor problem lately, since that coach loves smart guards who can make decisions on the court which cover up most coaching shortcomings and mistakes. Iverson covers up the mistake of playing Blake for too many minutes by playing the point himself so well, even when Blake is out there, and he partly makes up for the not playing J.R. Smith mistake by finding Kleiza and Blake for open threes, by slashing and crossing over in classic A.I. style to punch holes in defenses and scoring in ways that are kind of like fast breaks even though they are not officially fast breaks, and by making a few three-pointers himself. In fact, with the weapons at his disposal, and with much experience in the task, having to make up for coaching errors might bring out a better Iverson than you would get if the coach was making all the right moves. Iverson is nothing if not someone who responds to adversity well, and he aggressively tries to fill any gap and make up for any shortcoming that exists on the court at any time.

Iverson has learned rapidly and now knows what his new teammates can do and what they can not do, and what they like to do most and want space for, and what they want to do only in rough situations. When you have A.I. running things, it is like having your guitar tuned up by a professional; the music you can make afterwords is sweet indeed.

And the Nuggets were sweet against the Jazz, that is for sure. Melo had 32 points, Camby had 7 blocks and 12 rebounds, and Iverson had 12 assists, all in the same game. All of the Nugget's starters had 13 or more points, and the overall shooting was 38 of 71 made shots for a percentage of .535. With Steve Blake almost unable to miss any threes, making 4 of 5, and with Carmelo Anthony making 2 three pointers for only the sixth time this season, the Nuggets almost shot the lights out from long range despite the absence of J.R. Smith, and were 10 of 21 overall from that distance. Making three pointers against the Nuggets is usually like a walk in the park, and the Jazz made half of theirs, 7 of 14, but if Melo is going to start making some, if Blake is going to maintain his April level, if Kleiza is going to be a threat while having the sense to ramp it down when he is off, and if Iverson is going to be heard from as well, the Nuggets are going to have a walk in the park themselves sometimes against any team which concentrates only on Melo and Nene inside and underestimates the new perimeter shooting potential of the Nuggets.

I can just hear Popovich and the Spurs now: "The Nuggets?, we'll just shut down everything inside and be done with it." That could be a big whopper of a mistake, made even worse whenever the Nuggets get referees who have enough respect for the game to call most of the fouls instead of just some of them. For the second game in a row, the Nuggets drew a huge number of shooting fouls, and backed up their pinpoint shooting with a drubbing of their opponent from the free throw line. With Melo making a perfect dozen of them, the Nuggets made 29 of 33 free throws, while the Jazz made 9 of 13. Melo had 3 offensive fouls called against him and 5 fouls altogether, and Nene had 4 fouls, but the Nuggets as a whole had only 18 fouls, whereas the Jazz had 25. The fifth Melo foul was very late, and the foul trouble cost Melo only about 2 or 3 minutes of playing time.

The Nuggets led 55-48 at the half and then really went to town in the third, with every player on the court hitting shots. The Nuggets were 12 of 19 from the field in the quarter, and 5 of 7 on 3's. By the time Nene dunked it and drew a +1 foul from Matt Harpring with 1:47 left in the 3rd quarter, the Nuggets had built an 86-72 lead. After the Jazz closed the period with a 6-0 run, the Nuggets led 86-78 after 3 quarters.

In the fourth, the Nuggets answered a mini Jazz run that made the score 92-87 with a timeout, with some nice inside defending, and with two long jumpers from Melo, a 20-footer and a 24-foot three. With 3 minutes to play, and the Nuggets leading 107-99, Center Mehmet Okur sunk a three. Nene cleaned up a Blake shot that was blocked by PG Deron Williams, but then Carlos Boozer layed it in, so it was 109-104 Nuggets with 2:16 left. Then Iverson, who attempted six threes when he realized that Kleiza was not on fire and that J.R. Smith was not even present, missed a three, which was followed by a little jumper by Boozer, so now it was 109-106 with 1:40 to play. Then Melo was called for an offensive foul on Harpring, and long suffering Nuggets fans thought they were going to witness another 4th quarter collapse loss, with this one being especially outrageous. But Harpring missed an 18-foot jumper and Camby snagged his 12th rebound off that miss. Then Blake went to Nene, also known as the Bank of Brazil, who was cutting inside, for a layup, so it was 111-106 Nuggets with 50 seconds to go. Matt Harpring then turned it over with 40 seconds left and the Jazz, who most Nuggets fans think of as the Darth Vaders of basketball, were defeated.

