<div align="center">Venue: AT&T Center, San Antonio TexasNational TV: TNTTime: 7:00 PM ESTDate: Sunday, April 22ndSeries tied: 0-0</div><span style="color:#3366FF">Denver Nuggets (45-37)</span>Projected Starters:<span style="color:#3366FF">PG- Steve BlakeSG- Allen IversonSF- Carmelo AnthonyPF- NeneC- Marcus Camby6th man: JR Smith</span>San Antonio Spurs (58-24)Projected Starters:PG- Tony ParkerSG- Michael FinleySF- Bruce BowenPF- Tim DuncanC- Francisco Elson6th man: Manu GinobiliComments:<span style="font-family:Arial">This is going to be a tough matchup, we all know what San Antonio is capable of doing in the playoffs. It's nearly impossible to defeat the Spurs in a 7 game playoff series, they are one of the best adjusting teams in the league. They will know Denver's entire game inside and out before the series is over.</span>Key matchup: Carmelo Anthony VS Bruce Bowen<span style="font-family:Arial">Anthony's stats against SA: 15.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.8 apg.Bowen's stats against Denver: 6.7 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 0.3 apg.</span>X-Factor players: Marcus Camby, Michael FinleyBALLAHOLLIC's key to victory:<span style="font-family:Arial">- Perimeter defense. If we let Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili gain an inch of space, they will burn us every single time down the floor. Both of them do exceptionally well against Denver, especially Manu Ginobili. It's up to our guards to control the perimeter, we can't allow them to torch us offensively.- Nene cannot get himself into foul trouble, we need his strong defensive presence against Tim Duncan in the post. I think he plays the best defense against Duncan on our team, even better than Marcus Camby. Duncan is a smart player, I'm sure he's going to try and get alot of fouls called on Nene.- Our role players need to step it up on both ends of the floor. We need Blake, Smith and Kleiza to hit their open jump shots and keep their man under control. We need those guys to take some pressure off of Carmelo and Iverson.</span>Conclusion: <span style="font-family:Arial">I don't see this series going past 6 games. The Spurs are too experienced, I don't think anybody expects us to beat the best team of the past decade. The Spurs have the depth, the firepower, and the experience to win this in 6 games.</span>My predictions:<span style="font-family:Arial">Game 1: Nuggets 94, Spurs 88Game 2: Spurs 97 Nuggets 91Game 3: Spurs 99 Nuggets 89Game 4: Nuggets 104 Spurs 97Game 5: Spurs 91 Nuggets 86Game 6: Spurs 101 Nuggets 93</span>
This is definitely the series to watch in my opinion... but maybe that's just because I'm glad to see AI back in the postseason. I hope Denver pulls off the upset and sends SA home, but that isn't going to happen. I think the biggest challenge for Denver is going to be mental... they all need to believe they can win in SA, and that they can win this series. I know Iverson believes it, and so does Anthony... but everybody needs to believe it and play with that type of confidence.But on a side not, as long as they can make some noise and challenge SA, I think it will silence a lot of the AI/Melo critics that apparently disappeared during Denver's 10-1 run in April.
This preview is awsome!!! :happy0144: I think if Denver takes at least one game in San Antonio, they could possibly be up 3-1 after four games. There is something about this Nuggets team that is much better, maybe it's their chemistry ? All I know, people should start getting active in this thread, cause it's going to be quite a game!!! :shifty2:
The thing with Denver is that they are better and more focused on the road than they are at home. They dropped so many games at home that they should have won, even if it was during the adjustment period between Iverson and Anthony. They just seem to let their guard down a little bit at home. But I agree Hornetsfan, if they can get one of the first two in SA, they might be able to pull off an upset if they can take care of business at home.
Solid game thread. Denver will probably put up a fight, but San Antonio will take this in five, maybe six games. The Spurs are great at limiting fast-break teams that average around 100 ppg and making them play a halfcourt game, holding them to around 85, 90 points. An example was the game against Phoenix in early April, the Suns scored just over 80 points. Denver might steal one in San Antonio though, you never know with that kind of team.
Denver can have some good games, but if San Antonio's D can have success against a team with 6 good offensive players instead of 3 and a team that's better defensively than Denver...they will clobber them. It'll be over in 5.
