@ <font color="orange">Charlotte Bobcats (12-49)</font> @ <font color="blue">Denver Nuggets (32-30)</font> Time: Sat, Mar. 16, 2005, 09:00 P.M. Eastern Time TV: NBALP Place: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO --- Ballers: <font color="orange">Primoz Brezec</font> ( C), <font color="orange">Emeka Okafor</font> (PF), <font color="orange">Theron Smith</font> (SF), <font color="orange">Keith Bogans</font> (SG), <font color="orange">Brevin Knight</font> (PG) Top bench baller: <font color="orange">Jason Kapono</font> Coach: <font color="orange">Bernie Bickerstaff</font> (12-49, first season with Bobcats) --- Ballers: <font color="blue">Marcus Camby</font> ( C), <font color="blue">Kenyon Martin</font> (PF), <font color="blue">Carmelo Anthony</font> (SF), <font color="blue">DerMarr Johnson</font> (SG), <font color="blue">Andre Miller</font> (PG) Top bench baller: <font color="blue">Earl Boykins</font> Coach: <font color="blue">George Karl</font> (15-5, first season with Nuggets) <font size="4"><font color="blue">Top</font> <font color="orange">Ballers</font>:</font> <font color="orange">Emeka Okafor: 23 pts, 15 rebds, 3 blocks.</font> <font color="blue">Earl Boykins: 25 pts, 8 assists, 5 steals.</font> <font size="4"><font color="Purple">purple</font><font color="Orange">b0n9</font>'s Take:</font> <font color="orange">- Charlotte:</font> The last time both teams met in Charlotte, they beat us behind the inside game of Melvin Ely and the outside shooting of Kareem Rush. This club is not composed of the most talented players, but they play teams hard from start to finish. From Brevin Knight to Emeka Okafor, they are solid players who will make you pay for not taking them seriously. But it'd get a little tough for them as Kareem Rush will not play in this game and the rest of the season due to a knee injury. - <font color="blue">D</font><font color="orange">N</font>: Despite the recent home loss to the Suns, numerous injuries, and a little drama between Melo and coach Karl -who benched him the final 17 minutes of the Suns game-, the Nuggets are still feeling good about themselves. They are also aware if they don't give it all this time, the Bobcats may end up winning what would be their only 3rd road game all season. There're no excuses this time, it's payback time, and we must show intensity and a killer instinct to put this team away. <font size="4"><font color="Purple">purple</font><font color="Orange">b0n9</font>'s Prediction:</font> I predicted a loss in the last preview between us, I gotta be honest, I'd be crazy to predict another L when we're rolling like this (8-2 in last 10 games) and on our altitude-choking Pepsi Center arena, where we are a pretty 7-1 under coach Karl. We'll take this one 109-88.
If we could go against the rest of sub .500 teams the way we did against the Bobcats last night, I'm gonna be thrilled. We had season highs of 38 fastbreak points and 40 assists on 45 baskets. :rock: Camby was back and established our inside D with 3 blocks... Melo again did not play in the fourth quarter, but this time it's all for the right reasons. He scored 25 points on an impressive 10 of 16 shooting... yeaah!! Recap and boxscore. I found it funny that my "Top Baller" prediction was barely ever accurate for us... I predicted Melo to score a career high 45 pts against Phx then he came out and got benched and ended up with only 9 points. Then this game I picked Earl and he only had 10 pts although he also had 11 assists. I was thinking I should put Mark Pope in it so all Nuggets will have a breakout game... lol.