Najera played 19 minutes and was 1/4 and 2/2 from the line for 4 points, and he had 3 rebounds and a block. Kleiza played 19 minutes and was 3/8, 2/6 on 3's, and 1/2 from the line for 9 points, and he had 2 assists. Blake played 35 minutes and was 5/8, 4/5 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 16 points, and he had 4 assists and 2 steals.

Nene played 36 minutes and was 7/8 and 5/6 from the line for 19 points, and he had 8 rebounds and a steal.

Camby played 38 minutes and was 6/8 and 1/1 from the line for 13 points, and he had 13 rebounds, 7 blocks, 2 steals, and an assist.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 7/16, 2/6 on 3's, and 6/8 from the line for 22 points, and he had 12 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal. His scoring was in the classic A.I. mode, with the two threes and two other long twos sunk.

Melo played for 38 minutes and was 9/19, 2/4 on 3's, and 12/12 from the line for 32 points, and he added 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Melo attempted alot of midrange jumpers in this one with good results.

The next game will be Friday, April 13 in Oklahoma City to play the Hornets at 6 pm mountain time.

Nuggets Beat Lakers With a Huge # of Free Throws 115-111

With Marcus Camby rejecting shots left and right, and with Melo, A.I.. Nene, and Najera drawing fouls left and right at the offensive end, the Nuggets as usual surrendered a 4th quarter lead, but they rallied themselves after a 13-2 Laker 4th quarter run, and closed relatively well at the very end of the game to defeat Kobe Bryant and the Lakers 115-111. It wasn't a totally fair fight, because the Lakers were playing a back to back on the road and the Nuggets were playing with a day off.

The Denver Coach's playing time allocations were a little better than in recent weeks, with J.R. getting almost 20 minutes, Blake kept almost within reason at 26 minutes, and Najera, back from a contusion, getting 26 minutes. Najera took and made 4 shots, so that he largely made up for the absence of Nene, whose minutes were reduced to 18.

Najera, in fact, had one of his best games of this season. He was so active on defense that he almost fouled out. He got his 5th foul with 9 minutes left in the game. Numerous players from both teams almost fouled out in this game, and PF Ronny Turiaf actually did foul out with 49 seconds left. The other Laker PF, Lamar Odom, who is the mainstay of the Laker front court, was called for his 5th foul and was taken out of the game with a minute and change left in the 3rd quarter, and he did not return until only 3:29 was left in the game. Meanwhile, Vladimir Radmanovic has been out since the all-star break with a shoulder separation from an injury on a Utah mountan. At the center position, Andrew Bynum, who started at center because Kwame Brown was out with a left ankle sprain, was called for his fifth foul half way through the 3rd quarter, and left the game and never returned to it. So the Lakers had their starting center out with an injury, the backup center out for most of the second half due to severe foul trouble, their second string power forward (Radmanovic) out with an injury, and both their starting and their sub power forward in serious foul trouble.

