You people think I'm pessimistic. You think I love to worry, love to suffer, secretly love pain. I love none of those things. My problem is simple: I have a good relationship with my eyes. They never deceive me.
This San Antonio game is why I considered a 14-8 team (going into the game) a failure. They made it look so easy. San Antonio is pretty much all old guys now. Even Ginobili rocks the bald spot. Tony Parker is their young legs, and he was out.
What do they do? Carve the Nuggets up. With the same shit they've been doing for almost a decade. Halfcourt defence. Three-point shooting. Crisp ball movement. That's it. That's what they do.
Yeah, Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward ever. He was hobbling, didn't want the ball, sat out most of the second half. Let Oberto take over, Timmy said. And Fab fucking did. Ow.
The Nuggets don't defend the perimeter very well, and are especially weak closing out on three-point shooters. Brent Barry. Swish. Mike Finley. Swish. Bruce Bowen. Swish. Horry threw up some hilarious bricks to lighten the mood.
Offensively, no one on the Nugs can throw a proper entry pass (RIP ANDRE MILLER). So the Spurs doubled Melo hard, all night, sometimes even without the ball. He didn't do shit. They let AI do what he wanted. Guess what: AI's been doing that for a decade. No tan lines on his fingers. Makes you think. Or it oughta.
Bright spot: BOBBY JONES YALL. I was on this cat before Hastings had looked at the roster. HE MAKES PLAYS YALL. He's a football player out there, herky-jerky and awkward, but always around the ball. Play the man!
Portland.
This hurts less, cause Portland was making any crazy bullshit they threw up there. One of those games. The Outlaw kid is filthy. Stevie Blake got his. Brandon Roy is savvy. Pryzbilla swatted our best player.
Melo got pissed and started working really hard on the boards. Got a bunch of fouls called for his trouble. Then, when he'd get the ball, he'd dribble off his foot or get his shot blocked. Melo's on some kind of NBA Live system, where he has only a certain number of points to distribute. When he puts it into Effort, his Skills all deteriorate. When he plays half-assed, all his jumpers are wet, his passes are crisp. Goofy.
I do take issue with Coach on one defensive strategy. Why the fuck were Roy and Jack, two relatively quick perimeter players, being guarded by bigs all fucking night long? Seriously, Brandon Roy (aka Portland's best player) saw Kleiza, Najera, and then K-Mart in crunch time. Those guys are all decent to excellent defenders, but THEY ARE BIG MEN. THEY ARE NOT EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH CROSSOVERS AND HESITATION DRIBBLES. They did the best they can. Roy got layups, Jack got layups, mid-range jumpers were falling.
Meanwhile, HyTop fave Bobby Jones (who played with Roy in college and probably has an idea of what he can do) and Khouba Diawara (who I don't much like, but who can defend the perimeter) sitting on the bench in sweatpants.
IN CONCLUSION:
We're watching the same team as last year. And the year before. Solid in the regular season. Wait til they put together a big winning streak, get a nice Sportscenter segment. Denver's all smiles. Roll into the playoffs, and suddenly they don't speak the language. A mansion built on sand.
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