Denver Nuggets (46-29) @ Los Angeles Lakers (55-20)

[The Rebel]

Where was Melo when the Lakers needed him?

Hurtling down the stretch, with San Antonio's 8 1/2 -game lead at the All-Star break reduced to 1½, and one in the loss column. . . .

Never mind.

A funny thing happened on the Lakers' way to that big April 12 showdown with the Spurs here.

The Spurs won Sunday, ending their six-game losing streak.

The Lakers lost . . . at home . . . to the new, improved post-Carmelo Anthony Denver Nuggets, ending their nine-game winning streak.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketbal ... 962.column

[Staruk]

Rebel, remember how all you did for month's is tell us how much the Knick pieces suck? Trash...bums...non-starters on any other team etc.

[el loco]

Rebel, remember how all you did for month's is tell us how much the Knick pieces suck? Trash...bums...non-starters on any other team etc.

Staruk, remember how for months before the trade happened all of the Knicks trolls that came on this board and said the Nuggets will take this crappy offer or get nothing because the Knicks hold all of the leverage, etc...

[Doomsta]

^^^ After he made the tip in, he went down the sideline after the Lakers called a timeout trash talking Laker fans. Breen tried to make a big deal out of it, but Jackson and Van Gundy basically shut him up by saying if they were Kmart they would have done the same thing. Felton, Gallo, Chandler, and JR (JR ran off of the bench) all ran over and gave him a chest bump.

I have been pretty rough on Felton since the trade, but the man played himself a solid 2nd half for the Nuggets, he hit some pretty big buckets down the stretch. Heck, several Nuggets made solid contributions in the 4th quarter, Kmart stole the show at the end though

lmao thats a sig material wilson left hanging in there #swag

[Doomsta]

just saw the power rankings on nba.com
nuggets sitting pretty at five
seems like they are getting the recognition they been deserving for a while now

[Staruk]

^^^ After he made the tip in, he went down the sideline after the Lakers called a timeout trash talking Laker fans. Breen tried to make a big deal out of it, but Jackson and Van Gundy basically shut him up by saying if they were Kmart they would have done the same thing. Felton, Gallo, Chandler, and JR (JR ran off of the bench) all ran over and gave him a chest bump.

I have been pretty rough on Felton since the trade, but the man played himself a solid 2nd half for the Nuggets, he hit some pretty big buckets down the stretch. Heck, several Nuggets made solid contributions in the 4th quarter, Kmart stole the show at the end though

lmao thats a sig material wilson left hanging in there #swag

Oh man...this is uncomfortable to watch...LOL...

Poor kid still shows no emotion...Come on Will, get in his face and demand a fist bump or something.

[corona]

Rebel, remember how all you did for month's is tell us how much the Knick pieces suck? Trash...bums...non-starters on any other team etc.

yea.....when the trolls offer was like "lulz....you take randolph, curry, and chandler or the knicks will just get melo in the summer and cruise to a title and you'll be left with nothing....lulz"

chandler's been a better defender than i expected, and about equal everywhere else. he started the season averaging 20/10, and we were told he would continue those numbers and he alone was worth melo.
gallo's been too inconsistent, but has potential to be pretty darn good. his ability to drive has been a surprise....because he never showed he was capable of doing that consistently in new york.
felton's been about what i expected. don't like the floaters he throws up, but a solid p&r player....and he and lawson have a knack for working together well.

it's the way the team fits together, the way kenyon's taken over the leadership role and holds everyone accountable defensively, the way they're all accepting the challenge and doing what the coaching staff asks that's making them win.....it's not really the knicks players being so much greater than we expected them to be. their PERs are actually down a combined 5 points, and they've missed a combined 14 games.

[corona]

just saw the power rankings on nba.com
nuggets sitting pretty at five
seems like they are getting the recognition they been deserving for a while now

http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/powerrankings
#3 in hollingers power rankings

http://espn.go.com/nba/powerrankings
#3 in marc stein's power rankings

http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/playoffodds
24% finals
13% champs

[The Rebel]

Rebel, remember how all you did for month's is tell us how much the Knick pieces suck? Trash...bums...non-starters on any other team etc.

I also said the only way I would do a deal with the Knicks was if they gave up Gallinari, Mozgov, Chandler, and either a 1st or Randolph, plus the Nuggets would not take back Curry's deal. I also repeatedly said that the Nuggets should trade Chauncey for a younger backup PG and cap relief. so in other words I said it would take less then it took for the Knicks to get Melo, as they got all that plus a couple of 2nd round picks and depending on who you listen too they also may have a pick swap option in 2016. Honestly i would think that Knicks fans would be hiding from this board at this point, considering the offers and arguments that many tried to make on here.

By the way I have acknowledged that Gallinari was better at finishing and defense then I thought, and that Felton has also been better then I thought. Mozgov in his limited minutes, and chandler is his time have been exactly who I thought they were.

[Doomsta]

just saw the power rankings on nba.com
nuggets sitting pretty at five
seems like they are getting the recognition they been deserving for a while now

http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/powerrankings
#3 in hollingers power rankings

http://espn.go.com/nba/powerrankings
#3 in marc stein's power rankings

http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/playoffodds
24% finals
13% champs

wow nice too see nugs getting some love, i would not put them in third just yet, but i truly believe they can make to WCF at least depending mostly on the matchup

[DEEP3CL]

Tough loss for my boys yesterday, but I'd rather have it to a playoff team and one that was just as hot as we were than some team that's had vacation plans made since early March.

