So I decided to kick off my sports blog by posting on my first Nuggets game since creating it. Going into the game, hopes of winning were slim. After all, Phoenix has beaten the Nuggets 10 out of the last 12 times. Why should this game be any different? Because...
Shaq.
That's why. Ever since they foolishly traded the much younger, talented Shawn Marion to Miami for the older, slower, bigger, injury-proned Shaq, the Suns have gone 4-4 going into the game. I considered them a title contender until the trade. It's like attaching an anchor to a Porsche. Shaq drags the high pace offense of Phoenix down. But since the "Diesel" has surfaced in the retirement community of Phoenix, the Suns have been:
1. Edge out in a close game 130-124 by their division rivals...the Lakers.
2. Got blown out by Detroit 116-86...AT HOME! Loss by 30 points at HOME!
3. Blow out loss at New Orleans Bumble Bees 120-103.
4. Another loss at HOME vs. Philly 119-114. At HOME! Against PHILLY!
To their credit, they did beat the ailing Mavericks, Celtics at home and beat Memphis and Portland on the road.
Whoopeee.Coming in to the game I knew there was a chance. The Nuggets over that same stretch have been on a roller coaster ride of their own going 3-4 with some terrible losses, and impressive wins.
So which Jekyll and Hyde team would show up for the game?
Neither team plays defense, and they both to score a lot of points. The difference: Phoenix shoots 3 pointers well, while the Nuggets shoot poorly but like to dunk. 3 pts vs. 2 pts. Good shooting team vs. poor shooting team. Advantage:
SunsAs I told my friend,
The Shark, I expected each team to score no less than 120 or 130 points. Each. I kind of expected the Nuggets to lose by ten in a high scoring fest. And I was okay with that. I rather see a high scoring, fast pace game than the crap defensive fest I had to witness vs. San Antonio in the playoffs last year.
"I rather face the Spurs." Screw you Book.Onto the game...Shark and I arrived a little bit early and stand out in the blistering cold for about four minutes before they opened the doors. Can't wait to visit Phoenix next week.
Hello 70-80 degrees. The doors open and they're giving something out again...Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony full sleeve arm bands.
Perfect. Now I can hide my tattoos while I play outside on the court. Too bad there is a big "Qwest" on the back of them. Or when I drain a "3" I can taunt..."Dial it up! Bitch!" So after we receive our complementary gifts from Qwest, we bolt into the gift shop to look around.
Normally I'm pretty jazzed up for the "item of the game". Usually its something cool marked $5 or $10 off the normal price. What do we have tonight...Nuggets rubber bracelets for $3. WTF!!? A pack of three rubber bracelets in the Nuggets
blue,
gold, and white colors. Live Strong Armstrong bracelets. That sucks! Later on it hit me. Lance was livin' strong fighting cancer...so why not support Nene and his nut cancer? It makes sense to me now.
Anyways, after walking around the gift shop looking at merchandise, the Shark runs across a few foreign customers talking to themselves. To me it was gibberish. But to the Shark, who dedicated months on learning the German language in his free time, it was a chance to communicate. According to Shark, they were bitchin' about the outrageous prices of the merchandise in German. I swear through out the whole time we were in the shop he was stalking them...itching to start conversation with them.
No. Bad Shark. Let it go, we're Americans. And yes, the prices are outrageous. We mosey on over to the kid's shop so I could attempt to coerce Shark into buying a mini hoop set for his kid's upcoming birthday. After minutes of deliberation, the mini hoop set remained on the shelf.
Shark apparently doesn't love his kid enough to buy him a mini Nuggets hoop set. I'm disappointed.After our shopping experience, we head on up to our seats in the nose-bleed section of the Pepsi Center. Actually our seats aren't too bad for the price. Maybe next year after they jack up the ticket prices another $5 a seat again, we can dish out the extra $9 bucks on top of that and move up four rows. We're really, really early to the game and I think we were the second ones in our section to arrive. The players haven't even taken the court yet for warm ups. So we sit in our seats pondering what team is going to show up tonight, and how they should fire George. Also, my favorite part...watch hot women enter the sections in their skimpy outfits.
Hmmm...eye candy! Oh yeah, we watch in disgust on how many idiots can't read their ticket stub to figure out what seat they're supposed to be in.
It's not that hard! Oh yeah, a lot of Phoenix fans showed up to the game.
The players enter the court and start their warm-ups and we wait patiently for the game to start. Super Mascot Rocky enters shortly before opposing team introductions with a life size photo of Shaq holding a cactus. Rocky has a pen ready for an autograph as Shaq Daddy is announced over the P.A. system and runs out onto the court past Rocky. No autograph.
Boo! Hiss! For $21 million a year the least he could do is sign an autograph for a poor little kitty.
