Archive for the 'Nuggets' Category

Pistons, Nuggets and DBB clash at the Palace

Published by Matt Watson on March 18, 2008 in Nuggets and Previews. 41 Comments

The Nuggets have been picking up steam in their last three wins: first game a 108-86 win over the Grizzlies, then a 137-105 blowout over the Raptors and then a 168-116 laugher over the Sonics. Graphing those scores in my head, the thought of a 198-130 loss tonight did cross my mind, but then I remembered the Nuggets haven’t won a regular-season game in Detroit since 1995, and if I’m going to rely on any arbitrary trend, I may as well stick with the one with the largest sample size.

To prepare for tonight’s festivities, Nick the Nugg Doctor and I exchanged a few questions. Follow that link for my answers to his queries, and continue reading for his answers below:

DBB: How much does it suck being in the West where the Nuggets might win 50 games and not make the playoffs?

ND: It doesn’t suck at all. I wouldn’t want to be in the East where a team doesn’t even have to win .500 of their games to make the playoffs. I refuse to be a whiner because the rest of the West stepped up its game. The Nuggets just need to crawl their way into the playoffs somehow because owner Stan Kroenke has spent to much money to be done after 82 games.

MW: Is it time to change the playoffs?

ND: Nah, they playoffs are good the way they are. Eight in the East, eight in the West, and no belly aching.

DBB: The last time the Nuggets won a regular-season game in Detroit, Joe Dumars was still playing and Jalen Rose was a rookie. What makes you think the Nuggets can win tonight?

I’m hoping the Nuggets can score like a million points tonight and embarrass the Pistons. We owe you guys big-time! And if memory serves me correctly, you guys just barely escaped defeat on the Hail Mary heave of ‘Sheed last year. Thought I forgot about that one, didn’t you? Damn you, ‘Sheed!

DBB: Seriously, where can I get one of those Leprechaun flutes?

ND: Well, no promises, but I could talk to a few of the Leprechauns I know. One lives in a tree just down the way from me. The thing is, if you look at him directly he disappears and if you leave a message on his voicemail it’s anyone’s guess if he’ll get back to you. I’ll try to get you one though.
___

Thanks to Nick for setting this up, and don’t forget to read my answers.

I’ll be at the game tonight (7:30pm, FSN), but for the first time all season I’m actually going as a fan and not a working member of the media. As I mentioned before, the Pistons were generous enough to offer up the Pistons.com suite tonight for me to invite a handful of readers, which should be really fun. Do your thing in the comments, and enjoy watching two of the most different teams in the league go at it.

Pistons are in Denver

Published by Matt Watson on February 25, 2008 in Nuggets, Previews and Videos. 62 Comments

It’s Chucky! Sadly, he’s still sidelined with a hernia and won’t be playing tonight — since the game actually already started (my bad), I’ll keep this short. Leave your thoughts in the comments, for those of you not stuck Montana/Idaho State.

Pistons and Nuggets in Grand Rapids

Published by Matt Watson on October 17, 2007 in Nuggets and Preseason 2007-08. 17 Comments

I’ve got nothing in terms of a preview, aside from the fact that I feel sorry for anyone in Grand Rapids hoping to see a bunch of All-Stars tonight. The starting lineups are noticeably lacking in star-power, with Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton sitting for Detroit, and Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby and Allen Iverson sitting for Denver.

The ball just tipped; you can catch the game on FSN Detroit. Leave any observations or random thoughts in the comments.

Rip Hamilton sprains ankle in Pistons win

Published by Matt Watson on October 15, 2007 in Games, Injuries, Nuggets, Preseason 2007-08 and Shameless Plugging. 14 Comments

It happened in the third quarter; he went down and stayed down for a couple of minutes. Eventually, he was helped off the court and taken for X-rays, which were negative. (But remember, “in the medicine community, negative means good.”)

There was no indication of how much time he’d miss, but I imagine anyone going to the game in Grand Rapids on Wednesday will be seeing Rip in street clothes, if he makes the trip at all. He was definitely hobbling after the game, though it’s not like he was using crutches or anything.

As for the rest of the game, it seemed like Flip Saunders wanted to extend his starters a bit more, perhaps because the team had Saturday off (the first off day since the start of training camp) and the next game isn’t until Wednesday. All the starters but Rip played at least 24 minutes. Tayshaun Prince led the way with 30 minutes, scoring 19 with eight boards. As a result of these guys playing extended minutes, though, the bench obviously saw less time, and Cheikh Samb, Ronald Dupree and Sammy Mejia didn’t get in the game at all.