What's up to my boy el loco !

Hey Loco, you know I told you about a month ago that your boys was the most dangerous team. Yesterday confirmed my theory. Good luck the rest of the way, gotta feeling we'll see you guys down the road.

[mcmurphy]

Only second defeat of the season when the Lakers are ahead at half game at home... the other defeat against Boston when LA was up of 4 points (not of 7 points) and after a streak of not good play games (3-3 instead of 9-0)

so the big win of Denver even greater

[The Rebel]

I wasn't going to say much about the game, as it was a great game, and I would rather the Nuggets show what they can do on the court, as opposed to talking about how good they are, but some of the crap from the east coast media, and posters throughout realgm are really starting to bug the **** out of me.

The Nuggets went into the game without their starting SG, and missing their 3rrd big, the Lakers were healthy but choose to sit Bynum for the last few minutes of the 4th. How is it that Bynum being out for a few minutes is an supposed reason for the Lakers losing, while the Nuggets get no extra credit for missing 2 key players?

The Lakers needed that game as much if not more then the Nuggets did, they played their asses off, and even with a couple of their guys having bad games, the Nuggets had plenty that played like crap as well. It is not like the Nuggets all played perfect games and the Lakers did not show up, the Nuggets just outplayed them for one day. The Nuggets are a top defensive team in the league since the trade, could it be that the Lakers struggles had to do with that defense, just like some of the Nuggets struggles were due to the Lakers defense.

everybody talks about how the Nuggets style does not win in the playoffs? since when does defense not win in the playoffs? Sundays game was as close to a playoff style game as they have had since the trade, not only did the pace slow but both teams played physical tough defense, and stayed in the Lakers style, yet the Nuggets used their defense to win.

The other common theme running around is that the Nuggets cannot afford to keep all their players for next year. What? They have the 2nd most cap room in the league, and can resign Afflalo, Chandler, JR, and Kmart to more then fair contracts, while still having room under the tax to use part of their TPE or the MLE to add any other player that they want, money is not the issue. They only have to move players who want out or that they feel do not have a long term future with the team.

People love to talk about the 20 game mark as a mark to show how good a team really is, right now the Nuggets are 15-4 over their last 19, I would say that is close enough to the 20 game mark to say we have one heck of a team in Denver, even if the idiots on the national networks, and some of the ignorant posters on the general board refuse to believe it after only seeing one game from them.

[DrewBynum77]

rebel, you as a mod more than anyone else should know the GB is troll paradise. Don't take them serious.

Anyway, I believe people think too light of the nuggets because more than anything else they underrated nuggets players. They thoughts nuggers were like the Lebron's cavs... I think even Melo underrated his teammates... If he was willing to play "proper bball" (AKA defend and share the ball) nuggets would be a championship material team.

He should have made the WCF last year if he kept playing the way he did once Billups joined the team and I believe this year the team was even better than the 2008-09 team. Obviously Chauncey got older and his D dropped a lot but still this team was better than the team that made WCF.

09 -> Billups - Danhtay - Carmelo - Martin - Nene | Bench --> Carter, KLEIZA, JR, Andersen;
11 -> Billups - Affalo - Carmelo - Martin - Nene | Bench --> Lawson, JR, Andersen, Harrington;


Affalo is a HUGE improvement over Danhtay Jones and Nene is having his career season. 09 Billups is considerably better than the '11 Billups but the difference is negligible because his back up improved. Lawson is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than Carter.

Martin and Carmelo are basically the same players so... The fact that Nuggets didn't make to the finals last year was on 'melo for not playing the way he did one year before. The fact this team was not contending for the #1 seed this year was also on 'melo for the melodrama (pun intended). Simple as that.

Don't get me wrong, the "knuggets" were also underrated because they were on the shadows of Amar'e... People thought Amar'e was the one "making them good" (lol at the conception of STAT making anyone look good, haha) while in reality they are a bunch of young players with big upside.

Still, I bet Melo will regret his decision in the long run. He had a real CONTENDER on his hands he just needed to do his part and LEAD HIS TEAM TO THE TITLE as the superstars should do... And by that I don't mean he should score 50 points per game in the playoffs, he needed to play on both ends of the floor and let his teammates shine too, make the team play like a team the same way they did 2 years before...

They just lost to the champions in 6 games... Big effin deal. Nuggets would've beat that Magic team...

But he made his choice... Gotta live with that...

I think Nuggets fans should not hate or even dislike him for that, If he was a snake he would have done to Denver what LeQuit did to Cavs... Nuggets had no leverage until Anthony pressured the Knicks on the press saying he wanted the extension.

Denver got real value for him, Knicks got him, he and his wife hot the spotlights in NY so everyone is good...

(I went a bit OT I suppose )

[el loco]

Tough loss for my boys yesterday, but I'd rather have it to a playoff team and one that was just as hot as we were than some team that's had vacation plans made since early March.

What's up to my boy el loco !

Hey Loco, you know I told you about a month ago that your boys was the most dangerous team. Yesterday confirmed my theory. Good luck the rest of the way, gotta feeling we'll see you guys down the road.

You called it, they have turned out to be a better road team then I thought they would be, which is a good thing.