It's only been one game of the playoffs, but the Nuggets friggin' won, and in any event it appears the world was right and I was wrong about the Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups trade. (It takes a very dumb man to admit this, as I apparently never wrote about said trade on this blog.) I was upset when the Nuggets lost Iverson; I loved his scoring and entertainment value, and he made the team interesting and prominent in a way Billups never could. That said, I think deep down I sort of knew everyone was right: Iverson was fading fast, and Billups was a terrifically reliable team player, known for his big shots in the clutch. (Not that Iverson hasn't had great playoff moments: Billups has a Finals MVP to his credit, but I'm more impressed with the way Iverson carried an inferior squad to the Finals in his MVP season.) Regardless, with a second-seed (though only in a tightly-packed West) and a 1-0 series lead, clearly the Nuggets didn't lose anything in the trade.
Billups was huge in last night's Game One win over the New Orleans Hornets, whose road jerseys made the game look like an intrasquad scrimmage, but I'm not ready to make plans for the second round yet. (By the way, having Chris Andersen back is awesome, though I couldn't find Skita or the Earl of Boykins anywhere.)
Anyway, my biggest concern remains Carmelo Anthony. I love him as a player, but once again he got off to a bad start in the playoffs. As he said in the recap, he's not concerned. Should we be?
3 comments:
Billups coming up huge in a postseason game is exactly why we brought him in. He is our Curt Schilling, and showed that he was worth the price last night.
I am concerned about Melo because we will need him to step up if we are going to have a chance. As great as Billups is, we can't get it done if we are dependent on him to put up 36 a night. And as you so eloquently said, today's date makes me fear what Melo is carrying around in his backpack . . .
Last night's game was awesome. I was worried because they played terrible in their last game of the regular season but last night they played with more intensity and energy than I've seen from then in at least a month.
The best part of last night's game was when the crowd started chanting M-V-P when Billups was shooting free throws. Hastings even commented that he had never heard that before in Denver. Billups was unbelievable, and for was well as he shot the ball, he also had 8 assists and played great defense on basketball's greatest actor: Chris Paul.
The best part of having Billups on our team are the intangible qualities he brings. If you watched the game on Altitude then you already know this, but I thought it was awesome that during the timeouts that Billups would sit in Karl's chair before the coach and tell the players what they are doing wrong and where they need to improve. It says a lot about a player if his peers respect him enough to listen, and I've noticed several times this season that the other Nuggets seem to be drawn to Chauncey during the timeouts getting advice from him. Even J.R. and Melo will talk to Billups (presumably about improving their game) during the games.
I think Melo will be fine. He got off to a bad start shooting the ball last night, but he was aggressively rebounding the ball and played solid defense on Butler. It seemed like Melo focused more on distributing the ball after his shot wasn't falling. In the past we would see Melo continue to jack up contested jump shots even if he wasn't hitting his shots. I think Melo has matured a lot over the last couple of years and is willing to let whoever has the hot hand shoot the ball while he contributes in other areas.
Billups as Curt Schilling...interesting. I hope this doesn't make us the New New Yankees. But it just feels so right to get to see him play like this in a Nuggets uniform in the playoffs. It is his destiny.
I didn't watch the game on Altitude...didn't even think that it'd be on there. Blast! I'll have to remember that for next time.
My only concern with Melo is not his maturity, but just his postseason struggles, which, as I've said before, make no sense to me. He hits game-winners in the regular season all the time, carried his college team to a title, and generally seems to handle pressure well...just not NBA opening-round pressure, usually. I don't get it. But I love the guy and hope this is the year.
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