OUR FANHOUSE TOOLBAR INTEGRATES THE LATEST SPORTS NEWS INTO YOUR WEB BROWSER AND INSTALLS IN SECONDS.
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE TOOLBAR HERE.

NBA

Now or Never for Nuggets

Posted May 29, 2009 2:00PM By Matt Steinmetz (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Lakers, Nuggets, Playoffs

Text SizeAAA
It's pretty much put up or shut up time for Denver Nuggets coach George Karl and his team. Karl has been saying much of this Western Conference finals series that he believes his team is better than the Lakers.

Point guard Chauncey Billups maintains the Nuggets have outplayed the Lakers for most of the series except for the closing-out of games part.

The Nuggets, however, are running out of time. They need two straight wins over the Lakers or little of what they say or believe will matter. Five questions heading into Game 6:

1. Good emotion or bad emotion for Denver?

There's no doubt the Nuggets are a volatile team with plenty of emotional players. Sometimes that emotion works for the Nuggets; sometimes it doesn't.

When J.R. Smith is hounding on defense and taking on the individual challenge of guarding Kobe Bryant, it's working. When Kenyon Martin focuses on basketball instead of trying to get a rise out of Pau Gasol, it's working.

But when the Nuggets are getting called for 11 technical fouls – like they have been so far in the series – it's not working. It's a simple question and one Denver hasn't answered yet: Can they play with emotion and still maintain their poise?

2. How will the Nuggets' bigs play?

They've been all over the map in this series. Martin, Nene and Chris Andersen were so-so through three games, played well as a unit in Game 4, then were gotten over in Game 5.

The Lakers had success in the fourth quarter of Game 5 by spreading the floor, then isolating one of their big players – either Gasol or Lamar Odom – with a duck-in. That put the Nuggets on their heels because it gave those two Lakers a one-on-one matchup, deep in the lane, with room to operate.

That's going to need to be countered if Denver is to have a shot.

3. Will Kobe Bryant dominate or defer?

Bryant said he played the role of decoy in Game 5 as a way to try to get some of his teammates more involved. It worked insofar as Odom was concerned, but the big question is whether that was a one-game deal for Bryant or there will be more of the same tonight.

Conventional wisdom suggests the Lakers' role players won't play as well tonight in Denver as they did on Wednesday in L.A. If that's the case, look for a lot more Bryant than we saw in Game 5.

4. What's the Lakers' deal tonight?

They've been in this position three times before in this postseason and have yet to deliver a win. The Lakers were up 2-1 with a Game 4 in Houston. They lost. The Lakers were up 3-2 with a Game 6 in Houston. They lost.

They were up 2-1 with a Game 4 in Denver. They lost. Now, here they are again with a 3-2 lead and Game 6 in Denver.

The biggest criticism of the Lakers this postseason has been that they seemingly don't have a killer instinct. That's a funny thing to say about a team one win from getting the NBA Finals.

A win tonight and that talk ends.

5. Where does Chauncey Billups fit into all of this?

Billups wasn't much of a factor in Denver's Game 5 loss. He took only seven shots. That won't stand tonight, and it's virtually impossible to envision Billups not trying to interject himself into tonight's game, particularly if the Nuggets are struggling.

And he should after all. He's had more playoff success and has more big-game experience than any of his teammates. Billups will likely try to do the right thing and get his teammates involved early, like he frequently does.

But if that doesn't work in a hurry, don't be surprised if Billups begins to take matters into his own hands a little bit more. If Billups doesn't play well, the Nuggets' chances to win go way down.

Tags: chauncey+billups, chris+andersen, george+karl, jr+smith, kenyon+martin, kobe+bryant, lamar+odom, nene, pau+gasol

Related Articles

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)