Cleveland @ Denver Game Report (with a dash of Indiana)

SIM drove down and we watched the Indiana game in a bar. True to his name and his nature, he studied throughout the game. Not even gentle harassment from a marginally attractive watiress could get him to look up from his equations. But then, he's from Boulder: you should see the underaged hippie chicks this dude pulls. It's sick.

Anyway, I was working on a pretty good buzz at the time, but I wasn't impressed. A bunch of shots started falling for cats like Khouba, Kleiza, and JR in the second half, and Indiana stopped playing above their heads. They are who we thought they were. I didn't see any great defense.

But, while the game wasn't a monument to great basketball, it seems to have carried some symbolic weight. Which, in a long season that's often near-meaningless, might be more important than a simple W. The players and the coaches have been rallying around that second half, all of them keenly aware that this team needs to forge an identity. Symbols matter. They're like pieces of your heart you can see.



Case in point: This Cavs game.

So that's what the Nuggets' shadowy front office had in mind? Okay. I can get with that.

The second and third quarters of tonight's contest were the best basketball this team has played all year. The team that showed up tonight would dominate any team that they've faced yet, with the exception of Boston, who they'd take down to the wire. I'm telling you.

The Good: Defense. Everyone--Melo, JR, Camby, every damn body--played with both brains and effort. When the game's outcome was still in question--the first three quarters basically--every

Bobby Jones is a playmaker. I know that's a football term, but that's what he is. Nose for the ball. All the physical tools to bother damn near anyone on defense. I stand by my Fast Najera assessment, but he's better one-on-one already than Eddie. He can play a little offense, too, but he's letting it come to him. Smart kid. Could be starting by the All-Star break, the way things are going.

Unless JR keeps his head straight. Which it suddenly is. Somehow. I mean, shit, he's playing the POINT and I'm only cringing on about a quarter of the possessions. He's playing defense like a man, passing it cuz he trusts his teammates to get it back to him. I love it. My personal preference is to keep him as a spark off the bench. I still don't trust he and Melo's tendencies toward defensive

That all swingmen and tweeners lineup of JR, LK, Melo, Ed, and Bobby was sick. The Nugs might be the most athletic team in the league. If everyone hustles and, more importantly, covers for each other's mistakes, they'll be a top five defensive team. There are many kinds of discipline. It doesn't always look like Sergeant Pop and Timmy-D. It doesn't have to.

Kenyon got no numbers, but he was huge, as he's been all season, on both sides of the floor. His hands and his touch aren't back yet on offense, but he's the leader on defense. To draw a shitty analogy, he's the unheralded offensive line, winning games in the trenches. Buy the man a watch.

You know what's funny? I've been hating on the Chucky Atkins signing since it was a glimmer in Bearup's beady black eyes, but one thing a team like this could use is a savvy point guard who makes all his shots and doesn't turn it over. Point to the Co-Op.



Melo boarded and defended hard, but laid back on offense a little and we won. Can't remember that happening before. So there was lots of good. AI should also be mentioned, but yall should read the box score yourself.

The Bad: Uh, Melo didn't get thirty? Seriously, anyone who knows HyTop knows that HyTop is a glass half empty motherfucker, but this game was nice.



(TUESDAY MORNING EDIT: The fast break does look a little sloppy. Lots of long passes flying over cats' heads and stuff. Stupid turnovers. This can be attributed partially to the fact that the team is still figuring out what they can and can't do (no Dre Miller to figure it out for all of them anymore) and to the fact that there's no point guards on the active roster, with the half-exception of Iverson. I'd rather have a turnover on an attempted fast break lob then Melo or JR getting charges when they try to break down the defense 1 on 5 off the dribble. I don't mind these kinds of turnovers for the first part of the season.)

So, after the win, they still talk about the Indiana game, cuz they need a turning point. People don't just change: they need a moment to hang it on, that time the picked up the Bible in the hotel room or that time they slapped their girl. Something important, burned into your brain, that's what does it, what sets it off. Or CAN do it, at least. Now they've got that, if they want it.

So now the question becomes: Is this a new beginning or a cover up? We shall see.