Who knew George Karl was such a seamhead?
With the Nuggets down 3-1 in their playoff series and facing elimination in Game 5 tonight in San Antonio, their coach again has borrowed from the sport that taught fans Yogi Berra’s theories on when games are over.
After a Game 2 debacle, Karl recalled the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, who overcame the mighty Yankees to win the World Series. On Tuesday, hours after the Nuggets lost an overtime tussle that would have tied the Spurs, Karl found another baseball team to prop up his team’s spirits, the Boston Red Sox. Last year’s Red Sox are now the standard for any team in deep playoff trouble after rallying from an 3-0 deficit against the Yankees to win the ALCS.
Karl found at least one player buying his theory.
“I’m from New England, and I’ve seen what the Red Sox did with the Yankees and going on and winning the championship,” Denver center said. “I mean, why not us? We can go down there and get a game like we did in Game 1. But it’s going to be tough. We’re wounded right now. I know a lot of guys have a lot of pride in here right now. They don’t want to go home for the summer.”
Both teams needed a day of rest Tuesday after Game 4 lasted 3 hours, 15 minutes, the longest for a postseason game in Denver history.
Karl said he never had left a basketball arena at 1:15 a.m. before, which is why he canceled practice and had his team look at video. He said he used the session “to get positive energy and go back to San Antonio and rock the world a little bit.”
Denver faces steep odds – only seven NBA teams have come back from being down 3-1 to win a series – but Karl said no matter what happened, his young team could glean something from San Antonio’s professionalism.
“Every game other than Game 2 has been a toss-up,” he said. “We’re playing a team that has a foundation of togetherness of 400 games. I think a lot of their inner confidence comes from that positive energy of being together for so long. We’re a team that’s basically been together for 42 games. I like where we are. I like where we’ve come. But every game it just seems like we haven’t been able to get over that hump.”
Karl also discussed the complaint of Nuggets forward after Game 4. Anthony scored 28 points but wondered why he didn’t have more late chances when San Antonio was feeding its main man, Tim Duncan, nearly each time down the court in the fourth quarter.
“You can re-coach a game if you want,” Karl said. “My job is to do it at the moment, on the spur of the moment. There have been good moments and there have been times when I would have done things differently. But I don’t really think there’s necessarily a need to think he deserved more touches, to be honest with you. I think he got great touches. He got great looks. We’re not a team that’s going to be one-dimensional at the end of the game, like Duncan. We’re a team that’s got to go to the situation or the hot hand, and Melo, I thought, got at least 50 percent of the touches down the stretch.”
Anthony, like most Nuggets, was not made available to the media Tuesday. Those who were said the key tonight is not at the offensive end.
“We’re going to have to play defense down there, going to have to get stops. They’re going to come out with a lot of energy, so we have to match their intensity,” said , who scored 32 points in Game 4.
Camby said he thinks the Nuggets “have enough heart and enough pride to get this thing accomplished.”
One of the only silver linings to Denver’s dire situation is the freedom that comes with it. The Red Sox were the looser team in the ALCS against the Yankees and built off their momentum.
“In the end the game comes down to us celebrating a great year by playing a great game,” Karl said.
Staff writer Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or athompson@denverpost.com.
