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Yeh while maybe Pop had plays his stars a few minutes each of the last few games . . . notice Suns won and their starters played minutes to the end.
Spurs hungry for home win in Game 2
April 23, 2007
AP - Apr 22, 10:40 pm EDT
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SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Now the task gets even tougher for the Denver Nuggets.
After taking Game 1 of their first-round playoff series with San Antonio on Sunday, the Nuggets are preparing to face a Spurs team desperate for a home win on Wednesday night.
"They're going to come at us like they haven't won a game all season," said Nuggets guard Allen Iverson, who combined with Carmelo Anthony to score 61 points in the 95-89 victory. "And we understand that.
"We've got to come out extremely hard, we've got to play as hard as we did last night but harder."
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich didn't mind how his team's league-leading defense performed. It's the Spurs' offense that has him concerned, and the improvement must start with his All-Stars.
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"Carmelo and Allen were great, they made shots and their defense was better in stopping us than our defense was in stopping them overall, I guess," Popovich said. "We didn't stop their stars and they stopped ours. That's the bottom line."
Popovich and the Spurs practiced and watched film Monday.
"We still lost. I tried to change that film as much as I could. Tried to make more shots, tried to make more stops, but we lost," he said wryly.
"We did a lot of good things defensively. Transition 'D' was great, they didn't hurt us at all in transition, which is a big, big part of their offense," Popovich said.
But Anthony and Iverson went a combined 21-for-40, outshooting San Antonio's top-scoring trio.
Tim Duncan went 7-of-17 from the field for 14 points, missing his first eight shots. Tony Parker had 19 points, but it was on 8-of-20 shooting, and Manu Ginobili, who was runner-up for the NBA's Sixth Man Award, added nine points on 4-of-15 shooting.
Before Sunday's game, the last time the three of them had played was a week earlier in a loss to Dallas.
"I think for Tim, Manu and Tony it's a rhythm (issue). They hadn't played in a long time," Spurs forward Bruce Bowen said. "But that's not to make an excuse for what Denver did last night. ... At the same time, we have our guys on our team that didn't play for a while, now they'll get back into the swing of things."
If San Antonio can get their shooting game back on track, then they can turn their attention to trying to contain Denver's All-Star duo.
AP - Apr 22, 10:39 pm EDT
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The Anthony-Iverson tandem is clearly working out for Denver the way it hoped when the Nuggets acquired Iverson from Philadelphia in December. Iverson led the Nuggets with 31 points and Anthony added 30 as each played more than 40 minutes.
The Spurs realize there's only so much that can be done to stop two of the top scorers in the league.
"You really can't do too much of anything but try to hope you get it (the ball) out of their hands," said Robert Horry. "We played extremely good defense on them, they just made some great shots."
Neither Iverson nor Nuggets coach George Karl expect to have it easy on Wednesday.
"We were running to them because we had a play that was working," Karl said. "I know that play probably is not going to be as effective as it was last night. I know we're going to have to find something else along the way."
Karl used just eight players Sunday, and he said he's going to have to look to the bench more, acknowledging, "I don't know if we can play 7 1/2 players for 7 games."
In 2005 Denver won the first game of the first playoff series against San Antonio on the road. San Antonio then won the next four games on its way to the NBA championship.
Popovich dismisses any comparisons to two years ago, even those benefiting his team, and Denver is left hoping history does not repeat itself. The Nuggets haven't won a playoff series since they were the No. 8 seed and knocked off No. 1 seed Seattle in 1994 in a best-of-five. But they came into the first round this year having won 10 of their last 11.
"We talked about how we're going to make it a long series, and it's a lot of psychological play and we're not going to celebrate," Karl said. "We're going to be serious about getting better every day, getting better after every game."
Yeh while maybe Pop had plays his stars a few minutes each of the last few games . . . notice Suns won and their starters played minutes to the end.
our big 3 19-52 for 36%!!!!
The Mavs shot 35.3 percent from the floor in game 1
That was even worse than the Spurs. Watching that game was my therapy after the Spurs loss.
D'Antoni played most of his starters for most of the minutes for most of the year. I want to see how they hold up if they make it out of round one.
say what?"We've got to come out extremely hard, we've got to play as hard as we did last night but harder."
And I cannot wait until Wednesday night (Thursday morning for Manila) for the game.
I will be HIGHLY surprised if Dallas loses game 2 at home. They only way they lose that series will be because Nelly outcoaches AJ. Other than that there is no way they should lose to Golden State. I mean contain Baron Davis and not let him have 19 point quarters at a time that should be Dallas main concern. We have more problems to worry about with Denver.
Where did this article come from? Was it published at a credible web site? Can we have a link please?
Clearly it's an example of the intellectually gifted Nuggets players.
spurs fans are easily amused.
Nugget fans think they've won the series!!! GO SPURS GO!!!
I haven't seen any place where one of us has posted anything to suggest this. I think we're all aware of what happend in 2005. I for one won't start getting excited untill we've won another 2 games.
Three days a little much between games. I'm ready to get game 2 started, and hope the Spurs are ready as well
the denver media has written articles like Spurs on their way out, blah, blah, blah. They speak what the fans think. so, yes a lot of Fugget fans think they already won
the denver media has written articles like Spurs on their way out, blah, blah, blah. They speak what the fans think. so, yes a lot of Fugget fans think they already won
Mark Kiszla does not represent the Nugget fan base.
Some of you all are just understandably frustrated with the game 1 loss. You all are probably just a little irked by our presence but we know what the Spurs are cabable of.
We haven't won a playoff series in like 15 years, trust me Nugget fans are not an optimistic group proclaiming the series to be over. Were more doomsday types and some feel the franchise is cursed.
Last edited by Bwild; 04-24-2007 at 04:42 PM.
no we dont. where did you get that from?
no. a couple idiot denver sportswriters may think this. denver fans do not.the denver media has written articles like Spurs on their way out, blah, blah, blah. They speak what the fans think. so, yes a lot of Fugget fans think they already won
be careful reasoning with the reactionary sect.
I think Nellie is able to outcoach AJ, and he has so far. I still think Dallas will win the series, but I can still dream.
Wednesday is Duncan's birthday, so prepare to get waxed, Denver. Tim's going to put the icing on the cake himself.
In every Kiszla thread on this site the Nuggets fans have pointed out that he sucks, but some Spurs fans think this means the Nugget fans are writing the Spurs out, despite every post to the contrary. If the Spurs win game 2 I expect the reactionary crowd to post 'take that, I told you so, now who's in trouble, you suck, now who's talking ' type posts. I could make a list now of the poster's who will do it and I bet it would be 98% accurate.
Mark Kiszla doesn't not represent the Nugget fan base.
Some of you all are just understandably frustrated with the game 1 loss. You all are probably just a little irked by our presence but we know what the Spurs are cabable of.
We haven't won a playoff series in like 15 years, trust me Nugget fans are not an optimistic group proclaiming the series to be over. Were more doomsday types and some feel the franchise is cursed.
lol! Yes the media always represents the fans' feelings!!!!the denver media has written articles like Spurs on their way out, blah, blah, blah. They speak what the fans think. so, yes a lot of Fugget fans think they already won
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