for me it is.
for me it is.
why?
Does it look like people around here are happy?
Well the people that realize we have the best playoff schedule we could possibly get.
Not happy about losing, but I do know that we just bumped up our chances of going further in the playoffs.
TC's postgame comments have me a bit bummed. :(
what did he say?
Per WCH...
He said the more minutes he plays the more the ankle hurts, and he knows he won't be able to give it 100% this postseason.
that's just great news!Quote:
Originally Posted by NIH
This should not be surprising to us. If you paid careful attention to what was being said about his status, you could clearly tell he wasn't going to be a major factor in the playoffs.Quote:
Originally Posted by NIH
I'm never particularly happy when either the Hornets or the Saints lose a close game, I have strained vocal chords and the occasional torn up TV set to prove that for you, but still with this loss, it isn't the end of the world. Our season is not over, we have a better lot then some of the the WC teams. At least we won't have to play Utah, L.A., San Antonio, Houston, or Portland in the 1st round. If we play our cards right, we might make some noise in the post-season. I'm glad we're playing a Nuggets team that has a good offense but a mediocre defense, that can be managed much more to our advantage.
Thank God we are not playing Houston. I know I sure as hell am. Yao Ming looks like a man who is pissed to have never won an NBA playoff series, he is damn and determined to end that this year, thankfully he'll do it to someone else.
Just worry about Denver lads. That's our objective right now. All else is not be considered right now
I liked what the loss brought to us but at the mean time it always feels great to beat SA.
We have the best schedule any hornets fan should dream of. We play a Denver team who we matchup very well against and can beat at their home easier than Houston or Portland. If we make it to the second round, we would play SA or Dallas. On the other hand, wait for LA, Utah, Houston and Portland to beat the hell out of each other going to the WCF.
What else do you guys need?!
I'm not exactly happy, but I didn't mind the loss at all.
No. Denver is deeper. We are actually a better defensive team, but everyone's favorite JR Smith is going to make a point to kill us(I realize he could be dumb enough to cost his team a W). I'll bet anyone that Hornets fans will be more pissed if this guy is the reason we lose than if Peja shoots 25%. Between 'Melo and JR we have no one who can guard those guys for 48 minsQuote:
Originally Posted by Taxidriver
Considering Dallas beat SA (with a res hot Finley) I would have liked our chances against them. But quietly confident about beating Denver, that said Dallas woulda been quietly confident about beating us last year in a series.
We all really need to believe in these Hornets, they're capable.
I'm not happy- I'm optimistic. For some reason I just think Byron's been holding something back but I don't know what. Maybe that's just a little bit to optimistic. As for Tyson- I think he'll be fine and out there. Could be mind games. Same reason I'm not convinced 100% (maybe 90%) that Garnett's not done. 1st round team plans for him...2nd wouldn't. Now we have Karl putting situations together for Hilton and Marks about 50% of the time- Tyson would be out there. I hope he's holding on to something. I don't think we can win if he gives a sub part effort.
I think the Hornets have cruised thru the regular season, waiting for the playoffs. Look for them to give maximum effort. I have a good feeling about this series.
First, let me introduce myself in a paragraph. I am a basketball writer on the internet who started out as a "Nuggets specialist" 2 1/2 years ago and was a Nuggets and Pistons specialist this year. My operating system is not working and I am afraid to reinstall the operating system until this coming Thursday or so. Since I can't do everything I normally do on my site right now, which ticks me off, I decided I would hang out here until at least then.Quote:
Originally Posted by redhornet
I know the Nuggets like the back of my hand.
Melo has had only one single good playoff series: the first San Antonio one, in 2005 I believe. He was a rookie in 2004, was not good in the 2006 Clippers series, nor in the 2007 Spurs series, and was really off in the 2008 Lakers series.
J.R. Smith has never had a good playoff series yet. He for the most part was benched by George Karl in the 2007 Spurs series, and had a couple of good games in the 2008 Lakers series but still not a good series overall.
You are correct that in theory Melo and J.R. Smith represent a massive amount of potential offense. In reality though, neither of these players have shown anything much in any playoff series yet (except for Melo in 2005) and they are both limited in the playoffs by the fact that George Karl is a bad offensive coach.
George Karl is not really qualified to coach offense in the NBA playoffs, it's that simple.
This year Karl proved he is a good defensive coach for a regular season; he didn't prove anything on offense, because the Nuggets should have been even better than they were on offense.
If the Hornets are really lucky they can't be beat by either Melo or J.R. Smith because both of them are having bad series again. I wouldn't count on that happening.
The odds are, however, that the Hornets are going to have to contain one or the other. Since you don't know which one of them to worry about going into the series, it will be up to Byron Scott to get that detail right no later than game 3.
Since the Nuggets have all of these bargain players who are playing all out on both sides of the ball, and since they have Billups and a surprisingly good on offense Nene, the Hornets do not have the luxury of keying in on both Melo and Smith at the same time.
