Mike Monroe
Express-News
DENVER — Nuggets coach George Karl swears he doesn't mind having the Spurs on his schedule twice in four days.
It's something about the Spurs bringing out the best in his team.
"What I like about San Antonio is I think we like playing them," Karl said before his team's 109-96 victory at the Pepsi Center on Friday night. "We've lost to them in the playoffs, but in the regular season I think we've had some great games against them. That team has kind of lifted us at the right time to play playoff-type basketball."
If the Spurs were in any way responsible for lifting the Nuggets to their victory Friday, it was the only heavy lifting they did on a night they gave up breakaway dunks and were outhustled for loose balls at critical times.
"I was really impressed with the Nuggets," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "They outplayed us physically, desire-wise and played smarter than we did, and that's the result."
Indeed, the Nuggets looked a lot like a playoff-worthy team in the second half of Friday's game. Erasing an eight-point halftime deficit with a 19-7 run in the final 4:55 of the third period, they gave the Spurs their first defeat in nearly a month.
The Boston Celtics beat the Spurs 98-90 on Feb. 10. In between were 11 victories, the Spurs' longest winning streak of the season.
The two teams will meet again Monday, and Karl hopes his team will rise to that occasion as thoroughly as it did Friday.
Popovich said the Spurs are accustomed to opponents elevating their level of play when facing the defending NBA champions. He is unaccustomed to seeing his team respond so tepidly.
"It doesn't make the fact they outplayed us physically and mentally sit any better," he said.
Denver certainly put forth a playoff-like defensive effort in getting a win that could be critical to its hopes of making the playoffs. The Nuggets forced four turnovers in a critical stretch of the third quarter when a five-point Spurs lead became a seven-point deficit going to the fourth. The Spurs were 3-for-9 shooting in that span.
Manu Ginobili, whose 24 points led the Spurs, was equally disappointed that the Nuggets were able to push around a team unaccustomed to such abuse.
"We are a little upset because of that," he said. "We didn't play as hard as they did, and that was the key to the game."
Friday's game before a sellout crowd and a national TV audience approached playoff intensity and showed traces of Nuggets-Spurs playoff matchups past: Robert Horry actually made a 3-point shot. Denver's J.R. Smith threw a temper tantrum. Nuggets fans booed Ginobili each time he touched the ball.
Ginobili continued to torture the boo-birds and the Nuggets in the first half. Making 6 of 10 shots and four free throws, he scored 17 to lead the Spurs to a 54-46 halftime advantage.
Ginobili picked up his third foul with 1:56 left in the first half, and Popovich opened the second half with Michael Finley on the court and Ginobili on the bench. That put Finley on Carmelo Anthony, and the result was disastrous. After making only 1 of 7 shots in the first half, Anthony made his first four of the third period. He finished with 25 points.
Karl, who insists he prefers playing the Spurs, understands the reality facing his team as it tries to wedge its way into the playoff field in the tightest Western Conference race in memory.
"We've got an incredible challenge ahead of us," he said, "which I think is going to make us better and stronger and we're going to accomplish the goal. Then we get the opportunity to play someone like San Antonio in the first round."
That may not be good for the Nuggets, eliminated in the first round by the Spurs in both 2005 and 2007, but it beats the alternative — missing the playoffs after a season that is apt to produce at least 47 victories.
I'm hoping we see a different Spurs team against the Suns.
I'd have to disagree with Pop a little, we were not allowed to play physical, the refs were called everything against us, and Denver got away with murder.
Yeah that game was clear home court calls but we did shoot ourselves to go with it.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