Wow Magic Johnson actually picked Denver to upset the Spurs in the series... that was a shocker to me.
Denver started off pretty solidly offensively. Carmelo is doing a good job and Nene was solid down low. AI can't get anything to go down, but he will eventually. The problem with Denver was that their defensive rotations were horrible in the 1st quarter. Like Doug Collins said, San Antonio actually got great looks throughout the whole quarter, they just haven't been able to knock them all down. That will eventually come. Denver needs to make sure they get some stops.
I would be very discouraged right now if I was Denver...They are only up two, and Duncan is 0-6, Parker is 1-7 or something like that, and Ginobili is 1-9. For Denver, Iverson is the only one that isnt playing well...The Spurs arent going to shoot this bad for much longer, so Denver really needs to pick it up if they want to win this game.
Tim Duncan hasn't even made a shot yet, but they are still in this game. Manu and Parker are both still trying to find their shots and if they don't soon it's gonna catch up to them and it's gonna end up costing them. Only the first half, and as I type the Spurs are coming back and Finley hits a three. So once they get going, I see them blowing this open.BTW -- Were is A.I? I only seen him in the 1st quarter and that was it...
Iverson needs to get going...eventually Duncan, Parker and Ginobli are gonna get hot...you NEED to take advantage when they're down and hey a big lead...you can't be passive on the road..you need to be aggressive and beat them and bruise them early
Awesome preview Tony. San Antonio is coming back, Carmelo Anthony needs to play with his head in the game.
I am getting kinda frustrated...The Spurs are missing more shots around the basket right now than they have all season long. Parker, Manu, and Duncan are all playing bad as of right now....There is a good thing out of all of this though. The Spurs are playing terrible, Denver is playing good, and its a 2 point game.
San Antonio really isn't playing bad, their shots just are not falling. They are controlling the pace of the game, they are getting good open looks at the basket, they are causing turnovers, they have taken more shots than the Nuggets have. I think the Spurs are playing good basketball, they are just missing shots. If this game is any indication, when those shots start falling, the Nuggets are just not in San Antonio's class.
This is incredible..I'm flickin back and forth between this and the sox/yankees game but Denver may just win this oneSan Antonio is really disappointing me
Denver is about to win this game, I'm kinda stunned because I thought the Spurs would win Game 1. Anyway, not over yet with 21 seconds left Denver needs to get this stop right here and hit their free throws. No matter what, they gotta hit their free throws because it's only a four point game. This has been a good one, but SA has missed a lot of shots and Duncan has been a non factor here.
What a great day so far. Now if only the Mavs could lose too. Great performance by Denver tonight. I could see San Antonio winning the next 4, they are that good, but winning Game 1 is big. This could mean that they can stretch it out to 6 or 7, but you never know. Isn't it true that 75% of the teams that won game 1 win the series? We'll see. I still expect San Antonio to win but the longer the series goes on the better as long as the Suns can finish their's quickly.
I am so proud we won this game. We proved that we can beat them and that we are for real. I know we won't do what we did last time we played them, losing by around 30. Even if we lose game 2, we are still in good shape. All we need to do is stick with our home court advantage which we now have a ride it out.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ASUFan22 @ Apr 22 2007, 07:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>What a great day so far. Now if only the Mavs could lose too. Great performance by Denver tonight. I could see San Antonio winning the next 4, they are that good, but winning Game 1 is big. This could mean that they can stretch it out to 6 or 7, but you never know. Isn't it true that 75% of the teams that won game 1 win the series? We'll see. I still expect San Antonio to win but the longer the series goes on the better as long as the Suns can finish their's quickly.</div>I doubt that will happen. Last time it happened we didn't have Allen Iverson, Nene wasn't even close to as good as he is now, we didn't have JR Smith, we didn't have Steve Blake.
Great game, great win for Denver. This series is going to go 6, IMO. I don't think Denver will win the series, but this was a great game and a great confidence builder for the Nuggets. Both Melo and AI did a great job offensively in the 2nd half, Nene did a very solid job down low, and they never gave up. They went hard all night. They didn't take advantage of all of San Antonio's turnovers, but they got to the line and got it done. Awesome to see Denver steal Game 1 in San Antonio.
