Friday, October 27, 2006

Clippers Get Served Cold


(Boulder-CO) On tonight’s menu we have revenge served cold with a side dish of more to come for the Los Angeles Clippers. The Nuggets played without Carmelo Anthony, Nene, and Marcus Camby (who is reportedly going to be ready for the regular season opener) and demolished the Clippers tonight 112-86. The Clippers played all their starters and still couldn’t hang with the Nuggets.

Andre Miller barely missed consecutive double-double performances, but did pace the Nuggets with 15 points and nine assists. Other notables for the Nuggets were DerMarr Johnson with a team high 17 points and a perfect 4-4 shooting night from trey land, Kenyon Martin scoring 13 points and swatting two shots, and Reggie Evans who snagged 13 rebounds to go with five points.

The Nuggets need to keep up this trend of consistent contribution from a lot of different players every night. Carmelo is the big gun and everyone knows it, but this team will really set itself a part from last season’s by relying on each other to contribute in a variety of ways. Defensive guys like Reggie Evans and Yakhouba Diawara, specialists if you will, are the perfect compliments to guys like J.R. Smith and Earl Boykins. Everyone has a role and a purpose and they are fulfilling their obligation to each other.

I knew going into this season that all the new faces and fences that needed to be mended would be the dictating factor in how this team would develop chemistry. Now that the preseason is over, I’m excited to see this team seriously get after it because they seem to have coagulated successfully. George Karl has done a wonderful job righting a ship that at the end of last season would have appeared to be sinking fast.

The Nuggets finished this preseason with a 4-3 record and will kick off the season with a rematch of tonight’s game with the Clippers. Then they will open up the Pepsi Center for the first time of the year against the Minnesota Timberwolves to what I’m sure will be a packed house in Denver. Tell your friends the Nuggets are for real this year, and quit posing like you don’t like em!

5 comments:

livid said...

I have a mini-prediction: D J will soon find himself starting at the 2. He seems to fill up the stat line more than Yak or J R. He definitely assists and rebounds better right now.

Nugg Doctor said...

livid,

We shall soon see if your prediction is right on the money. As of right now, my money is on J.R. We need the three ball.

Thanks for reading,

The Nugg Doctor

Nugg Doctor said...

Hoops Addict,

Your boy DerMarr is fighting for as many minutes as he can get. The two guard spot in Denver is as open as any in the league. Right now, I think that J.R. has the starting nod, but trust me when I say this... J.R. Smith has a lot to prove and the only reason why I think that DerMarr is second or even third string right now is because he was so late joining the team. So much can happen still and by no means is anyone's starting position safe.

Well, maybe Carmelo's but that is about it!

Thanks for reading,

The Nugg Doctor

Anonymous said...

Sounds like K-Mart might be back...

Nugg Doctor said...

ra,

Let's pray that such statement can be reality!

Thanks for reading,

The Nugg Doctor