Kori Ellis
05-02-2005, 12:25 AM
Karl conceding little to Spurs
Web Posted: 05/02/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA050205.7D.BKNnuggets.karl.232998eca.html
DENVER — Denver Nuggets coach George Karl is nothing if not defiant, which is what you would expect from a former player who made the most of limited abilities during an on-court career with the Spurs that lasted five seasons.
Ask him about his team being down, two games to one, after the Spurs regained home court advantage by winning Game 3 Saturday night on the Nuggets' Pepsi Center court, and he insists the series is still "even."
Ask him about Bruce Bowen's defensive work on Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony accounting for Anthony's 40 percent field goal shooting in the first three games, and he joins the growing list of critics who contend Bowen's defensive work verges on dirty.
Seek his opinion of Manu Ginobili's 32-point performance in Game 3, and he insists Ginobili's game is difficult for a basketball purist to watch.
But even Karl understands this much: Tim Duncan isn't apt to have another game in the series like the 5 for 19 shooting performance he had in his 27 foul-plagued minutes in Game 3.
"I'll give you that," Karl said Sunday. "I don't think we're going to get another ... not bad game, but average game ... from him. I think he's going to have a better night (tonight)."
The real story of the series for the Nuggets has become the opportunity they wasted Saturday in a game Karl believed might have given his team the impetus it needed to upset the Spurs in the best-of-seven series. If only, because Colorado's basketball fans were ready to give the Nuggets the kind of home-court advantage that has a real effect on visitors.
"The pregame reception was just a continuation of the honeymoon in a very special year," Karl said. "I just wish we could have snowballed it into a win. I think the city is ready to explode and really support this team."
The Nuggets' failure to take advantage of Duncan's problems in Game 3, Karl said, makes tonight's Game 4 that much more pivotal.
"I don't know if it's the biggest game in (Nuggets owner) Stan Kroenke's history, or (Nuggets general manager) Kiki Vandeweghe's history, but I think it's really the first one since I've been here that is really a must-win game," he said.
Karl doesn't have to sell his players on the game's importance.
"We haven't really done anything (in the series)," Nuggets center Marcus Camby said. "We haven't put two solid halves of basketball together yet. We know that it's coming, and we need it to come (tonight), or it will be a long, long summer for us."
Anthony, whose game Bowen has largely disrupted, put it succinctly.
"Pride, that's what it's about," Anthony said of Game 4. "Pride, having a heart and having guts. That's what it's going to take."
"The game plan is out the door," Camby said. "We've got to fight, scratch, claw and even this thing up."
The Nuggets have scored only 34 fast-break points in the first three games after averaging nearly 20 a game during the regular season to lead the league.
Web Posted: 05/02/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA050205.7D.BKNnuggets.karl.232998eca.html
DENVER — Denver Nuggets coach George Karl is nothing if not defiant, which is what you would expect from a former player who made the most of limited abilities during an on-court career with the Spurs that lasted five seasons.
Ask him about his team being down, two games to one, after the Spurs regained home court advantage by winning Game 3 Saturday night on the Nuggets' Pepsi Center court, and he insists the series is still "even."
Ask him about Bruce Bowen's defensive work on Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony accounting for Anthony's 40 percent field goal shooting in the first three games, and he joins the growing list of critics who contend Bowen's defensive work verges on dirty.
Seek his opinion of Manu Ginobili's 32-point performance in Game 3, and he insists Ginobili's game is difficult for a basketball purist to watch.
But even Karl understands this much: Tim Duncan isn't apt to have another game in the series like the 5 for 19 shooting performance he had in his 27 foul-plagued minutes in Game 3.
"I'll give you that," Karl said Sunday. "I don't think we're going to get another ... not bad game, but average game ... from him. I think he's going to have a better night (tonight)."
The real story of the series for the Nuggets has become the opportunity they wasted Saturday in a game Karl believed might have given his team the impetus it needed to upset the Spurs in the best-of-seven series. If only, because Colorado's basketball fans were ready to give the Nuggets the kind of home-court advantage that has a real effect on visitors.
"The pregame reception was just a continuation of the honeymoon in a very special year," Karl said. "I just wish we could have snowballed it into a win. I think the city is ready to explode and really support this team."
The Nuggets' failure to take advantage of Duncan's problems in Game 3, Karl said, makes tonight's Game 4 that much more pivotal.
"I don't know if it's the biggest game in (Nuggets owner) Stan Kroenke's history, or (Nuggets general manager) Kiki Vandeweghe's history, but I think it's really the first one since I've been here that is really a must-win game," he said.
Karl doesn't have to sell his players on the game's importance.
"We haven't really done anything (in the series)," Nuggets center Marcus Camby said. "We haven't put two solid halves of basketball together yet. We know that it's coming, and we need it to come (tonight), or it will be a long, long summer for us."
Anthony, whose game Bowen has largely disrupted, put it succinctly.
"Pride, that's what it's about," Anthony said of Game 4. "Pride, having a heart and having guts. That's what it's going to take."
"The game plan is out the door," Camby said. "We've got to fight, scratch, claw and even this thing up."
The Nuggets have scored only 34 fast-break points in the first three games after averaging nearly 20 a game during the regular season to lead the league.