(Boulder-CO) Well, what happened tonight was nothing short of plain stupidity by both teams, just in case you're going to try and get it twisted, and nothing shy of embarrassing. With one minute and change remaining J.R. Smith was out on a break-away when Mardy Collins put an excessively hard foul on the streaking Smith. It was around the neck, on the rise of J.R.'s jump, and at a completely moronic juncture of the game. Shame, shame Mardy, and might I also add tisk, tisk. What followed made me just as angry as the initial incident. J.R. reacted, understandably, and gave Collins a piece of his mind, instead of just acting with class, and gets tangled up with Nate Robinson (another genius) who came in pushing and shoving J.R.. Robinson and Smith then go tumbling into media and spectators while both men were throwing punches and grappling! And before you knew it, a full-scale fiasco broke out with all ten players on the court at that time being ejected by Dick Bavetta and crew. It got real ugly, folks and hopefully the kids weren't watching. Nate Robinson, Mardy Collins, Jared Jeffries, David Lee, and Channing Frye were tossed for the Knicks and J.R. Smith, Carmelo Anthony, Andre Miller, Marcus Camby, and Eduardo Najera were ejected for the Nuggets. Kudos to Dick Bavetta for handling the situation with poise and a full sense of command. I agree with his decision to eject everyone for the altercation.
Tonight, a valuable lesson was learned for the Denver Nuggets. That lesson was that when everyone chips in, in one way or another, the Nuggets will win. No one Nugget dominated the ball, or the game, but it was actually quite a pleasant surprise to take, hold, and close out a lead regardless of its fashion. The Nuggets got a much needed victory to close out this five-game road trip 2-3. With tonight's 123-100 trumping, the Knicks are win 13 for the Nuggets overall.
Carmelo finished with a game-high 34 points and rounded out his stat line with seven rebounds and four assists. Andre Miller was also impressive with his twelve points and ten assists for a nice double-double. The chairman of the boards and the block party coordinator was Marcus Camby. The Nuggets big man swatted seven shots and cleared a team-high nine rebounds.
This was a good win for the Nuggets minus the fracas. They extended to an 82-56 lead in the third quarter by committing to the defensive end and disrupting the Knicks offense. Give the Knicks credit though because they did battle back valiantly until about six minutes remaining in the forth quarter. However at that point the Nuggets put a couple of buckets on the scoreboard and shut the door on the Knicks efforts.
And boy did I wish that it could have ended like that. Now both teams are going to have to sort out short rosters for the next couple of games due to suspensions and are going to be the topic of every sports high, or more applicable, LOW-light real for the week to come. This mess brought back memories of the most recent brawl at the Detroit Palace and the most infamous Kermit Washington and Rudy Tomjanovich incident in its scale of chaos. The whole floor was disgraced with players chasing each other and coaches and trainers trying to stop them. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Two wrongs don't make a right and I am sorely disappointed in both teams for tonight's ugly display.
9 comments:
I just saw the hook 'Melo threw on the news replay and am really disappointed. Why did this have to happen?
Well, anytime that a player premeditates a dirty play it shows a lot about that person's character, or lack there off. I have also heard that this isn't the first time that Mardy has been whistled for something like this so far this season.
Regarding the information as it be, I just hope that the NBA takes a comprehensive look at every angle there is to examine this incident by.
The unfortunate problem with the information is that it doesn't excuse Carmelo in any way.
Unfortunately, Carmelo is also in the wrong here for his actions. He will and should be punished by the NBA for the role he played.
This really shouldn't be as big of a deal as it will be, but since 'Melo is involved, every talking head is going to be lamenting the loss of class in the NBA... blah blah blah.. And of course, it was horribly stupid on both sides -- Melo, JR, Robinson, Jeffries, and Collins should all get suspended for the same amount of time. Nobody did anything that crazy to warrant extra time (even if Collins started it, possibly on Isiah's orders, and Robinson escalated it)...
I'm just pissed because JR and Melo won't be there for the Suns game on Wednesday. I was looking forward to that too. Here's to hoping that it's only a 4-game suspension or so. Anything more than that is excessive, since no fans got involved and nobody really got hurt.
(This is Stumbleweed by the way -- I don't know why it isn't letting me log in under that name...)
Good to know, Stumbleweed. You have been a long time reader and I am happy to have you aboard anytime. This is all so crazy, I just don't know what to make of it all. Now the word is that Isiah might have ok'ed some level of goonery. Here is the link suggesting such actions:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=sheridan_chris&id=2699963
Yeah, and I kinda take back what I said -- Melo's punch is probably going to get some extra time. Even though he got choked by Jeffries and Robinson was the real catalyst, he'll probably get tagged the worst just because he actually connected. If he'd have slipped on some beer, maybe this wouldn't have happened.
And hopefully they look into the Isiah thing -- his old Pistons attitude hasn't worn off, I guess. If he threatened Melo or whatever is being said now, he deserves a suspension too. And really, it's a jerk move for George to leave those guys in at that late juncture in the game, but it's his perogative. Isiah and the players need to worry aobut not letting games turn into blowouts, and they wouldn't have to worry about it.
I dunno -- nasty all around. I'm really not looking forward to more Andy Rooney-esque rants about the NBA going to the dawgs. There's been enough of that revived due to the Iverson talk. In other news, my fantasy team is screwed until further notice.
Bad day for the Nugs. Hopefully the rest of the team (whoever's left) will be able to collect themselves and get us some home wins without Melo. I think it'll be a nice test, and we might find out some things about our bench guys (specifically Yak/Linas, I'm betting). Gotta look at the bright side.
Firt off, this Canuck thinks that ballers need to take some tips from hockey players on how to throw some real punchers instead of the wussy ones that they threw down.
Second, why is everyone comparing this to the Brawl at the Palace? While fighting isn't accepted in basketball in other sports it isn't as taboo (ie hockey). What's the big deal if some playes throw down? As long as paying fans aren't invovled then these players get some fines and possible suspensions and it's the end of the story. Right?
I'm not touching that one, Ryan!
Thanks for reading,
The Nugg Doctor
I'm not someone who is calling for Carmelo's head. But how can you ignore his sucker punch in the original post? I'm sure people will overreact to it and he will catch more grief than he deserves. But Carmelo put himself in that situation. He also loses points for back peddling all the way past half court after the roundhouse.
Hi c's bandwagon,
let me explain...
I had not seen the replay till after I sat down and wrote the recap article so I had missed that component of the fight. However, if you look at the first comment on the post, I think that you will see that I didn't leave the action out completely, but rather just didn't notice it the first time seeing it at live speed. I would certanly NOT sugar coat that part of the brawl because I am a big Melo fan on purpose.
Thanks for reading,
The Nugg Doctor
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