Also, you don’t generally hear people talk too much about a team’s free-throw shooting, but the Pistons were nails from the line on Sunday. As a team, they shot 31-35 (88.1%) at the stripe. In what turned out to be a three-point game, that was huge.

Both Amir Johnson and Nazr Mohammed sat this one out, which was pretty much expected (Amir for sure, Nazr had left open the possibility of playing). For more on their situations, check out my article from yesterday. Here’s a taste:

[Johnson is] not able to scrimmage with his teammates, but he’s still active during practice. “I’m in the back with the trainer in the weight room, doing some plyometric stuff. I’m on the track, running up and down, seeing how it feels.”

Even though he hasn’t been able to log a single minute of preseason duty, Johnson doesn’t think his lack of game action will change his place in the team’s early-season plans. “I did the whole training camp, the whole two-a-days. I only missed three days of practice, so I’ll be fine,” he said. “I got used to the plays now. I’ll be fine in the rotation. Hopefully, they’ll put me in there.”

Last but not least, I wanted to post a few Sammy Mejia quotes from my brief interview with him in the locker room before the game. I used the meatier stuff for the HOOPSWORLD pre-game blog, but rather than let the rest of it sit unseen on my hard drive, I’m tossing it up here:

On training camp so far:

“It’s been cool, it’s been great. Great learning experience. It’s been tough. The two-a-days weren’t easy. Now we’re in the point where we’re just playing games and practicing on the things we need to do to help our team get better throughout the season.”

On his health:

“I twisted my ankle a couple of weeks ago, and it’s still bothering me. We’re still working on that, and every day is getting better, and I’m just excited about that, that it’s getter better and not getting worse.”

On getting along with the other three rookies:

“We’re all cool, we’re all cool guys. You know, the team as a whole, we’re all cool guys. We all get along with each other well, and everyone is cool and friendly. It’s a great situation for rookies to come into, this is the type of team that embraces you and lets you know what they’re about as a team — it’s more like a family than anything else.”

On what kind of errands the veterans have the rookies doing:

“The usual stuff, the donuts, the picking up all the basketballs, making sure they get the towels for the shower, stuff like that. … Every once in a while, they’ll just remind us that we’re rooks.”

Pistons 109, Nuggets 106 box score [ESPN]

Pistons lose anoth– OMFG! Rasheed! OT! Pistons win!

Published by Matt Watson on March 27, 2007 in Games and Nuggets. 7 Comments

Some comments from Monday’s game thread late in the fourth quarter:

Ree at 9:56 pm
man this is sooo wrong. we were up 15 but i guess you cant win the game in the first period

JackDutch at 10:00 pm
the knicks better beat the magic or i will be all kinds of pissed.

Matt Watson at 10:00 pm
On the bright side … The Black Donnelly’s is about to start.

Then this happened:

And then this happened:

Ree at 10:01 pm
SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matt Watson at 10:01 pm
HOLY CRAP!

Matt Gibson at 10:01 pm
RASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCEEEEEEEE

Q Dog at 10:03
OH MY GOD!!

Of course, the Pistons went on to win in overtime. The meat of my recap is up at the FanHouse, so go read that first. Once you do, I have a few additional notes after the jump. Continue reading ‘Pistons lose anoth– OMFG! Rasheed! OT! Pistons win!’

Looks like “that thing” is “going around” the Palace

Published by Matt Watson on March 26, 2007 in Injuries, Nuggets and Previews. 47 Comments

From the AP:

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -Chris Webber and Richard Hamilton missed the game against the Denver Nuggets on Monday night with flu-like symptoms.

With Will Blalock and Amir Johnson assigned to the NBDL, Webber was listed on Detroit’s active roster even though he hadn’t even come to the arena. Hamilton, who missed Sunday’s win in Milwaukee, also stayed home.

Backup guard Flip Murray was suffering from a similar illness, but the training staff was trying to get his fever down so that he could play.

Looks like someone with the AP is doing their best Mitch Albom impression, throwing the past-tense around for a game that hasn’t even started. In any case, like Q-Dog said, the silver lining is more time for Carlos Delfino and Jason Maxiell. The Nuggets like to get up and down the court in a hurry, so this should be a fun game to watch.

Ball tips at 7:30 on FSN — as usual, thoughts –> comments, etc.

