In a game more winnable than it at first appeared (Nuggets were only 7-9 on the road, 4-6 in their last 10, and are now 1-4 without Chauncey) we kind of did it with smoke and mirrors. Random players popping up here and there in the lineup and we received some gratuitious help from an out of sync Nuggets team that reminded one of their squads a few years back -- grumpy, unfocused, bricking FTs left and right, their star shooting every time he touched the ball and playing keepaway from his teammates, J.R. Smith being his usual despicable and stupid self, Birdman looking like he was back on drugs, their rookie PG (in the early season the ever-perceptive David Thorpe had him rated above Reke in his rookie rankings 
) looking like a rookie, and a team with championship aspirations starting someone named Arron Afflalo at the SG. We were the tougher team mentally, and it remains a Christmas miracle that we can say that less than a year from having the worst mentality in all of the NBA.
Greene ( A- ) -- you know, to a large degree Coach Westphal and I have been simpatico this season. I have had few reasons to seriously question anything he was doing. A few quibbles, but in general I think he's shown that it is possible to make good substitutions, to manage egos, provide lifts and minutes when needed for confidence etc. But his handling of Donte tonight was a mystery to me. And hey, we won, so maybe laugh's on me. But Donte started and was very very good in his limited minutes, and several of the guys who took his minutes (Casspi, Sergio) were not. So not at all sure what the rationale was. In any case, Donte got off to another hot start for us. Immediately hit a jumper + drew a foul, then blocked Melo and drew an offensive foul, hit a three, and then being Donte got a bit out of control and threw up a heatcheck, made a turnover on a too fancy pass, and while Melo was having to work hard and was enver efficient, he began to rack up points. So Donte sat down with 9 points and a good first stint, but sitting made sense. Let him rest, gather himself, refocus. All cool. Until you completely forget about the guy who was your best player in the opening quarter and he never returns before halftime. Came out to start the third and remind Coach that hey, I'm the hugely athletic 6'11" guy you somehow missed sitting over on the bench. Started with a nice strong drive, and then a give and go jumper with JT. Drew a tough tough charge from Melo. Forced a drive into Nene and got the shot blocked and that was apparently too much as once again he disappeared. And once again guys who simply were not playing well played on, and on, and on, and Donte jsut sat. In fact for a long time it looked like he ws going to end up sitting right through the end of the game. But finally he was resummoned at the 3:00 mark of the 4th and immediately resumed being our best player, drove right at Melo taking advantsge of Melo's 5 fouls and consequent inability to defend to score the hoop. More impressively, as he did with that scrub Kobe, Donte stripped and smotered Melo repeatedly down the final 2 minutes of the game. These are the two top scorers in the game today mind you. And our kid was going out there and making them look bad down the stretch of winnable games for their teams. Maybe if he can keep on doing it for another 5-6 years and keep scoring 17pts on 6-9 shooting every night he will eventually be worthy of earning more minutes than backup PGs who shoot 2-11 from the field.
Thompson ( C+ ) -- Jason finished this game with 15pts 11rebs, and if his game had felt anywhere near that effective he would be getting a much higher grade than he did here. But that can be a blessing too -- the guy who puts up numbers even when he doesn't seem to be having an impact. Gotta be pretty good to do that. Started off this one in shaky and even a little embarrassing fashion -- missed a jumper, then had the chair pulled out from under him by Kenyon. I was going to note with approval that he seems decidely more settled on defense now than he did at the start of the season -- not nearly as much of that silly bouncing around that had him in constant foul trouble. But he again committed his bring the arms down defensive foul folowed by petulant complaining, so its not as if the warts are entirely gone. Very few notes here through the heart of the game. Had a dunk off a pick and roll with Sergio. Was solid on the glass, but rarely heard from or noticeable the way Peaches was. Had a little something to say about the final outcome as he came up with a good running hook down the stretch, but then committed a silly touch foul on a Nene dunk to give him the +1. Got his shot blocked at the 3:30 mark starting the Nuggets on a break. May have flopped to get to the line at the 1:20 mark, but hit both to put us up 5. Not an awful performance, and he was playable. But hard to feel the impact behind those numbers this time out.
