<div align="center"></div> <div align="center"><font color="Black"><font face="Times New Roman">Battle Out West</font></font></div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"><u><font color="LightBlue">Denver Nuggets</font> @ <font color="Purple">Sacramento Kings</font></u></div> When: Sunday 8th February Where: ARCO Arena Time: 4:00pm Local Time Tv: News10, KTVD, NBALP Records 29-22 34-13 Last 10 6-4 6-4 Previous Games <ul> [*]02/06/04 L 96-87 @ Golden State [*]02/02/04 W 116-97 vs Portland [*]01/31/04 W 107-102 @ Dallas [/list] Streeak: Lost 1 <ul> [*]02/06/04 L 102-94 vs San Antonio [*]02/03/04 W 117-101 vs Seattle [*]01/31/04 W 110-103 @ Seattle [/list] Streak: Lost 1 Head Coaches Jeff Bzdelik vs. Rick Adelman Probable Starters Andre Miller vs. Mike Bibby Voshon Lenard vs. Doug Christie Carmelo Anthony vs. Peja Stojakovic Nene vs. Brad Miller Marcus Camby vs. Vlade Divac Key Factors <u>Home Court Advantage</u> <font color="Red">By Jump</font> The ARCO Arena is one heck of a venue. This place is always buzzing, and the Kings always thrive on its atmosphere. Denver are going to have to bring their A game. <font color="Gray"><font size="1">ARCO Arena</font></font> <u>Carmelo Anthony</u> <font color="Red">By TimFlem</font> The key factor for this game is can Carmelo run. if he does his team responds with easy uncontested points, if he can't they'll have to go the hard way. <font size="1"><font color="Gray">Carmelo is the key to easy baskets.</font></font> <font color="Red">By Magic Johnson</font> Get the ball to Peja often as his offense is deadly and consistent. Pass to Divac down low, he's got a height advantage and is pretty speedy on the dunk. Be sure to keep Brad Miller involved, he'll do well on both ends of the floor. Brad and Divac should Zone the likes of Camby and Nene in order to get boards. Miller, Leonard and Anthony should be contained, Zone from the big men, Divac and Miller might make short work of them. Defense is the key to victory here. Rely on Boykins as backup for good minutes. Involve Leonard as he's been playing very well as of late. Like Sacramento, Camby and Nene should Zone the big men and shooters in order to disrupt shots. Carmelo and Miller must be constantly open in order to make the easy shots as they are more of an offensive team. Unlike Sacramento, offense will be needed to pick up the victory, they have less boarding and defensive ability, hence they should just go for the easy shots. Key Matchup vs. <u>Carmelo Anthony vs. Peja Stojakovic</u> <font color="Red">By Jump + TimFlem</font> Carmelo will have to play defense on Peja. He is one of the sharpest shooters in the league and is aiming to kill the Nuggets with his outside jumper. If Carmelo can contain this shot the Nuggets will have a much greater chance of the win. Keys to the game <u>Nuggets</u> <ul> [*]Tight defence [*]Keep the crowd quiet [*]Get out to an early lead [/list] <u>Sacramento</u> <ul> [*]Outside Play [*]Keep Carmelo quiet [*]Rebound [/list] Predictions <font color="Red">Jump</font> This is going to be a very tough game for the Nuggets to win. Sacramento are among the elite in the league and are my pick for the championship. They have been playing tremendous ball without Webber and I doubt that Denver will be able to get the win, especially in the mad house which is ARCO Arena. Kings by 13. <font color="Red">TimFlem</font> If Carmelo and the Nuggets can stop the Kings from getting easy uncontested baskets and from going on a run they'll get the W easily. If they can't we'll watch them fight for it. Nuggets by 7. <font color="Red">Magic Johnson</font> The Kings are too powerful a team, they arguably have the best team chemistry in the league. A mix of so many strengths on defense of veterans. Sadly as much as I like both teams, I want the Nuggets to take this one, it'd really show their worth and effort. Kings by 9 at least. Sacramento by 9+. <div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="1"><font color="Gray">Please vist NBA.com,ESPN CBS Sportsline Fox Sports.</font></font></font></div>
Although San Antonio was the previous crowd-quieter, Denver will most likely have no such luck. Now that Sacramento isn't rusty anymore, they should be able to run the Nuggets the entire game. If Denver can't continue to score in a Dallas-esque fashion, they're not going to win. Sacramento by 10.
Denver's hanging in there, 54-51 at halftime. Melo, and Fransisco Elson are doing very well right now. Melo has 12, 6 on 5/8 shooting, while Elson has 8, 4 on 4/4 shooting so far. We have a chance to steal one here. 4th Quarter now, Earl just scored 7 in a row for us to cut the deficit to six. It's raining three's in Sacramento! 102-88 with 3 minutes to go.
Brad Miller nears a triple double (3 assists away) and the Kings have stretched their lead and are well on the way to victory.
And the Kings win, 115-92. Bibby and Peja both dropped 30 on them. Key factor in the loss tonight - no scoring at all from Andre Miller. He was 0-4 with no points, though he had 8 assists.
Kings blow the Nuggets out, thanks to Mike Bibby and Peja Stojakovic. 65 points among two players? That's one more than the Heat scored against the Knicks all night!
Nice comparison, franchise3, lol. Yeah, the Nuggets need to start pulling some wins out their ass right now. They're getting close to playing 500 basketball if they don't.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Crossover:</div><div class="quote_post">Nice comparison, franchise3, lol. Yeah, the Nuggets need to start pulling some wins out their ass right now. They're getting close to playing 500 basketball if they don't.</div> Oh well, if they ever do, we all know they're a great team, they'll improve so much as time passes and once the Roster improves even more. I look forward to seeing the new Nuggets and Cavaliers, once they've grown to their strongest.
