http://www.nba.com/games/20070307/DENGSW/preview.html Nuggets-Warriors Preview By MIKE VOTTA, STATS Senior Writer= Posted Mar 7 2007 2:10AM Print E-mail RSS Feeds E-News Sign Up Share on Facebook * Warriors Home * Nuggets Home 2006-07 Stats at a Glance For one night at least, the Denver Nuggets will have to do without their star forward in their push for a playoff spot. Carmelo Anthony will not be with the Nuggets as they visit the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. Anthony, who leads the NBA with 30.2 points per game, is not traveling with the team so that he can be with his fiancee, actress La La Vazquez, for the birth of their first child. "I'm not going to Golden State. Straight to the hospital tonight," he said after Tuesday's 106-91 win over the New Orleans Hornets. "She is fine right now. I don't think anything is going to happen tonight." Anthony scored 21 points against the Hornets, but had plenty of help as four teammates also scored in double figures. Allen Iverson, who is averaging 28.0 points per game, led the Nuggets (29-29) with 25 and J.R. Smith made a surprise return after missing five games with a left knee injury. "I just wanted to come out and win a basketball game," Anthony said. "Prove to people I don't have to score 30 points to win a basketball game." The Nuggets, who have won three of four, are in seventh place in the Western Conference, just one game ahead of the eighth-place Los Angeles Clippers. "We need any win we can get," Iverson said. "We have to concentrate on one game at a time and just worry about the game we are playing. Tonight was a big game, but the rest of the games from here on out are going to be big games." After the game, coach George Karl tried to downplay comments he made in a Denver Post column in which he said Anthony wasn't listening and was frustrated. "The NBA is not a perfect coaching forum. It never has been and never will be," he said. "I still believe, as I tell them after I criticize them, that I think you can be (darn) good. Do you want to be (darn) good? Show me. "What disappoints me about this situation we are in now is that we have a crowd base that wants to pick us up and cheer for us and get excited and like the team and fall in love, but we are playing too much muddy basketball to get them behind us." Denver has won seven of its last eight games against the Warriors (27-35), including four in a row since a 122-114 defeat at Golden State on Feb. 6, 2006. The Warriors ended a season-high six-game losing streak with Monday's 111-93 victory at Detroit. Jason Richardson scored a season-high 29 points for Golden State, which also ended a seven-game road losing streak. The Warriors are 20-10 on their home court. They are in 12th place in the Western Conference, but just three games behind the Clippers for the last postseason spot in the conference. "We need to take this as a positive and let this game change our season," said Stephen Jackson, who added 14 points. "There's still time to get this turned around." Jackson returned after missing four games with a toe injury, while Baron Davis - who scored 15 - came back after sitting out 13 games with a knee injury.
Mmm... Our tank just hit the break big time as Warriors blew both Detroit and Denver in two straight games. I am still in a tanking mode, but... Kinda make me wonder...
This team drives you crazy whether you're in tank mode or playoff mode. Both Nelson and JRich were talking about tanking. Why weren't they healthy last week when we were on the road trip? Those were easy teams and we could've been in a playoff spot right now if we went on a winning streak.
boy did we kill denver tonight. terrific defense in the 2nd half. a couple of easy threes for denver, but other than that, solid 2nd half defense. ellis had 5 steals in 20 some minutes, and i really like having jackson as the 2nd playmaker after baron, he's a solid passer. playoffs anyone?
The first big win streak of the season would be good if it is the one that the Warriors could be making right now. It is crazy how many teams are still in the playoff hunt in the West. I count only three teams in the West that are out of it. The Warriors need to go 13-6 in order to reach .500. Who knows if that will be enough to make the playoffs? haha it would at least be an achievement to end the season at .500.
<div class="quote_poster">oaktank88 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">boy did we kill denver tonight. terrific defense in the 2nd half. a couple of easy threes for denver, but other than that, solid 2nd half defense. ellis had 5 steals in 20 some minutes, and i really like having jackson as the 2nd playmaker after baron, he's a solid passer. playoffs anyone?</div> Yeah the Warriors had 31 assists, eight coming from Stephen Jackson. 9 assists came from Baron. Fortunately rebounding doesn't seem too much of a problem now. If the Warriors rebounded this well earlier, there probably would have been more victories like this one.
Well, it doesn't really matter now. It is what it is. Their "true" starting 5 is finally intact, and it's playing as well as it looks on paper. I mean, this starting 5 is legit. Now, bench players (like Barnes, Az, Monta, Foyle) can actually play off the bench instead of being forced into the starting line-up. Everyone benefits. There's a lot of ball left, and really at this point in the season it's a matter of who gets hot when. There is a gang of teams stacked up right there, and one or two of them will have to shine above the others. It could easily be GS...