At 7:08 p.m., the Nuggets talented starting five of Iverson, Martin, Camby, Carter and Anthony are finally introduced over the P.A. system and Shark turns to me and says, "Why aren't they a second seed?" I don't know. You tell me.
Tip off. I think Shaq won the tip off. I couldn't tell because four or five people were standing up in the first row blocking my view. They were debating on whose seats it was. The people standing were obviously in the wrong seats.
Come on' people, check the ticket stub! It's not that hard! A small cheer from the crowd starts up and the P.A. announcer says, "O'Neal with two."
WTF!?Shark asks, "Who scored?"
"Shaq, I think."
But we couldn't tell because those freakin' idiots in the first row are still standing up debating over the seats.
Look at your F*ckin' ticket! Section: 380...it means you're seating in section 380. There's a huge sign at the top that reads..."380". Row 1...that's the row you're in. Look at the aisle when you walk in. It's marked what row. Seat 6...it's marked on the seat! Idiots! They finally leave, chuckling, "I guess we're in the wrong section." ...And I get to see Melo bricks a 15' jumper and Phoenix gets the rebound.
They sprint up the floor and Shaq gets fouled attempting a shot. The Diesel on the free throw line. Hits the first and misses the second.
Oh yeah...Hack a Shaq at it's finest. 3-0 Suns. K-Mart bricks a 18' footer, followed by a Iverson brick. Amare rebound out to Nash...basket. 5-0 Suns. Here we go again. Carter misses a shot and Melo misses a tip in, gets his own rebound and puts in back up for two. 5-2 Suns. At least we broke the shut out. On a side note, the scoreboard at the stadium isn't working properly and we have no idea how many individual points the players are accumulating. At least the secondary scoreboard in the upper corners that keep track of the home team stats are working.
7:22 of the 1st quarter...Shaq Daddy is replaced. Apparently his lungs can only operate for five minutes in the Denver thin air. 8:06 in the first...Amare dunks the ball for a 12-6 lead followed by a lightening quick Melo dunk.
Oh yeah, it's gonna be a high scoring affair.1:05 left in the first, Camby dunks the ball and the Nuggets have their first lead of the game 32-31. A quick 20 second Phoenix time out and J.R. Smith enters the game. Holly Crap! J.R. in the game in the first quarter? What the hell? Is that George Karl on the sideline? Does he feel alright? I don't think J.R. has seen any first quarter action. I tell Shark, "He just in there for the final minute to give some rest to Anthony "Willie" Carter." Grant Hill buries a three and Phoenix goes on a little 5-0 run to end the quarter with the lead 36-32. Sixty eight combined first quarter points.
Oh yeah. We're on pace for a 144-128 game. Now that's the NBA I love. Still the scoreboard isn't working.
Super Mascot Rocky enters the court between periods with a rack of balls. At the All-Star game in New Orleans, four NBA players had 60 seconds to make as many half court shots as they could. Rocky is gonna do the same. Except this time, he's going to do it backwards. How many will he sink? Shark - 1 Me - 2. I have faith in Rocky. Sixty seconds later...Rocky ties two other NBA sharp shooters with 1 make. Chris Paul made 4 at the festivities.
Shark you suck.Second quarter begins with Phoenix jumping out to a 40-33 lead. "That's why they're not the second seed." And then Phoenix went
colder than the -3 degrees Celsius temperature outside. The Nuggets go on a 16-0 run over the next three minutes of play. And a 27-6 overall as they close in towards half time. 60-46 Nuggets. J.R. sparked the Nuggets over the stretch hitting several 3 pt shots. If you play him...he will come.
And then the Nuggets got lazy again. Another reason they're not a number two seed. With a minute left before half, the Nuggets have 68 points. I tell Shark, "They could get 70 by half. That would be awesome." But they don't and let Phoenix creep back into the game.
Half time score: 68-61 NuggetsShark and I go get our traditional half time ice cream and watch the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers perform a slam dunk extravaganza for the half time show. Shark's starting to drink the Nuggets kool-aid again. We're excited about the Nuggs and feeling good about the game. But in the back of our minds, we're both very weary about the second half.
Third quarter is sparked by many mini runs and Phoenix lingering around the 9 to 11 point deficit. And the scoreboard still doesn't work. There was one point in the game were Shaq never crossed half court. He got the rebound and kicked it out to Nash and hung back at the Nuggets free throw line for about twenty seconds.
Yep. He's done. Melo took over the third quarter scoring 12 of his 30 points and left early on with the game high in points. Forty seconds to go in the third, Nuggets up 97-89, I comment to Shark, "They can hit the 100 mark by the end of three quarters."
Ah, crap. What did I just say? I just jinxed them now. I said the same thing earlier by saying "they could hit 70 by half". I'm sorry...my bad. J.R. buries a three making it 100-89.