Overall, the Lakers were whistled for 33 fouls, whereas the Nuggets were called for 25 of them. The Nuggets had a feast at the free throw line; they made 39 of 49 free throws, whereas the Lakers made 20 of 29. Recently, Melo has gotten his share of calls, unlike as recently as January, and Iverson has been generally getting his fair share of calls for many years now. The Lakers had only 11 turnovers and the Nuggets had 16, but the avalanche of Laker fouls more than offset that. The Lakers had 10 steals and the Nuggets 7. Najera made 3 steals and Melo made 2. But the Lakers could not take advantage of all their steals and other Nuggets turnovers. In fact, the Nuggets outscored the Lakers on fast breaks 25-16. After a very odd struggle of a game on Friday night versus the Mavs and a somewhat defensive game on Saturday night against the Clippers, the Nuggets were mostly back to their running and gunning style in this game.

The devastation to the Laker front court was too severe for even Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson to make up for. While the Nuggets have had Kenyon Martin out for the season, and Camby and J.R. Smith out for numerous games, which has hurt bad, the Denver injury problems have been less severe than those of the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant may now have a large lead over Melo for the most points per game this season, but in this game, although he had 10 assists, his scoring touch mostly deserted him. Bryant respected the Nuggets inside defense more than he probably should have, and settled for jumpers all night, but could not make anywhere near enough of them to take the pressure off the other Lakers. Whereas Bryant had only 5 free throw attempts, Iverson had 9 and Melo had 16 attempts. Bryant made 7 of 25 jump shots, and he made 9 of 30 shots overall, for 23 points. Kobe Bryant is roughly what you would get if you blended Melo and A.I. together, a true multifaceted superstar.

In his postgame comments, Bryant said that the mysterious and unpredictable Nuggets are coming together and are really hot right now. Sorry though, he didn't go any farther than that. He didn't, for example, predict that the Nuggets would seriously challenge or defeat the Suns or the Spurs. Around the all-star break, Bryant also said that he thinks Melo is one of the very best up and coming basketball stars. That Bryant is a nice guy.

With all the foul sit-downs and injuries causing havoc, Phil Jackson extracted as much output from his remaining bench as possible, as 9 Lakers saw serious playing time. But there were no miracles from off the bench as there have been so often on Phil Jackson coached teams in the past. Many of Jackson's basketball strategies and tactics are more or less the opposite of those of George Karl, but in this game the injuries and the foul trouble were a one-two knock-out punch, and there were no explosions from off the bench, though Jackson threw everything but the kitchen sink on the court to try to get one. Whereas Jackson is proactive and flexible, and generally doesn't overreact if a player has a bad game, George Karl is reactive, more inflexible, and does overreact from time to time. Jackson has nine titles to Karl's none. But they say that every dog has his day.

Marcus Camby had 22 rebounds and Eduardo Najera had 9 as the Nuggets out rebounded the Lakers 49-39. Despite this, the Lakers scored 48 of their points in the paint, whereas the Nuggets had 40. Whereas Camby dominated the rebounding for the Nuggets, no one was the go-to rebounder for the Lakers. Odom and Bynum were getting called for fouls about as often as they were rebounding in the paint.

The Nuggets were leading 32-23 after the 1st quarter and 65-58 at the half. Half way through the 3rd, the Lakers were within 2, at 72-70, but then Melo made 3 of 4 shots and Iverson buried a 3, while at the other end of the court Camby was blocking and stealing and defending without getting even close to foul trouble. When Kleiza buried a 3-pointer with 2:49 left in the 3rd, it was 88-74 Nuggets. The Nuggets still led 104-95 half way through the 4th, but the Lakers closed quickly in the next two minutes as they were hitting most of their jump shots and the Nuggets were missing most of theirs. When SF Brian Cook made a three-point shot with 4:20 to go, the Lakers took the lead 105-104, and so the Nuggets were toying with their fans and tempting fate again. Cook made three long range shots in the quarter, but Bryant was still cold, the rest of the Lakers were either cold or cool, and Camby was still menacing anyone who went inside.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets got a huge Blake three after a series of passes around the perimeter, which got the the lead back. After that, they showed that they have graduated from Basketball 101, because they knew enough to go inside over and over again late in the 4th quarter, where they were repeatedly fouled by the now tired out Lakers. With the score 111-109 Nuggets with 30 seconds left, Cook missed a layup and Camby snagged the rebound. With 9 seconds left, a kicked ball of all things, by Sasha Vujacic, with only about 5 seconds left in the Nuggets shot clock, caused the shot clock to reset, whereupon the Lakers were now forced to foul, and Melo made one of two free throws, for 112-109 Nuggets with 9 seconds left. Anthony fouled Bryant with 8.3 seconds left before he could set up for a game-tying 3-pointer and Bryant sank both foul shots. Anthony was fouled on the inbounds and also sank both of his shots, giving Denver a 114-111 lead with 7 seconds left. Then Kobe Bryant had an open look for a left side three, but he rushed the shot a little and made it out of balance and the ball rattled out.

