Ty.  Dude.

Thank you.

I have to say that you and Aaron Afflalo were the only two constants this year.  For being younger players you guys showed not only heart and passion, but you both played smart, no-nonsense basketball.  On a team lacking in all those things, I admire you.  I don't mean to rip on your teammates, I know that they're all good guys and good basketball players, but you showed a lot more poise than guys who have been in the league a lot longer.

I'm excited to see what you can bring next year.  I'm excited because you'll no longer be the rookie.  I'm excited because you'll get to play more minutes and give Billups more rest so that he's not worn out in the playoffs.  I'm excited you'll get a chance to get in guy's ears and make sure that they're playing ball the right way.  I hope that Denver has the foresight to retain you for many years, because there is no way that you won't be a star if you continue to work hard and play smart basketball.

A game hasn't gone by where I haven't screamed at my TV to get you in the game.  Hopefully everyone will be watching their film this summer and realize that you are the future of this team.  Keep doing all the little things that are necessary to get better, work on the jumper to keep defenders honest, and we'll get after them again next year.

Free Ty Lawson!  Go Nuggets!

Pretend like the Nuggets actually read this blog.  Now pretend like they read some of the crap that we write and say, "hey, that's a good idea!"

What's the one piece of advice you would want to give to this Nuggets team before the playoffs start?

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I know, I know, we don't want to rehash our lone loss to the Jazz but with all of the news media falling all over themselves because of Utah's hot streak I had to bring it up again.  It's not making excuses for the Nuggets (who played well, considering), merely an attempt to bring the basketball world back to their senses.  After all, the Jazz are only 1-3 against the Nuggs.

I was doing some thinking about that game.  I mean, Billups sat and Melo sat, Afflalo and Nene got hurt.  How many minutes did our starters actually play?  So I picked up the boxscore and did some basic addition.  I used the minutes that our regular starting 5 played in the Utah game.  Then I wanted to see how many minutes each of them usually play.

Billups:  0 mins at Utah; 33:18 normally.

Afflalo:  21:41 at Utah; 26:24 normally.

Anthony:  0 mins at Utah; 37:42 normally.

KMart: 40:31 at Utah (!!!); 35:12 normally.

Nene:  20:33 at Utah; 33:48 normally.

Starting 5:  82:45 at Utah; 166:24 normally.

In other words, out of a possible 240 minutes (48 mins by 5 players), our starters use 166 of them normally, or just over 2/3rds.  At Utah, our starters used just over 1/3rd of the minutes - or half their normal use - while the bench played twice as many minutes as usual.  Utah on the other hand played their starters for 162 minutes, equal to the 162 minutes that they normally play.  So Utah's full-strength starters played 2/3rds of the game and their subs played 1/3rd while Denvers starters played 1/3rd and our subs played 2/3rds.

I realize that guys get paid to play whether they start or come off the bench, but it's admirable that our subs played starter minutes against the Utah starters and only lost by 10.  Congratulations Utah, you just barely beat our subs... on a back-to-back, at home.

Yeah yeah, a win is a win and I'm just bitter over that defeat.  It's true.  If Utah had mopped the floor with the Nuggets that night (like they should have) I wouldn't be bringing this up. 

I was at the Mall earlier this evening with my wife and as we were walking we saw two really tall guys walking our way.  I didn't recognize one of them but the other absolutely looked like Kenyon Martin.  I nudged my wife, who is nearly as big a Nuggets fan as I am, and said, "I think that's KMart!"

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I was just doing some stat checking and came across something interesting.

I wanted to compare the Lakers record against the Nuggets, using only games that may matter come playoff time.  I realize that winning against sub .500 teams is necessary to get good seeding, but once the playoffs begin, we won't be seeing a single team that hasn't won at least 50% of their games. 

So over the last 47 (Nuggets) and 48 (Lakers) games, here's how the two teams have handled their biz: 

Nuggets vs. Western Conference Playoff-bound teams: 9-3
Lakers vs. Western Conference Playoff-bound teams: 7-6
Nuggets vs. +.500 teams (both conferences): 21-8
Lakers vs. +.500 teams (both conferences): 18-10
Denver only has a losing record against one +.500 team: Dallas.
LA has a losing record against five +.500 teams: San Antonio, Portland, Toronto, Cleveland, and DENVER!

Or if you prefer to see it by team (based on current standings), below I have a crappy table showing how well the +.500 teams are faring against both Denver and Los Angeles. 

EAST                                               vs. DENVER                                     vs. LAL
Cleveland       (37-11)                               0-1                                                2-0
Orlando          (31-16)                               0-1                                                0-1
Atlanta            (30-16)                              1-1                                                0-1
Boston            (29-16)                              0-0                                                0-1
Toronto           (25-22)                              0-1                                                1-0
Charlotte         (24-22)                              1-1                                                0-0
Chicago          (23-22)                              0-2                                                0-2
Miami              (24-23)                              1-1                                                0-1

WEST                                              vs. DENVER                                     vs. LAL
LAL                   (37-11)                            0-1                                                  --
Denver             (32-15)                              --                                                   1-0        
Dallas               (30-17)                            1-0                                                 1-2
Utah                 (28-18)                             0-3                                                 1-1
San Antonio     (27-19)                             0-2                                                 1-0
Portland            (28-21)                            0-1                                                 1-0
Phoenix            (27-21)                             1-1                                                 1-2 

New Orleans    (26-21)                             1-1                                                 0-2
--------------------
Houston            (25-21)                            0-2                                                  1-2
Memphis           (25-21)                            1-1                                                  0-0
Oklahoma City  (25-21)                            1-1                                                  0-3

I just wanted to link a pair of articles that address the current state of officiating.  The first one is your typical Bill Simmons "The Refs are screwing up everything" type of article -- though it does have some interesting history thrown in -- and the second is John Hollinger's take on *why* the officiating appears so bad.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090528&sportCat=nba

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-090528

I had written something similar to Hollinger yesterday on SS&R about the how the way game 5 was called was more beneficial to the Lakers' style of play than to the Nuggets' style of play (without saying that the calls were one-sided) but all they had to say was that the Nuggets shouldn't whine about officiating because they got the whistle in game 4.  Go figure.

DJ,

we all know that you can be an excellent defender.  You're tough as nails and like to body up to your opponents no matter how sweaty they are or how badly your jersey smells at the end of the night. 

Everybody knows that you like to pull the chair in the post.  We get it.  It's just like when you pulled the chair from your buddy in the lunchroom back in sophomore year in high school.  It's fricken' hilarious to see them lose their balance and fall flat.  It's a great move, don't get me wrong.  But do me a favor.  After you pull the chair, don't give up on the play.  Remember when you did it against Dirk and he *almost* lost the ball?  Remember when you did it against Kobe and he *almost* didn't make the easy layup?  Well, I remember how in each of those game you guys *almost* won.

Pull the chair, but then go for the ball.  I know you got hops, when Kobe is off balance he doesn't get any air under him.  Block the damn ball.

Just some advice from a guy who sits on his couch while willing you guys to victory.  However, I did beat my boss in a game of H-O-R-S-E the other day, so I have that going for me.

Sincerely,

NuggBuckets