(2) Nuggets Vs. (6) Mavericks

[Scotty]

^Who knows, a Nuggets fan could throw another bottle and this time it could hit Kobe in the temple and kill him...

EDIT: Dont even need to worry about doing that, Kobe has swine flu...

LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant missed practice Sunday because of a sore throat, which raised few worries among the Los Angeles Lakers.
If anything, it might just mean a little less trash talk between Bryant and Ron Artest when the Lakers host the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals on Monday night.

[jonthefon]

I love how everyone seems to be reading into a sweep after one game. Home court, home cooking for the Nuggets, and the final score does no justice, the game was close until midway through the fourth.

FT disparity was more than just home cooking, it was terrible officiating at times. The Nuggets were getting calls for touch fouls, and at the other end, the Mavs were getting screwed where someone would get hacked driving the lane and the refs would swallow their whistles. Four or five times during that second quarter, I'd watch Dirk or Terry or Howard draw a lot of contact, get no call and then think "obviously Melo gets the call". Of course home cooking is always one of those "invisible" factors but Dallas made a pretty good effort to be aggressive and go inside, but they didn't get the calls even more than usual.

Still even with the shitty officiating, the Mavs played pretty badly. 20 fucking turnovers, Kidd had 8 of them: quite a few of them were completely unnecessary. Denver weren't planning to play D until Dallas forced them to and they didn't do enough. The bench was non-existent, Howard's ankle injury was troubling him again.

Much credit to Denver though. They came out and executed a pretty damn good gameplan on both sides of the court, they let Dirk have his and generally put the clamps down with their aggressiveness. Their bench stepped up in a huge way when Melo got in foul trouble and with Billups limited. Jones, Carter, Andersen, Smith all played big parts in the win.

The way things are turning out, the Mavs will need to catch some serious breaks to steal one from the Mile High City. If they can't, Nuggets in 5 or 7.

[dopeboy]

Denver in 6. They are a bit unorthodox - once they get rollin' on offense, they do the same thing on D. And Nuggets WILL get those calls in Dallas too.. They are just that more athletic. Especially their bigs..

[Scotty]

I love how everyone seems to be reading into a sweep after one game. Home court, home cooking for the Nuggets, and the final score does no justice, the game was close until midway through the fourth.

FT disparity was more than just home cooking, it was terrible officiating at times. The Nuggets were getting calls for touch fouls, and at the other end, the Mavs were getting screwed where someone would get hacked driving the lane and the refs would swallow their whistles. Four or five times during that second quarter, I'd watch Dirk or Terry or Howard draw a lot of contact, get no call and then think "obviously Melo gets the call". Of course home cooking is always one of those "invisible" factors but Dallas made a pretty good effort to be aggressive and go inside, but they didn't get the calls even more than usual.

Still even with the shitty officiating, the Mavs played pretty badly. 20 fucking turnovers, Kidd had 8 of them: quite a few of them were completely unnecessary. Denver weren't planning to play D until Dallas forced them to and they didn't do enough. The bench was non-existent, Howard's ankle injury was troubling him again.

Much credit to Denver though. They came out and executed a pretty damn good gameplan on both sides of the court, they let Dirk have his and generally put the clamps down with their aggressiveness. Their bench stepped up in a huge way when Melo got in foul trouble and with Billups limited. Jones, Carter, Andersen, Smith all played big parts in the win.

The way things are turning out, the Mavs will need to catch some serious breaks to steal one from the Mile High City. If they can't, Nuggets in 5 or 7.

lol dude the reff's did the exact same thing to Denver in Dallas in that last game of the season. They just couldn't get Dallas over the hump. Only thing Denver was still able to win that game and Dallas weren't able to win this one in the opposite situation...

[jonthefon]

Even before the Mavs have played any home games in this series, I'm starting to seriously doubt the likelihood of them winning this series. Game 2 pretty much drove home the point that they're completely and utterly fucked on defence. They hung around because Denver shot a pretty average percentage over two quarters and because Dirk was typically unstoppable, but that last quarter basically showed that the Nuggets are just too athletic for the Mavs. They're going to draw too many fouls. Nene ate Erick Dampier for breakfast and Ryan Hollins did well but he's going to foul out within 20 minutes no matter who he guards, just because he's Oden-esque in terms of foul prone-ness. Not to mention once again, Billups was rather quiet and Melo missed a chunk of the game with stomach pains before his dramatic return.

I think the Mavs can win their three at home but they probably won't be able to steal one in Denver. Nuggets in 7 right now, unless Dallas somehow wins a Game 5.

[Oakrhum]

The Mavs will win game three but they will lose the next one.

[CMJ3]

If the Nuggets wanna make a statement they take game 3 if they wanna just cruise through this series then it could be like the Hornets series game 3.

[Lamrock]

Holy shit. What a game! Carmelo for 3!!! I like the decision by the ref to grant them the three. That shot was remarkable and that would have been penalizing Denver for the foul.

It'll be fun seeing Denver in the conference finals. They've been the best Western Conference team in the playoffs thus far. They might be able to do some damage against the Lakers!