Never mind. Iverson tacks on one more point by going one of two at the free throw line and after 3 quarters of play...Nuggets 101...Suns 89. Scoreboard still doesn't work.
The Nuggets lay off the gas pedal in the fourth quarter. But the Suns never step up their game, and the Nuggets easily coast to a
126-113 win. But it wasn't that close as the Suns who at one point were down by 19, got some "garbage" points to make it look respectable. Amare finally fouls out of the game with 1:07 left.
Thank God. I swear he gets away with a lot of fouls. By my calculation he had like 10 fouls, but got away with some of them. The NBA must love him. The officiating sucked both ways through out the game. Refs missed even the easy calls that happened right in front of them. Especially out of bound calls. Iverson led everyone with 31 points, scoring 9 in the final quarter. J.R. came off the bench to score 20 points including 6-8 from downtown.
Overall I was impressed with the Nuggets, but I'm still cautious about them. Sure at times they can be world beaters and at other times they can be pathetic. The played some great perimeter defense at times. See what happens when you try. I think it disrupted the Suns game plan. They shot lights out from behind the arc (10-16), mainly because of J.R. They did run up and down the court and wore out the Suns (who played the night before), but did get lazy at times and settled into jump shots allowing the Suns to creep back in it at times. Only if they could play like this all the time. BTW, as Shark and I were listening to the post game comments on the way home, Karl must hate J.R. He called J.R.'s performance a "good-bad game". He criticized him on defensive assignments and didn't give him props for what he did. J.R. was the difference in the game. Besides look at the score. Defense was not really contagious amongst players all night.
As for Phoenix, I don't think the Suns are the same team since the acquisition of Shaq. It definitely was not in their best interest to trade for him. Sure Shaq had some numbers to look good (12 pts, 18 boards), but so did every one else. I was impressed on the passing skills of the Suns, it looked liked Nash had an off-night. They shot fairly well from downtown (10-21). Their main weakness is playing defense. I didn't see anything out of them on that side of the court. Melo was able to dominate the glass against them and get easy put-back baskets against them. One time there were three Suns and Melo underneath the hoop for the rebound. Melo got the ball and dunked rather easily.
Miscellaneous items: 
Chicks at the game were hot.
8/10
Scoreboard not working sucked.
0/10
Blah night for the dance squad outfits.
6/10
Surprisingly quick game for being a ESPN game. I thought I would be there forever.
8/10
Item of the Game sucked.
1/10
Free Melo/AI arm bands.
7/10
Rocky entertainment scale:
7/10
Half-time show:
7/10
Crowd enthusiasm/atmosphere:
6/10
Outcome:
10/10
Super Stars:
8/10
Phoenix Suns Totals: 113G.Hill: 13 pts
A.Stoudemire: 22 pts/ 6 reb.
Shaq: 12 pts/18 reb.
R.Bell: 11 pts
S.Nash: 12 pts/13 ast.
Diaw: 17 pts
Barabosa: 15 pts
Giricek: 11 pts
Denver Nugget Totals: 126Iverson: 31 pts / 11 ast
Melo: 30 pts / 13 reb.
JR: 20 pts
K-Mart: 17 pts
Camby: 9 pts/ 8 reb./ 4 blk
Willie: 11 pts / 11 ast
Najera: 2 pts
Linus: 6 pts
My overall Nuggets Record improves to: 44-33 (Approx.)
Tommy Gun Fires Bullets at:
Trey Wingo: "I've got confirmed reports that C.C. has just ordered a Baconator from Wendy's. Let's see if we can get some camera footage from him doing it."
two minute blurb on his career, but when this dude signs with the Yanks we get an all day ordeal. This is the first day...who knows what the rest of the week will bring to us. F*ckin' ESPN! Even Mike Mussina's retirement from the Yankees and baseball attracted more air time than Maddux.
Even though it was his show and we saw him...oh let's say...for about three minutes. Kind of like his coaching stint with the Nuggets...in between leaning up against the scorers table gazing into the bright lights pondering what type of ice cream he's going to indulge himself in after the game. Hmm...chocolate or vanilla? Wow. That's a tough decision. I'm in a pickle.
It can't be. Mark Randall has done some tidbit analyst advice on post game shows and he's usually clean cut. He supports a beard, but it's trimmed pretty nice. This guy looks like he rolled out of the dumpster and through on a pair of sweats he got at the Salvation Army for half price. He's got scruffy, uncombed, greasier black hair, and one of those beards that's just a week or two shorter than Jesus's.
When the Rox made the playoffs and World Series last year, I was thinking..."Oh crap, that means Home Opening Day tickets are gonna be tough to get!" Many Colorado fans are bandwagon fans or Happy-go-lucky. When the team is doing well, the fans flock to the stadium. When the team isn't doing too well, then...well they don't show or support the team. For many years the Rox have been in the latter category.