Pistons flush Nuggets; Rasheed hits limit

Published by Matt Watson on March 10, 2007 in Games and Nuggets. 3 Comments

The Pistons won in Denver on Friday because of one reason: they dictated the pace of the game. Instead of allowing the Nuggets to run up and down the floor the entire night, the Pistons slowed the game down, ran a deliberate offense and took advantage of Denver’s mistakes. It’s a simple formula, which makes it all the more frustrating when they deviate from it, but they worked it to perfection last night.

As a result, Denver’s two high scorers never took off — Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, the league’s top scorer and fifth-ranked scorer, respectively, were each held under 20 points. Anthony had just 17 points, the result of a 6-21 night from the field, and didn’t do his team any favors with a game-high seven turnovers. AI finished with 19 on 5-13 shooting.

Of course, just because the Pistons cruised to a 13-point victory doesn’t mean that everything went smoothly. Detroit still shot just 42.7% from the field. Chauncey Billups, who’s struggled with his shot immensely lately, finished 6-17 from the field, including 0-5 form three-point range. It’s to the point that I’m cringing every time he lets one fly, a reaction usually saved for when Rasheed Wallace jacks up his fifth three in a half. He’s getting a lot of good looks, though, so he may as well fight through it. He helped make up for his poor shooting against Cleveland by pouring in 14 assists, but on Friday he finished with just three dimes.

Billups was able to get a couple of high-percentage attempts, though, scoring the first two points of the game on a fast break and coming through with an extremely rare dunk in the third. Even so, Rasheed wasn’t impressed:

“We killed him on that Greg Ostertag fingertip dunk,” Wallace said. “We’ve been trying to get him to dunk all year, so I guess he decided to come home to get his little fingertip dunk.” …

“My hops? I can jump better him,” Billups said. “I’m 6-3, he’s 6-11, [and] barely dunking.”

The shoe finally dropped.

Rasheed came through with a rare double-double (17 and 10), but he was also called for his dreaded 16th technical of the season in the second quarter.

Official Bob Delaney called Wallace for the technical with 4:56 left in the second quarter.

After Steve Blake missed the free throw, forward Linas Kleiza grabbed a rebound and missed a tip-in before Wallace got the rebound. As he ran back down the floor, he was still jawing.

“I said what I say all the time with the, ‘Ball don’t lie.’ What I’ve been saying all year,” Wallace said. “Bob thought when I said that I was directing it toward one of his partners out there on the officiating crew, which was not true.”

I’ve come down on Rasheed’s incessant yapping with the refs many times in this space, but in this instance, it was just a bad call. Not only has Rasheed has been yelling that in every single game he’s played in the past few years, these same referees didn’t seem to have a problem with him yelling it Friday before and after he was T’d up. Maybe Rasheed was louder than usual this particular time, but he gave no indication that it was directed at any one official.

If the Pistons had an extra day between games so that the league had more time to review it, I’d imagine the league would have probably reviewed and rescinded this call, but I doubt it’s going to happen as things stand right now. In any case, the fact he earned his 16th tech — and drew the automatic one-game suspension that comes with it — was inevitable. I just wish for Rasheed’s sake that he could have gotten a little more for his money than a ticky-tack whistle from a sensitive ref.

There’s also a bit of confusion amongst some fans regarding what happens after the 16th tech, perhaps because Pistons fans are the only ones in the league that have had to seriously consider the consequences (though Suns fans may want to learn up). But Rasheed will draw another one-game suspension for every other tech from here on out, meaning his next one will come with his 18th, and then his 20th, etc. With 22 games left, I’m thinking there will be at least one more, maybe two, of these to come.

As a fan, I feel like this probably should bug me, but it doesn’t. Maybe it’s because we’ve seen it coming the last couple of years, or maybe because I think a little more time off to rest before the playoffs is a good thing. The timing sucks with Lindsey Hunter already being out, but I don’t think that’s nearly as big of an issue as it looks on paper considering they don’t play the same position.

And like I noted before, Jason Maxiell is starting to show a nice rapport with some of the starters, especially Rip Hamilton, so this might actually be beneficial down the road. The Pistons tanked the three games Rasheed missed last week, but Sunday’s game is against the Clippers, a sub-.500 team the Pistons already annihilated once this year.

Pistons 95, Nuggets 82 box score [ESPN]
Wallace hits technical limit in win [Detroit Free Press]