[Scotty]

Yeah im glad i got up to watch that game

If Wright wanted to foul him he should've wrapped him up like any normal NBA player would, but instead he decides to stick his chest out to attempt a very soft foul and in the end gets punished with Melo's game winning 3 ball...

Man im glad to be up 3-0

[The X]

I'm also glad the foul isn't called as I don't like deliberate fouls like that just to use them up....great play by Melo & big shot....go Nuggs, hope they move on & win title

[CMJ3]

Damnit!! i missed the game oh well spose ill have to download it somewhere, 3-0!!!! wow i never thought id see Denver make it this far this is amazing.

[Oakrhum]

Nice shot by Melo but there really is a Wright foul. But that's how it goes.

[Scotty]

Damnit!! i missed the game oh well spose ill have to download it somewhere, 3-0!!!! wow i never thought id see Denver make it this far this is amazing.

I can give you some Rapidshare links to download the game when it's uploaded, if you want...

[Fcuk Orlando]

The Wright no call was kinda sketchy but Dirk shot the ball way to early, he should have held the ball until he was fouled.
This is unbelievable The Nuggets will probably sweep

[Oakrhum]

The Mavericks aren't supposed to be in the second round anyway.

[jonthefon]

Fuck you Oakrhum.

Lamrock, you can't say they should let Melo have the three just because "it was an awesome shot". That's like the refs extending the 2002 WCF Finals to a Game 7 on purpose.

I didn't like the no-call for obvious reasons (the refs knew there was a foul coming and swallowed their whistles) but Wright should've made it obvious without turning it into an unsportsmanlike.

But it doesn't matter, the Mavs should've put the game away in the final quarter. They had the opportunities to do so, Denver shot poorly, the Mavs got to the line on their home cooking, missed fourth-quarter free throws, Dirk should've held onto the fucking ball instead of shooting it (still seconds on the clock, drive the damn ball in and try create a foul), a million other fucking things they did wrong. Props to the Nuggets for sticking around and waiting for the Mavs to trip on their own puddle of suck.

I hate the NBA.

[Fcuk Orlando]

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/30662175/
The NBA admits the refs were wrong, yet they do nothing

[Andrew]

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/30662175/
The NBA admits the refs were wrong, yet they do nothing

I remember Charles Barkley riffing on that with the similar situation in the Lakers/Spurs series last year. On one hand it's good that the NBA will review these things and admit fault when it so often seems that the officials aren't held accountable for crucial errors but at the same time it's kind of hollow. Unless you go back and replay those final seconds, nothing will change. It's good that they'll come out and own up to the mistake, but it doesn't really achieve much and looks kind of bad at the same time.

[mshooter24]

..even if the NBA admits that the refs commits the mistake it will not change the result of the game...too bad for the mavs...

[Lamrock]

Lamrock, you can't say they should let Melo have the three just because "it was an awesome shot". That's like the refs extending the 2002 WCF Finals to a Game 7 on purpose.

Committing a foul, in theory, is a mistake that warrants a penalty. The whistle didn't go off, so Wright shouldn't have loosened his D on Melo. The Nuggets shouldn't have been penalized for the Mavericks foul. That's why if a guy sinks a three right after the opposing team commits a defensive three seconds, the defensive three is waived. This is nothing like the WCF finals.

[jonthefon]

Whoops, I misunderstood you then. There wasn't actually a whistle, indicating play on, so obviously that was why they didn't wave off the three.

This is a similar situation to what the league told Cuban after the Smith/Wright incident earlier in the season: "Oh, it should've been a flagrant, but hey, now that we're past it, Smith can get off scot-free!".

The NBA: Where Amazing Officiating Happens.

Yeah, I'm still bitter about the Finals and the call Wade drew at the end of Game 5, along with countless others.

[hova-]

Definitely a bad non call, but just as jonthefon said Dallas shouldve closed out this game way earlier. Denvers Bigs were in foultrouble all game long and Dirk was playing well so I just cant understand how they never led by more than 2 points in the 2nd half.

Jason Kidd was the key for the Mavs as he finally decided to show some balls in this series. Still mark my words:

Chauncey Billups is the best point guard in the NBA.

[jonthefon]

Delaying the inevitable unfortunately.

But each game this series should be settling the ridiculous belief that "Dirk Nowitzki is a piss-poor playoffs performer" straight. Granted, the Nuggets don't have much to guard him. Granted, he doesn't really have killer instinct but the dude's coming up big-time game after game even with what's going on in his personal life right now. One-and-a-half series shouldn't change that. Unfortunately, there are thousands of fairweather Mavs fans who continue to think that.

And the Mark Cuban incident? I'm a fan of Cuban's passion for this franchise, but he went waaaaaaaaaaay overboard there. Even if he only said "That includes your son", he shouldn't have gone for it. I wonder if what he says about Martin's mother talking trash after Game 2 was true though...

[benji]

But each game this series should be settling the ridiculous belief that "Dirk Nowitzki is a piss-poor playoffs performer" straight.

Sorry, Dirk is a choker. You may want to look at his entire career, but us NBA experts know we should look at seven specific games that fit our narrative. Dirk is a choker.

You probably aren't even talented enough to play in the NBA.

[jonthefon]

I don't know if my sarcasm meter is broken or not.