So the Nuggets fought hard and earned the win, but made it miserable for their fans anyway by allowing the Lakers back in. Kobe Bryant did not have enough gas in his tank to steal it from the Nuggets, who now have a 1 1/2 game lead over the Lakers for the 6th spot in the West.

Najera played 27 minutes and was 4/4 and 6/8 from the line for 14 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists. Kleiza played 25 minutes and was 6/9, 2/5 on 3's, and 3/3 from the line for 17 points, and he also had 2 rebounds and 1 assist. Blake played 26 minutes and was 3/7 and 1/2 on 3's for 7 points, and he had 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

J.R. Smith played 20 minutes and was 3/7, 1/4 on 3's, and 2/3 from the line for 9 points.

Nene played 18 minutes and was 1/1 and 6/8 from the line for 8 points, and he had 4 rebounds.

Camby played 39 minutes and was 1/9 and 1/2 from the line for 3 points, and he had 22 rebounds, 7 blocks, 3 assists, and a steal.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 8/22, 1/5 on 3's, and 7/9 from the line for 24 points, and he had 5 assists, and 2 rebounds.

Melo played 38 minutes and was 9/19, 1/4 on 3's, and 14/16 from the line for 33 points, and he had 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals.

The next game will be Wednesday, April 11 in Salt Lake City to play the Jazz at 7 pm mountain time.

A.I. Leads the Nuggets & They Get a Lucky Win over Clippers 96-93

Using Coach George Karl's strategy lock, stock, and barrel, the Nuggets played good defense at times and defeated the Clipper's attempt to take the 7th slot in the West and leave the 8th and last spot to the Nuggets, 96-93. Instead, the Nuggets earned the tie breaker with respect to the Clippers, and they even tied the Lakers for the 6th slot, as both the Nuggets and the Lakers found themselves with records of 40-36. The bipolar Nuggets have continued to take their fans on a big, season long rollercoaster ride. They have now won 5 straight after losing 5 of 6, after winning 5 straight, after losing 6 of 8, all since the all-star break. And the rollercoaster was just as dizzying before the all-star break. So almost every Nuggets fan is dizzy and has been fooled over and over into being too negative after the big losing streaks and too positive after the big winning streaks.

Make no mistake, it was Allen Iverson making the most of George Karl's strategy and not the strategy itself that won this game. The Clippers had the Nuggets beat at several points, but by obsessively double and even triple covering Melo, thus disrespecting the most intelligent and the 1st or 2nd best scoring guard in the NBA, the Clippers handed the keys to A.I., who took them and their 7th slot hopes for a ride. The Clippers apparently did not get the memo informing everybody that Melo has agreed to George Karl's shot limitation strategy, so that Melo is not available anymore to totally dominate the Nuggets scoring with his midrange jumpers, dunks, and free throws, as he did so often before when he lifted the Nuggets out of the NBA cellar. The Clippers were caught living in the past. Iverson, who to Karl's credit is considered untouchable by Karl, and not subject to any limitations in advance, took full advantage of his total freedom from Karl and from the mistaken Clipper defense, and exploded in the fourth quarter and stole the game from the Clippers, who were caught like a deer blinded by the headlights of a car and unable to move from the middle of the road.