Hawes ( C- ) -- sigh. Well back to this again -- run over by Nene in the early going and watched much of this one as a much shorter man with a much higher testosterone count showed how a big is supposed to play. For most of the game that was the story -- Spencer's 6 points I think were all off of good looking dunk plays on breaks or cuts, everything else missed. And Nene just kicked our frontline's butt same way everybody over 6'7" does. At least Spencer was more ineffective spectator than obvious aggravating cause/victim. Returned late in the game for the final minutes and immediately flipped up a terrible shot at the 3 minute mark as we tried to beat a double, then fouled Melo (or got called for it) to give the Nuggets more FTs. Another cheapie little foul on Melo at the 1:30 mark just impeding him across the lane and sending him to the line. Fortunately Melo could not shoot them tonight and kept missing them. Not a confident outing, and frankly Nene's physical tendency to just ram his shoulder into Spencer and power to the rim may have intimidated him again. That said, despite the lack of productivity this was more of a do nothing effort than a hurt you effort by Spencer.
Casspi ( C ) -- very mediocre outing for Omri. Not awful (well pretty bad to start), just mediocre. Threw away a bounce pass on the break, tried and failed to post up several of the Nuggets little guards -- surpising thing for a PF over in Israel* is that despite knowing what he should do and trying to do it, not consistently able to post up smaller guards -- tries, but percentages are low. Was just generally off early -- everything rolled off. Seemed a bit out of sync defensively as well, including once mysteriously giving Afflalo the baseline for a dunk and then yelling at...no idea who he thought was supposed to be back there. Nobody was close. After the poor first half came right out in third quarter and scored on alittle turnaround on the called play. Got out for a dunk on the break. 2 missed Fts in the late third, but then hit 2 in the early 4th. Biggest moment of the night was when he hit a big three courtesy of Greene to give us a 1pt lead at the 2:00 mark. Played a lot of not very effective minutes tonight, but like I say was not awful so much as just mediocre, and did hit a big shot for us down the stretch.
Udrih ( B ) -- even with the improved play this year Beno starting gives me nightmare flashbacks to last year. Started off by forcing a wild shot over mini-Lawson (would have loved to have seen Reke against him -- been scrawny little body parts scattered all over the arena). In the early going Beno was actually being like Reke in one way -- he wasn't exactly playing a pure point and was just running around looking for his own offense, to middling effect. Made some, missed some. Was accumulating stats across the board in areas we don't often see from him, but unfortunately one of those areas was turnovers. Turnover on an attemped pick and roll to start the third. Missed the technical FT when J.R. Smith got a T in the early 4th. Terrible forced shot at the 4 minute mark as the offense broke down and he panicked a bit. Got out on the break at the 1:45 mark for the layup +1 that largely iced the game for us. And then sealed by hitting both FTs when he was intentionally fouled at the 3 second mark.
* Note: I have now been informed that maybe Omri was not a PF at all, but rather a SF, which makes the post game issues more understandable.
) looking like a rookie, and a team with championship aspirations starting someone named Arron Afflalo at the SG. We were the tougher team mentally, and it remains a Christmas miracle that we can say that less than a year from having the worst mentality in all of the NBA.Greene ( A- ) -- you know, to a large degree Coach Westphal and I have been simpatico this season. I have had few reasons to seriously question anything he was doing. A few quibbles, but in general I think he's shown that it is possible to make good substitutions, to manage egos, provide lifts and minutes when needed for confidence etc. But his handling of Donte tonight was a mystery to me. And hey, we won, so maybe laugh's on me. But Donte started and was very very good in his limited minutes, and several of the guys who took his minutes (Casspi, Sergio) were not. So not at all sure what the rationale was. In any case, Donte got off to another hot start for us. Immediately hit a jumper + drew a foul, then blocked Melo and drew an offensive foul, hit a three, and then being Donte got a bit out of control and threw up a heatcheck, made a turnover on a too fancy pass, and while Melo was having to work hard and was enver efficient, he began to rack up points. So Donte sat down with 9 points and a good first stint, but sitting made sense. Let him rest, gather himself, refocus. All cool. Until you completely forget about the guy who was your best player in the opening quarter and he never returns before halftime. Came out to start the third and remind Coach that hey, I'm the hugely athletic 6'11" guy you somehow missed sitting over on the bench. Started with a nice strong drive, and then a give and go jumper with JT. Drew a tough tough charge from Melo. Forced a drive into Nene and got the shot blocked and that was apparently too much as once again he disappeared. And once again guys who simply were not playing well played on, and on, and on, and Donte jsut sat. In fact for a long time it looked like he ws going to end up sitting right through the end of the game. But finally he was resummoned at the 3:00 mark of the 4th and immediately resumed being our best player, drove right at Melo taking advantsge of Melo's 5 fouls and consequent inability to defend to score the hoop. More impressively, as he did with that scrub Kobe, Donte stripped and smotered Melo repeatedly down the final 2 minutes of the game. These are the two top scorers in the game today mind you. And our kid was going out there and making them look bad down the stretch of winnable games for their teams. Maybe if he can keep on doing it for another 5-6 years and keep scoring 17pts on 6-9 shooting every night he will eventually be worthy of earning more minutes than backup PGs who shoot 2-11 from the field.
