I don't want to beat a dead horse and talk about how the Nuggets beat the Celtics, Hawks twice, Spurs, Suns, Hornets, Charlotte and Jazz. These were lopsided victories mind you, still getting it together I'm sure. Lets not go there and discuss how the Orlando Magic narrowly escaped or how the Miami Heat were biting their fingernails in the closing seconds of that game in Miami. Wait....I guess we are talking about, sorry...
In comparing their schedule to L.A's, did anyone think the Lakers could go 11-4, playing these teams on their schedule? They played like crap before the break, so I didn't. 10-6, 11-5 and I was giving them the benefit of the doubt because they were champions. That's not at all knocking them short, but their schedule was tough. The Lakers are a stellar 14-1 since the break with victories over Charlotte, Spurs, Portland twice, Phoenix, Orlando, Dallas and Oklahoma City. If the Nuggets would have won those two close games at their opponent's buildings... I would say with out a doubt, because of their scheduled opponents, that the Nuggets were playing as good, if not better basketball then the Lakers since the break.....With no Melo Yellow.
Things I noticed last night. I'm not getting to yuppity about a win versus a Spurs team with no Tim Duncan either, please don't accuse me of that. Its basically the body language and the things they were doing to the Spurs that made me realize they reminded me of one old western conference championship team from years past that I'm quite familiar with. Their defense last night held the Spurs to 3 point shooting the whole night, I couldn't believe a Greg Popavich coached team was shooting that many 3's and he wasn't killing anyone. Playing them straight up without Duncan was pretty much a "wash" and the Spurs tried to challenge the Nuggets to their strengths which is up and down, speed for speed and 3 point shooting. What they didn't figure was FRIGGING OLD SUPER SONIC TRAPPING!!!
Somewhere I hope Gary Payton was watching that...Somewhere I hope Shawn Kemp, hopefully sitting on the couch with one of his 100 kids was watching that...I did, it brought a tear of joy to my eye seeing those old traps again. It was the exact tool that gave positive meaning to the word "The Glove" to Gary Payton, instead of negatively being a term to describe O.J Simpson. I was smiling. You guys robbed the bank with that trade, won the lottery, sign Nene this summer and this team is good for the next 4 years. This is basically the 2004 Detroit Pistons with the old Seatle Supersonic playbook. It was a team built like this, that beat the Lakers. Awesome job last night.