The Clippers led 31-26 at the end of the 1st quarter and 52-46 with 10 seconds left in the 2nd but Steve Blake, who is normally a scrooge's best friend offensively, because you can't miss if you don't shoot, did take some shots in this game for a change and made 4 of 8 for 10 points. And he made a 23-foot 3-pointer from the left corner baseline near the halftime buzzer, so it was 52-49 Clippers at the half.

It was 64-64 with 4:26 to go in the 3rd, but PF Elton Brand took control and almost single handedly produced a 10-0 Clipper run, so it was 74-64 with 1:35 left in the 3rd. The Nuggets were turning it over and missing jump shots at the time. Had the Clippers cancelled their obsession on stopping Anthony at that point, and worried more about Iverson, they would have won, but they didn't, and so they paid the price that you have to pay when you are made a total fool by underestimating the Answer. With the Clippers leading 80-72 with 8 1/2 minutes to play, the Nuggets had a possession that combined the Karl approach and the genius of Iverson all in one sequence. After Center Chris Kamen blocked Melo at the Hoop, Kleiza, the only man who has lived in George Karl's doghouse and lived to tell about it, hustled for the rebound, knew enough to not try an out of position shot, and got the ball to Blake, who found the relatively open Iverson out on the center-right perimeter, and A.I. buried the 25-footer for three. Kamen was on a blocking outburst, and finished with 5 blocks, the same number as Camby, who leads the NBA in blocking. And Kamen blocked Kleiza's layup attempt the next time down.

A Blake steal and another A.I. jumper made it 80-77 Clippers with 7:32 to play. Then Camby had a key block on Brand, but Melo, who had 15 in the 1st half but only 8 points in the 2nd as the Clippers persisted in alot of double coverage on him, had an offensive foul and then a missed jumper, whereupon Iverson made a driving layup for 83-80 Clippers with 5:13 to go. After each team missed two jump shots, Iverson buried another three to tie the game with 4 minutes to go. Then PG Jason Hart made a jumper and Melo answered with a driving dunk.

With starting veteran PG Sam Cassell out with back spasms, the Clippers were even more heavily dependent on the heart and soul of their team, the SF Corey Maggette and the PF Elton Brand, then they usually are, and it was Brand who finally attempted to thwart Iverson and take the 7th seed in the West away from the Nuggets. After center Chris Kamen was blocked by Camby, Brand tipped the ball in to make it 87-85 Clippers with 2:29 to go. Then Brand went after the real problem for the Clippers, and got a steal off of Iverson, after which he fed Maggette for the slam dunk and 89-85 Clippers with 2:13 to go. Then George Karl called a timeout to try to ice the Clipper run and maybe talk some strategy, something which he does substantially less often than every opposing coach in every game I can recall.

Kamen fouled Melo, who made both free throws, and then made a turnaround hook shot for 91-87 Clippers with 1:43 to go. Overall though, Kamen, who likes to jump shoot like Camby, finished with just 12 points on 4 of 13 shooting. Next, Iverson made another finger roll on a drive, and then the Clippers used 15 seconds of their shot clock being hounded by the hounds of Denver, before calling a 20-second. But after the timeout it was just more hounding for the Clippers, and the SG Cuttino Mobley jumper with the shot clock expiring was an air ball. Then Iverson made a 16-foot jumper from the outer right corner of the paint, and the Clipper's lead was gone with 57 seconds to go; it was tied at 91 each.

