Harvey: Nuggets change, as does West

[duncan228]

Nuggets change, as does West
Buck Harvey

The Spurs were once better. They were once smarter, too.

They especially were when they played a Nuggets franchise that couldn’t spell IQ. The Spurs beat Denver in the first round in each of their last two championship runs with superior poise and patience and discipline.

Now the Nuggets have all of these qualities, and credit goes to George Karl.

He lets Chauncey Billups play point guard for him.

Karl raged in the dumb Denver days, and sometimes at the Spurs. Once, after Manu Ginobili shredded the Nuggets in a 2005 playoff game, Karl announced Ginobili had effectively ruined the sport of basketball for a generation.

“I don’t like watching him,” Karl said then.

Who he really didn’t like watching were his own players. His admonishment of J.R. Smith became a sound-bite classic: “I just love the dignity of the game being insulted right in front of me.”

But then came the kind of trade at the start of last season that the Spurs should be getting used to. As Gregg Popovich only now begins to soften his previous criticism of the Pau Gasol trade, he should revisit this one.

In retrospect, Detroit might have been more illogical than Memphis. Joe Dumars had tired of losing in the playoffs (he would take that kind of failure now), and so he swapped Billups for Allen Iverson and some cap space.

The twist, later this month, is that Iverson will start the All-Star Game in Dallas. Billups won’t even be there.

But everyone knows. There are younger point guards and flashier ones. Yet in tight games, right now, who is better than Billups?

Billups made a case for himself Sunday, albeit after a sloppy first half. Then the Spurs and Nuggets traded leads, and once Karl couldn’t help himself.

“They’re faking everything!” Karl yelled, hoping the refs would finally grasp the Spurs’ pattern of deceit.

But Karl didn’t need to say much, especially not to Billups. In the fourth quarter, after Roger Mason Jr. missed his final and biggest open 3-pointer of the afternoon, Billups dribbled up the court.

Karl told him not to rush. That was the plan, at least.

“I came down, and I was going to back down and get a good shot,” Billups said. “I made one little move, and Richard (Jefferson) backed off so far it was just instinct. I’ve got to shoot it.”

They called him “Mr. Big Shot” in Detroit for a reason.

A few minutes later his former Pistons teammate, Antonio McDyess, pulled the Spurs within two points. Billups reacted by dragging a Spurs trap to the side, with McDyess lunging at him, and found Kenyon Martin open for a dive to the basket and 3-point play.

“That’s the thing,” said McDyess. “He makes all their other players better, and that’s when they had their opportunities to step up, like K-Mart, to make big shots.”

Billups has affected Karl, too. The same Nuggets who once tuned out their coach now listen because, well, Billups does.

Maybe the Spurs shoot better next time. Maybe Tim Duncan gets more than 10 shots, and maybe the Spurs can hold Martin under 27 points.

But after the Nuggets swept the Spurs in San Antonio for the first time ever, it’s even clearer there has been a rearranging of power. The Spurs aren’t as clever as they once were, without Robert Horry and Bruce Bowen around anymore, and the Nuggets aren’t knuckleheads.

One brain changed all the others. And, as it was with Gasol, Billups changed the Western Conference, too.

So, as the Spurs head on their annual road trip, what is the best they can do in the conference?

The Spurs once didn’t shoot for third.

[Sean Cagney]

But after the Nuggets swept the Spurs in San Antonio for the first time ever, it’s even clearer there has been a rearranging of power. The Spurs aren’t as clever as they once were, without Robert Horry and Bruce Bowen around anymore, and the Nuggets aren’t knuckleheads.

^^^^^
Utterly pathetic, losing at home to them and Utah twice! They have passed us up, and yes the Spurs will have to play for THIRD in the conference at best It hurts me so much to think this team is below Denver now and at AT BEST could be #3 in the conference (IF they can pass Dallas). This is a sad sad time as a fan, a once dominant team who could beat anyone is now just a s of their former selves.

It will happen to all though, it is expected for any team.

[ElNono]

Spurs are 1-4 against Denver since Chauncey joined them...

[Sean Cagney]

Spurs are 1-4 against Denver since Chauncey joined them...

LOL GO FIGURE, they get the right trade we get RJ and are not 0-2 against them . Good lord some made good trades to change the West, we made them and lost.

[SenorSpur]

Meanwhile, the mediorcre Western conference teams have caught up with the Spurs, while the contenders have passed them by.