Well, here's the remaining schedule. Can you pick out 13 wins? <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Fri 9 LA Clippers 10:30 PM Sun 11 at Portland 9:00 PM Mon 12 Dallas 10:30 PM Fri 16 Minnesota 10:30 PM Sat 17 at Seattle 10:00 PM Tue 20 at Utah 9:00 PM Fri 23 Washington 10:30 PM Sun 25 at LA Lakers 9:30 PM Mon 26 San Antonio 10:30 PM Thu 29 Phoenix 10:30 PM APRIL Sun 1 Memphis 4:00 PM Wed 4 at Houston 8:30 PM Fri 6 at Memphis 8:00 PM Sat 7 at San Antonio 8:00 PM Mon 9 Utah 10:30 PM Fri 13 at Sacramento 10:00 PM Sun 15 Minnesota 4:00 PM Tue 17 Dallas 10:30 PM Wed 18 at Portland 10:00 PM </div> Warriors win these games: Clippers, at Portland, Minnesota, Memphis, at Memphis, Minnesota, at Portland. That's 7 wins. If they want to go 13-6 (%.500), they'll need these, too: at Seattle, Washington, at LA Lakers, at Sacramento... That makes 11 wins. And that's pushing it. If they want to end the season at %.500, they'll need two more. Take your pick. Dallas at home? at Houston? Utah at home? It's going to be tough, but the way it's shaping up, even 40 wins might make the 8th seed...
<div class="quote_poster">oaktank88 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">boy did we kill denver tonight. terrific defense in the 2nd half. a couple of easy threes for denver, but other than that, solid 2nd half defense. ellis had 5 steals in 20 some minutes, and i really like having jackson as the 2nd playmaker after baron, he's a solid passer. playoffs anyone?</div> I only heard parts of the 3Q and 4Q as I was driving home from school, so this is a great to hear. Also, heard JRich was playing SF and playing better D. I hope that is true. JRich should help the front court cause he can rebound. Looking at the box score, it looks like AL had a good rebounding night, too. IF the Warriors can keep this play up, who knows they may still have a chance.
10 games at home 8 on the road and 2 games utah, dallas at home late in the season that might be winniable since dallas and utah migh rest their starters? Denver has the hardest schedule out of the teams that are vying for the 7 and 8 seed and wse own the season series with new orleans, so we might not necessary have to have a winning record or be at .500 to make the playoffs. We just have to win as many games as we can and maybe get some help from teams that will be playing our competition for the 7 and 8 seed.
<div class="quote_poster">Duckmyster Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> we might not necessary have to have a winning record or be at .500 to make the playoffs. We just have to win as many games as we can and maybe get some help from teams that will be playing our competition for the 7 and 8 seed.</div> Exactly, we've got several games against Den, LAC, Minny, Sac and those are the games that are really key. We need to win most, if not all of those games and gain ground on these teams . This year I don't think it will end up being a situation where the bottom two playoff teams need 42 wins. Luckily for us most of the teams in the race are falling apart while we're finally getting healthy, perhaps hitting our stride. Stealing a game or two against one of the elite teams would be huge, but we've got to win all the games with inferior teams and most of the games against teams we're competing with for the POs.
Nice win tonight. Solidly controlled the game in the second half. One observation relevant to the discussion in this thread: In the early part of the season (let's call it the first month or two), the warriors had the toughest strength of schedule in the NBA and they totally held their own even with JRich being a shadow of himself. Then, just as the schedule started lightening up, injuries hit like a freight train. Many games that should have been easy (or at least solid) wins didn't go that way because guys that should be playing 10-15 minutes were playing 25-40.
Reminder: we're a horrible road team, we struggle at the free throw line, we're not good at defense usually, and we settle for too many threes. We're a lotto team... But not a high lotto team. Oh, and Baron always finds some way to get hurt. He doesn't have the endurance to last 82 games. I hope we can make 8th seed, but it's one of those situations where we can't make any mistakes. We could be out two games from the 8th seed and we still lose.
2-0 with the lineup healthy. I would love to see Golden State get the 8th seed and face Dallas in the first round.
<div class="quote_poster">Bobcats Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">2-0 with the lineup healthy. I would love to see Golden State get the 8th seed and face Dallas in the first round.</div> I would too. We're 4-1 in the last 5 games against Dallas. We were the only team last season to win both games in Dallas and we might have been the only team to win 3 against Dallas. Nellie surely wants some revenge and he knows that team really well, hes also probably pissed off for Avery and Cuban getting all the credit for a team he completely put together (except when Cuban let Nash go and signed Damp, thats when Nellie started thinking about leaving).
I am glad we won last night with Melo out. If we could not win with our full strength lineup against their team missing the league's leading scorer, then we dont deserve a playoff spot. This is where it starts, beating teams we should beat. All credit due to Denver of course because they are have been better than us over the course of the season, but now that we have a healthy team, we are arguably as good if not better than them. I just hope we can get to .500 by the season's end. We dug ourselves a hole, but this will really prove our worth...
I hope to high heaven that this team isn't a mirage as usual... it speaks to my boundless optimism that I'm still hanging around TVs and radios come gametime.
<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Well, here's the remaining schedule. Can you pick out 13 wins? . . . It's going to be tough, but the way it's shaping up, even 40 wins might make the 8th seed...</div> . I'm going to take it game to game. We keep missing out on playoff opportunities!!!!1111!!!!1111 The latest one was not winning on the road last week and I'm not just talking about the freak loss to Washington. The Ws have been hitting their outside shots to dominate the past two games, but they're not going to fall every game. They're going to have to pick up the slack on D when the shots ain't falling and like that's rarely happened. I can't remember a recent team to gel so late in the season and come back to get in the POs.
The good news is the mention of defense after the last 2 games. I guess Nelly has them at least thinking about it since their shots are not falling... That has to be motivating to win due solely to a great defensive 3rd quarter...