Then Brand cleaned up a Maggette layup by laying it in himself for 93-91 Clippers with 43 seconds left. Then with 25 seconds left, Kleiza missed an ill-advised 16-foot midrange jump shot from the right side about 6 feet from the baseline, and he was now 0 of 8 from the field, and Karl's strategy was up in flames and the Clippers had survived their Melo obsession. But wait, hold the phones. The Kleiza rim clanger ball was touched by a Clipper before it went out of bounds, and the Nuggets had one more chance. Kleiza retired to the deep right corner 4 feet off the baseline and Melo, following that old-time Karl religion, passed to the 0 of 8 Kleiza rather than attempting to drive to the hoop, and in one of the least likely shots of the entire season, Kleiza hit the 24-foot 3-pointer for 94-93 Nuggets with 15 seconds to go. Then with 6 seconds left, in a play right out of George Karl's dreams, Melo stripped Maggette and Camby scooped it up and kicked it out to A.I., who was intentionally fouled and made both free throws. Everyone was now living in a George Karl dream.

So the Clippers, who finished with 18 turnovers while the Nuggets had 17, choked late, were torched by Iverson who they foolishly underestimated, and were the victims of plain old bad luck on the out of bounds off the Kleiza rim clanger. Had they made one fewer mistake, or had they gained possession off the Klieza miss with 25 seconds left and leading by two, they most likely would have won. So this win makes up for one of the many Nuggets wins that officially went down as losses.

Just when you thought things could not get more tricky and confusing with regard to the Nuggets, things have gotten more tricky and even more confusing, as the Nuggets, pushed by their coach and their inconsistent offense, heavy turnovers and 4th quarter collapses, are now starting to think of themselves as a more defensive oriented team. The stronger and stronger play of Nene, the continued skilled defense of Camby, and the decisions of Melo and J.R. to commit defensively, have also pulled the Nuggets in the direction of defending more, defending better, and thinking about defense almost as much as thinking about scoring in a game.

But there is some danger here that the Nuggets will go too far, and sacrifice too many fast breaks and too much scoring in their new found pursuit of the Ben Wallace award. There is no way the basic character of an NBA team can be transformed on the fly during the season. If the Nuggets were to go off the deep end and actually try to win games only with defense, it would almost certainly result in big losses to the top teams of the West. The 75-71 win over Dallas the other night was a big defensive effort, but it was made possible by extra bad shooting on the part of the Mavs, by Avery Johnson having his game strategy blown to pieces by the never seen before style of the Nuggets, and by Nowitzki's failure to adjust on the fly by driving to the hoop more.

As soon as Johnson and the other coaches of the top teams are aware that the Nuggets might try to win on defense, which has probably already happened as we speak, they will have a plan B strategy ready as soon as they see the Nuggets hounding on defense, which will involve more passing to find the open man, more drawing of fouls to get Nene and maybe Melo into foul trouble, and more changes of pace resulting in more fast breaks. If you force Nene, Melo, or Camby to sit with foul trouble, something which has hardly happened at all this season, you will have the Nuggets on the ropes.

But Nuggets fans should enjoy this lucky win that was produced by A.I., but came right out of the dreams of George Karl.

Kleiza played 21 minutes and was 1/8 and 1/3 on 3's for 3 points, and he had 3 rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Najera played 21 minutes and was 4/6 and 1/2 from the line for 9 points, and he had 3 rebounds and a steal.

Steve Blake played 35 minutes and was 4/10 and 2/5 on 3's for 10 points, and he had 9 assists, 3 rebounds, and a steal.

J.R. Smith played 11 minutes and was 1/3 and 0/2 on 3's for 2 points, and he had 2 rebounds.

Nene played 28 minutes and was 4/4 and 3/4 from the line for 11 points, and he had 7 rebounds, a block, and an assist.

Camby played 37 minutes and was 2/7 for 4 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 assists, and 2 steals.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 9/18, 1/1 on 3's, and 4/7 from the line for 23 points, and he had 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 12/19, 3/4 on 3's, and 7/10 from the line for 34 points, and he also had 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal. A.I. is in the classic scoring A.I. mode these days, meaning that his jump shots are falling seemingly like magic; aside from making 3 of 4 from long range, he made 7 of 12 midrange jumpers.

The next game will be Monday, April 9 in Denver to play the Lakers at 7 pm mountain time.