If both Smith and Anthony have a solid playoff series, which would be truly amazing, the Nuggets will probably win the series no matter what the Hornets do. I highly doubt that is going to happen.
I always correct any error I might make (I don't make many lol) and I made a little mistake above, so....
It was the actually the 2007 Spurs series that was the one and only Carmelo Anthony playoff series where he was about as good on offense as he is n the regular seasons, not the 2005 Spurs series.
Not counting this series starting tonight, Melo has been in 5 playoff series, one every year from 2004 through 2008. Every single one of those series were lost 4 games to 1. Melo has been offensively way below average in every one of those series except for the 2007 Spurs series. This is the kind of record that practically shouts out to you that he has never had a solid offensive coach in the NBA.
That one series where Melo was alright, the 2007 Spurs series, was the series in which George Karl benched JR Smith after game one. There was no possible way for the Nuggets to win the series after that benching, nor even for the Nuggets to not be demolished. So that benching incident started me down the road of really hating the way Karl thinks about basketball, and really hating the way he coaches basketball offense. Or doesn't coach it...
Or, that the dude doesn't show up for the playoffs. Reminds me of Big Joe Thornton with the San Jose Sharks. Dude is a killer during the regular season, but his productivity drops 33% or better during the playoffs. It's like he has a block. A no show. Etc.Quote:
Not counting this series starting tonight, Melo has been in 5 playoff series, one every year from 2004 through 2008. Every single one of those series were lost 4 games to 1. Melo has been offensively way below average in every one of those series except for the 2007 Spurs series. This is the kind of record that practically shouts out to you that he has never had a solid offensive coach in the NBA.
Rookies and even 2nd year players are almost expected to be limited in the NBA plyayoffs compared with the regular season. (That's why everyone was shocked with Derrick Rose yesterday).
But Melo has been poor in the playoffs in the 3rd and the 5th year as well, which is rare and means that something is very, very wrong.
Michael Jordan was not able to be quite as good in the playoffs as he was in the regular season for years, but in his case the dropoffs from the regular season to the playoffs in his early years were no where near great as the Anthony dropoffs have been. The Anthony dropoffs have been astounding.
It's hard to imagine that any major NBA player would mail it in for the playoffs, but I guess you can't entirely rule out that Melo might have done so for a series or two, particularly if Anthony is smarter than he seems and knew that even if he went all out, the Nuggets were going to lose those series, which is the case. The Nuggets were going to lose all of those series whether Melo mailed it in or not.
I know for an absolute certainty that he didn't mail it in in 2007 or 2008, and that he won't be mailing it in this year.
I have to disagree with tremaine.
I think it is a given that Melo and JR will get "theirs" just like CP and David West.
The matchup that will decide the series IMO is Chandler vs Nene.
However if you are correct about your speculation of melo having a bad series, then their is no way the Nuggets can win. Teams in the playoffs usually only go as far as their leaders take them.
The Hornets received the best possible match up..The Hornets are not going to have to see LA or Hou until the WCF...losing the spurs game was a blessing. I don't understand why BS and the team were trying to win that game in the first place...We didn't want to HOU
true, but had houston won vs. the mavs, the seedings would have been different. it just worked out this way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alg_Hornet
This all a little silly, Melo has scored 20+ppg in all but two of his playoff series. In fact, just two years he ago he scored 27ppg on nearly 50% shooting, so he is very capable of going off and there is no doubt he will get his. Underestimating the guy is as dumb as doing that for CP or DX of the Hornets.
For Carmelo Anthony 20 ppg is not "getting his". Getting his would be 25 ppg minimum in the playoffs.
Ask the Cavaliers whether they would be happy with LeBron getting, say, 21ppg. Or the Heat whether they would be happy with Wade getting 20 ppg in the playoffs. No, they would be horrified, basically.
Although it is theoretically possible to win in the playoffs without any player who can score 25 ppg, it is much more difficult to coordinate that and achieve that.
Yes, two years ago, 2007, was the one and only series when C. Anthony did what he is capable of doing in the playoffs, which should be just about what he is capable of doing in the regular season, just like any star NBA player.
And I'll take the opportunity here to go further on this. There is a lot of evidence that Carmelo Anthony has discovered and knows for sure that Karl is not someone who really knows what he is doing when it comes to playoff offensive basketball. Consider some of this evidence:
1. In the 2008 Lakers series, Anthony shouted at Karl during game 3 of the Lakers blowout, saying "Don't just sit there, do something!" And he informed the press that the Nuggets had "quit" after the game, clearly leaving the impression that it was at least partly Karl's fault and that he had lost confidence in Karl.
Although the general public was unable to read the hints that Melo was dropping, Karl himself did, because he defensively stated that Melo made the ripping commehnts he did simply because he was upset. (Upset people say stupid things, you know, laugh out loud.) Well Mr. Karl, not exactly. sometimes upset people are right on the money.
