what I didn't see in game 1

[Slava]

I still think K-mart defending Kobe was the smartest thing George Karl did with his game plan. Leaving Carter or JR on Kobe, they'd be looking at a 20 point deficit by half time and given the attitude of their players when playing against such odds, they'd have imploded very soon.

They had to run zone for a majority of possessions but they can't mix it up with anything else either and given how smart Phil and Kobe are to be making adjustments on the fly in playoffs, we'd still have pressured them on the other end to get more opportunities on the break.

The Nuggets revival needs to start with AI and Melo setting up teammates first so that everyone is interested in playing committed defense.

[Sedale Threatt]

-= original quote snipped =-

Okay, I lied. One last post. we have perimeter defenders. Diawara is a pretty good lock down defender. He gave Chris Paul fits in a game against the Hornets early in the year. Bobby Jones can stay in front of his man, and of course we have Nogo Hilario who doesn't seem to want to play again. The first two mentioned are offensive liabilities and don't have much of a handle. When healthy or when he decides to play, Nene can be a beast. But, I don't like to use him as an excuse because you are missing an equal/better talent in Bynum, so I look at it as them cancelling one another out.

Nene is a big loss for you guys. When he's healthy and in shape, he's a total load. He'd probably be licking his chops at the thought of posting up on Gasol.

But look at the other two guys you're talking about -- they hardly play, do they? For the reasons you mentioned (I don't know much about them) I have to assume they'd be negatives in the long run.

[Sedale Threatt]

I still think K-mart defending Kobe was the smartest thing George Karl did with his game plan. Leaving Carter or JR on Kobe, they'd be looking at a 20 point deficit by half time and given the attitude of their players when playing against such odds, they'd have imploded very soon.

They had to run zone for a majority of possessions but they can't mix it up with anything else either and given how smart Phil and Kobe are to be making adjustments on the fly in playoffs, we'd still have pressured them on the other end to get more opportunities on the break.

The Nuggets revival needs to start with AI and Melo setting up teammates first so that everyone is interested in playing committed defense.

That's a great, great point. As outstanding as Iverson and Anthony are, their style of play doesn't really do much to foster the cohesiveness needed to play good defense. They don't play off of each other, and they don't really do much to make the game easier for their teammates. Everything is isolation and one-on-one for their own benefit.

On a side note, it really stood out yesterday what an average, if not poor, man on man defender Camby is. I know he was scrambling for much of the day trying to cover for his teammates, but I never got the sense he was going to be able to stop Gasol. I think Pau can take him all day long, all series long.

[el loco]

-= original quote snipped =-



Nene is a big loss for you guys. When he's healthy and in shape, he's a total load. He'd probably be licking his chops at the thought of posting up on Gasol.

But look at the other two guys you're talking about -- they hardly play, do they? For the reasons you mentioned (I don't know much about them) I have to assume they'd be negatives in the long run.

Early in the year we started Yak Diawara and had our best winning streak of the season with him as a starter. Many Denver faithful are crying for us to strart him in this series. He really isn't anymore of an offensive liability then Carter and he even strokes the 3 at a lot better clip. he is 6'7" has no handle what-so-ever, but he can lock down just about anyone he is put on in limited minutes. Bobby Jones is about the same but a little smaller version and maybe a little better handle. It would make a trap on Iverson pretty easy, which might force a lot of turnovers and that is why I think GK doesn't try it, but that is just my opinion on why he doesn't go to it.

[dockingsched]

not only was camby a bad man defender, he was an over aggressive help defender. he left pau open time and time again when help was in no position to come over to pau. he goes for blocks he has no business attempting. now i see what nuggets fans have always claimed, camby is an overrated defender.

[el loco]

Camby has always been a terrible man defender and he tends to disapear against people his size (soft). I think if you go back to a regular season game that we played against you, and I am not positive on this, but I do believe that Chris Mihm had a huge game against Camby.

Camby is weird and difficult to gauge because he takes games off and then all of a sudden out of nowhere he looks like the greatest defensive player on earth.

[milesfides]

I really would hesitate to make too much out of one game. Didn't the Lakers have the Suns all figured out, on the ropes, before the Suns won three in a row to eliminate us?

Anyways, Camby had 4 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, 4 turnovers. That is not indicative of Camby's usual production or impact on the game.

He's averaged nearly double the rebounds, and nearly double the blocks, 13 and 3.6 for the season.

Heck, back in January, Camby had 18 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 0 turnovers, 3 blocks, and 3 steals against us. They still lost, but it sure as heck wasn't due to Camby (In fact, Fisher and Farmar lit it up from the perimeter to get us the W).

Either Camby just had a bad game, or he's rapidly declined. But that's not indicative of what kind of player he was for his career, at least not in my humble opinion.

[Erik Eleven]

In Denver's defense, the Lakers played some of the most brilliant passing offense I've seen in the NBA for years. I wouldn't be too hard on Camby. No personal defensive effort can stop a well greased offense.

It'll be very tough for Denver to win this. However, I won't count the wins until they're actually won. But I'll start doing that as soon as they start playing defense at the same level as their offense.