NBA Preview: Jazz, Nuggets in Denver
The next time someone negates the value of a good manager or coach, point them to this Utah, Denver series. Without George Karl on the bench, the Nuggets appear lost as they face elimination at home tonight in Game 5 of their series with the Jazz. Behind Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, Utah has reeled off three wins and can use the extra time off a victory would give them before Round 2. TNT has the tip at 10:30 p.m.
All the talent in the world won’t get you anywhere without some direction.
The Denver Nuggets have just about everything you need to be a championship team. But they don’t have a proven coach to lead them to victory. George Karl is unavailable due to cancer treatment, leaving Adrian Dantley at the reins of the Nuggets, and the difference is obvious.
Denver is underperforming in its first-round series against the Utah Jazz, which could end Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center with the Jazz up 3-1 heading into Game 5. TNT has the telecast following Game 5 of the Bucks, Hawks series.
Dantley was one of the greatest scorers in NBA history. He deserves better, but it looks like Dantley is being fitted for goat horns as the Nuggets exhibit the telltale signs of a dysfunctional basketball team.
“You miss (Karl’s) voice, you miss his leadership, you miss the plays that he draws up in timeouts,” Chauncey Billups told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “You miss the halftime speech. You miss everything.”
Those are tough words to hear for Denver supporters. And it doesn’t help that Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith have both publicly complained about their team’s play. Meanwhile, Jerry Sloan is getting the most he can out of the Jazz, grabbing the cash in each of Utah’s three wins with Kyrylo Fesenko (9.74 PER) starting at center in place of the injured Mehmet Okur (15.65 PER).
The Jazz have essentially had their way with Denver’s uninspired defense; the 'over' is 3-1 in this series and 6-2 including the regular season.
The dysfunction in Denver hasn’t stopped the Nuggets bandwagon from filling up for Game 5. The good folks at LVSC opened Monday with Denver at -4 and a total of 214; not even 15 minutes later, the betting odds moved to -6½ with a total of 215. Most offshore books jumped in at this point. By press time, the Nuggets were up to -7 and the total was a shade higher at 215½. That’s up from 208 at the open.
Denver’s mental makeup reminds me more than just a bit of the Dallas Mavericks, who fell into a 3-1 hole in their series against the San Antonio Spurs. I’d be leery of touching Dallas with a 10-foot pole right now, but the trends were on their side for Game 5 – as John Hollinger points out, teams facing elimination at home in Game 5 have won 70.7 percent of the time. And Dallas (-5) did indeed thump the Spurs 103-81. In fact, the home team won all four of Tuesday’s Game 5 matchups at 3-1 ATS.
Getting back to the Pepsi Center certainly helps Denver’s cause. The advantage of playing at that high elevation isn’t the same in this case – Salt Lake City is about 4,200 feet above sea level. But the Jazz are still only 1-4-1 ATS in their last six games in Denver. Of all the money that Utah made this year at 52-31-3 ATS, most of that was made at the former Delta Center. The Jazz were 24-18-1 ATS on the road. The Nuggets were 21-21-1 ATS at home compared to 15-23-5 ATS away. A little home cooking could be all they need to bounce back.
Well, maybe that and a time machine. Kenyon Martin (13.48 PER) has “serious pain” in his knee and is unable to defend with his usual aplomb, posting a minus-16 in Game 3 and minus-22 in Game 4, worst on the team. He and Nene (18.95 PER) have been burned repeatedly in this series by Carlos Boozer (21.42 PER), who scored 31 points in Game 4 despite a strained oblique.
Meanwhile, Fesenko has acquitted himself well in his three starts; he’s a big load at 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds, and Sloan wisely chose Fesenko over Kosta Koufos (7-foot, 265 pounds) to replace Okur against what is normally a sound Denver frontline. Dantley will have to come up with a countermove if the Nuggets are to stay alive, and in the end, that’s not normally his job.
The next time someone negates the value of a good manager or coach, point them to this Utah, Denver series. Without George Karl on the bench, the Nuggets appear lost as they face elimination at home tonight in Game 5 of their series with the Jazz. Behind Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, Utah has reeled off three wins and can use the extra time off a victory would give them before Round 2. TNT has the tip at 10:30 p.m.
All the talent in the world won’t get you anywhere without some direction.
The Denver Nuggets have just about everything you need to be a championship team. But they don’t have a proven coach to lead them to victory. George Karl is unavailable due to cancer treatment, leaving Adrian Dantley at the reins of the Nuggets, and the difference is obvious.
Denver is underperforming in its first-round series against the Utah Jazz, which could end Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center with the Jazz up 3-1 heading into Game 5. TNT has the telecast following Game 5 of the Bucks, Hawks series.
Dantley was one of the greatest scorers in NBA history. He deserves better, but it looks like Dantley is being fitted for goat horns as the Nuggets exhibit the telltale signs of a dysfunctional basketball team.
“You miss (Karl’s) voice, you miss his leadership, you miss the plays that he draws up in timeouts,” Chauncey Billups told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “You miss the halftime speech. You miss everything.”
Those are tough words to hear for Denver supporters. And it doesn’t help that Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith have both publicly complained about their team’s play. Meanwhile, Jerry Sloan is getting the most he can out of the Jazz, grabbing the cash in each of Utah’s three wins with Kyrylo Fesenko (9.74 PER) starting at center in place of the injured Mehmet Okur (15.65 PER).
The Jazz have essentially had their way with Denver’s uninspired defense; the 'over' is 3-1 in this series and 6-2 including the regular season.
The dysfunction in Denver hasn’t stopped the Nuggets bandwagon from filling up for Game 5. The good folks at LVSC opened Monday with Denver at -4 and a total of 214; not even 15 minutes later, the betting odds moved to -6½ with a total of 215. Most offshore books jumped in at this point. By press time, the Nuggets were up to -7 and the total was a shade higher at 215½. That’s up from 208 at the open.
Denver’s mental makeup reminds me more than just a bit of the Dallas Mavericks, who fell into a 3-1 hole in their series against the San Antonio Spurs. I’d be leery of touching Dallas with a 10-foot pole right now, but the trends were on their side for Game 5 – as John Hollinger points out, teams facing elimination at home in Game 5 have won 70.7 percent of the time. And Dallas (-5) did indeed thump the Spurs 103-81. In fact, the home team won all four of Tuesday’s Game 5 matchups at 3-1 ATS.
Getting back to the Pepsi Center certainly helps Denver’s cause. The advantage of playing at that high elevation isn’t the same in this case – Salt Lake City is about 4,200 feet above sea level. But the Jazz are still only 1-4-1 ATS in their last six games in Denver. Of all the money that Utah made this year at 52-31-3 ATS, most of that was made at the former Delta Center. The Jazz were 24-18-1 ATS on the road. The Nuggets were 21-21-1 ATS at home compared to 15-23-5 ATS away. A little home cooking could be all they need to bounce back.
Well, maybe that and a time machine. Kenyon Martin (13.48 PER) has “serious pain” in his knee and is unable to defend with his usual aplomb, posting a minus-16 in Game 3 and minus-22 in Game 4, worst on the team. He and Nene (18.95 PER) have been burned repeatedly in this series by Carlos Boozer (21.42 PER), who scored 31 points in Game 4 despite a strained oblique.
Meanwhile, Fesenko has acquitted himself well in his three starts; he’s a big load at 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds, and Sloan wisely chose Fesenko over Kosta Koufos (7-foot, 265 pounds) to replace Okur against what is normally a sound Denver frontline. Dantley will have to come up with a countermove if the Nuggets are to stay alive, and in the end, that’s not normally his job.