2. In the February 2009 game in Indiana, he refused to come out of a game, obviously thinking that Karl was wrong to be taking him out in favor of the bumbling Linas Kleiza very late 3rd quarter when the Nuggets were leading but only by about half a dozen. As is starting to happen more and more, Melo was proved to be correct and Karl wrong: the Nuggets went on to lose the game. For good measure, they lost the next game too, with little chance to win due to Melo being suspended from that game for disobeying the mighty George Karl. Laugh out loud at that incident.
3. C Anthony, since shortly before the All Star Game, abandoned his subscribing to Karl's orders to become a "more well rounded player". This is the kind of hidden story that a writer who has specialized in a particular team can pick up on, but that will remain a secret to the general public. Since just before the All Star break, Melo more or less went back to the way he used to play the game offensively, before he reduced his shooting in favor of more assisting and especially more rebounding. As a result, his ppg in late February-mid April is much higher than before that. (Defensively he's still trying to be better than before I believe).
At the same time the new Melo changed back to the original Melo, Chauncey Billups went into a bad shooting slump. This would be nothing more than a coincidence so far as I can figure right now. Billups' shooting percentage has declined to just about to .400, with his three point shot missing in action. So the interesting thing about the Nuggets offensively this season is that there were really two versions of it: the one totally dominated by Billups, and then the one where J.R. Smith and especially Carmelo Anthony play the most important roles.
The very interesting thing is: which Nuggets offense will show up for the Hornets series? You would have to say most likely it will be the one that they have used since mid-February, which is fine with me as someone who wants the Hornets to win, because if you don't have to worry much about Billups, then you can shut down either Anthony or Smith (but unfortunately not both) as needed.
But getting back to Melo in the playoffs... My prediction is that Anthony will not follow Karl's "well rounded player" mumbo jumbo in this Hornets series, that he will go all out to average at least 25 ppg.
It will be very interesting to see how all of this plays out in this series. This Nuggets thing is like a complicated fiction story now; you don't know what the ending is going to be.
As someone who predicted that Karl can not win a playoff series though, the shift in the Nuggets' offense is also worrying. Because the late seaon Nuggets are more versatile and explosive than the early season Nuggets. With the early season Nuggets, you could just key in on Chauncey Billups and depend on Melo to be non-aggressive in his shooting and you had a clear path for winning a series.
If the Hornets play the New Nuggets (featuring the old Melo) things play out differently from if it was all Billups all the time. If C Anthony does go against Karl's teachings and goes for 25 ppg or better, and if J.R. Smith is even 3/4 as good in the playoffs as in the regular, the Nuggets will be very tough to beat, even if Billups is not all that good.
Wow, no reason to write an article to respond to me. :help:
Thing is, Melo has always had capable scorers on the roster. Where as DWade and LeBron are both ''the man'', Melo has had Iverson, J.R, and now Billups. All three are capable scorers who can go off at any time. In fact, I'd almost welcome Melo trying to carry the Nugz by taking away touches from Billups and Smith. The Nuggets are built on balance and the Hornets would certainly win if the Nugz didn't have that.
Well we are right now discussing one of the most interesting and important things about this series which by the way, I'm thinking is the most interesting first round series of them all. In theory the Nuggets are designed to win regular season games whereas the Hornets are custom made for winning playoff games.Quote:
Originally Posted by NIH
As someone who wants Karl to lose yet another series, I'm not sure whether I want Melo to try to carry the Nugz or not. Looking at the late season Melo explosion, I don't want it. But looking at the Melo playoff record, and how good a coach Byron Scott is at dealing with someone like Melo, I do want it. So I can't decide for sure which Melo I want, laugh out loud. Melo might go all out but fall short of what's needed due to the relatively solid Hornets defense.
In total there are two yes/no variables (Melo goes all out or not, and he performs offensively in the playoff series or not). So in total there are four possibilities.
To me, a player who can score a lot of points, who has a track record of scoring efficiently, who decides that he wants to aggressively score, and who takes responsibility for kieeping his shooting percentage up and his shot selection smart, is big time crucial for winning a playoff series.
You want to also have offensive balance, obviously, but at the same time you need that one player who rises above the balance and can get done the extra scoring that wins a lot of playoff games. To me it's not an either or; I want the offense to be both balanced but also to have that one guy. Yes, it's possible to win playoff games with balance only, but more difficult and trickier to do it that way.
George Karl clearly thinks that it should be balance at all costs, that no one player should be the "primary scorer". I disagree. I think but I'm not sure that Anthony disagrees with Karl too right now. What Melo thinks about what we are discussing, and whether he will have his 2nd good playoff series out of six, will soon be revealed in this series.
Good point, the better for us if the Nugs go one dimensional and lean on Melo all series long.Quote:
Originally Posted by NIH
Karl allows his guys to play an open style, during the regular season it works because possessions are less important and it's not as easy to prepare for them like it is when you are going to only face them for 3 weeks. That is the only reason I like our chances because top to bottom they are just a better offensive team, on the other hand they are not really great defenders.