(Boulder-CO) History is not on the side of the Denver Nuggets tonight in game five. The San Antonio Spurs have clinched playoff series in game five six straight times when holding a 3-1 lead. The Nuggets on the other hand are facing elimination for the fourth straight time this millennium after winning only one game in the first round of the three previous postseasons.
The main key in tonight’s game will be for the Nuggets to score a hundred points in an offensive blaze of fury. The Nuggets have been lulled to sleep by the San Antonio Spurs this series and have not been able to hit the century mark in any of the previous match-ups. I figure the Nuggets have absolutely nothing to lose, seeing as everyone has basically pronounced them dead at this point, and if they do nothing else correctly tonight they should at least get out and run and show the Spurs what they have left in the tank.
It would also be nice for Allen Iverson to shoot a respectable percentage from the field. We all know that “The Answer” has been searching for some consistency with his shooting and the Nuggets will desperately need him to at least hit 40% of his attempts tonight. This should go hand-in-hand with my first key of tonight’s game.
Along with those two points, J.R. Smith will not be playing which should open the door for Linas Kleiza and Yakhouba Diawara. I would also like to see Reggie Evans split some time with Eduardo Najera and for George Karl to reward the player who plays with the most energy the bulk of the minutes off the bench. I figure both Nene and Marcus Camby are going to be extremely aggressive tonight on the defensive end of the floor and that could spell foul trouble for one of them; which in turn could necessitate plenty of minutes for either Najera or Evans.
Other than that, I’ll spare you all the clichés about the Nuggets facing elimination. Nuggets faithful should know what to expect out of this team, but as for the outcome, let’s just say anything could happen.
4 comments:
I don't think they can score 100 points the way they did during the season, certainly not with fast breaks. What I'd like to see is for them to come down and 10 straight times in the first quarter pound it in to Nene. See if he can make Duncan work, draw fouls and/or find the open shooter. It may fail miserably, but it's a look they haven't tried with any consistency, and one of the bright spots in this series (besides Melo's all-star play) has been Nene's very solid performance. He was 7 for 9 in game 4. Why not try for 14 for 20? Then AI could roam more without the ball instead of trying to beat 3 guys off the dribble (and thus getting exhausted by the 4th quarter).
I don't think AI has ever been truly exhausted.
Maybe never truly exhausted, but he's shooting under 40%, and I bet it's sub-35 in the last 6 minutes. I think it's because he's gassed.
He is exhausting me with his 2-9 from the field in the first half!
Thanks for reading,
The Nugg Doctor
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