Thompson ( C+ ) -- Jason finished this game with 15pts 11rebs, and if his game had felt anywhere near that effective he would be getting a much higher grade than he did here. But that can be a blessing too -- the guy who puts up numbers even when he doesn't seem to be having an impact. Gotta be pretty good to do that. Started off this one in shaky and even a little embarrassing fashion -- missed a jumper, then had the chair pulled out from under him by Kenyon. I was going to note with approval that he seems decidely more settled on defense now than he did at the start of the season -- not nearly as much of that silly bouncing around that had him in constant foul trouble. But he again committed his bring the arms down defensive foul folowed by petulant complaining, so its not as if the warts are entirely gone. Very few notes here through the heart of the game. Had a dunk off a pick and roll with Sergio. Was solid on the glass, but rarely heard from or noticeable the way Peaches was. Had a little something to say about the final outcome as he came up with a good running hook down the stretch, but then committed a silly touch foul on a Nene dunk to give him the +1. Got his shot blocked at the 3:30 mark starting the Nuggets on a break. May have flopped to get to the line at the 1:20 mark, but hit both to put us up 5. Not an awful performance, and he was playable. But hard to feel the impact behind those numbers this time out.
Hawes ( C- ) -- sigh. Well back to this again -- run over by Nene in the early going and watched much of this one as a much shorter man with a much higher testosterone count showed how a big is supposed to play. For most of the game that was the story -- Spencer's 6 points I think were all off of good looking dunk plays on breaks or cuts, everything else missed. And Nene just kicked our frontline's butt same way everybody over 6'7" does. At least Spencer was more ineffective spectator than obvious aggravating cause/victim. Returned late in the game for the final minutes and immediately flipped up a terrible shot at the 3 minute mark as we tried to beat a double, then fouled Melo (or got called for it) to give the Nuggets more FTs. Another cheapie little foul on Melo at the 1:30 mark just impeding him across the lane and sending him to the line. Fortunately Melo could not shoot them tonight and kept missing them. Not a confident outing, and frankly Nene's physical tendency to just ram his shoulder into Spencer and power to the rim may have intimidated him again. That said, despite the lack of productivity this was more of a do nothing effort than a hurt you effort by Spencer.
Casspi ( C ) -- very mediocre outing for Omri. Not awful (well pretty bad to start), just mediocre. Threw away a bounce pass on the break, tried and failed to post up several of the Nuggets little guards -- surpising thing for a PF over in Israel* is that despite knowing what he should do and trying to do it, not consistently able to post up smaller guards -- tries, but percentages are low. Was just generally off early -- everything rolled off. Seemed a bit out of sync defensively as well, including once mysteriously giving Afflalo the baseline for a dunk and then yelling at...no idea who he thought was supposed to be back there. Nobody was close. After the poor first half came right out in third quarter and scored on alittle turnaround on the called play. Got out for a dunk on the break. 2 missed Fts in the late third, but then hit 2 in the early 4th. Biggest moment of the night was when he hit a big three courtesy of Greene to give us a 1pt lead at the 2:00 mark. Played a lot of not very effective minutes tonight, but like I say was not awful so much as just mediocre, and did hit a big shot for us down the stretch.
Udrih ( B ) -- even with the improved play this year Beno starting gives me nightmare flashbacks to last year.
Started off by forcing a wild shot over mini-Lawson (would have loved to have seen Reke against him -- been scrawny little body parts scattered all over the arena). In the early going Beno was actually being like Reke in one way -- he wasn't exactly playing a pure point and was just running around looking for his own offense, to middling effect. Made some, missed some. Was accumulating stats across the board in areas we don't often see from him, but unfortunately one of those areas was turnovers. Turnover on an attemped pick and roll to start the third. Missed the technical FT when J.R. Smith got a T in the early 4th. Terrible forced shot at the 4 minute mark as the offense broke down and he panicked a bit. Got out on the break at the 1:45 mark for the layup +1 that largely iced the game for us. And then sealed by hitting both FTs when he was intentionally fouled at the 3 second mark.* Note: I have now been informed that maybe Omri was not a PF at all, but rather a SF, which makes the post game issues more understandable.
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