Sometimes the hardest step is the first, and the Nuggets know this all too well. The first round of the NBA playoffs has been their first step for three years running.
“I just hope that we are just tired of not getting out of the first round,” Nuggets center Marcus Camby said. “Hopefully this year can be different.”
To do that, Denver has to prove it is the team that finished the regular season 10-1 in April and not just some facsimile of it.
Two years ago, the Nuggets were the talk of the league, going 32-8 down the stretch – even winning the first game of the first-round series on the road – before the Spurs yawned, clamped down and dispatched of them with four consecutive victories.
So are these Nuggets the real thing?
Their play during the past three weeks says maybe. It can’t be an emphatic yes when contrasted against the Nuggets’ inconsistent play for the bulk of the season.
Each first-round loss has had an effect on its participants and on those who just have to answer the questions as to why. Carmelo Anthony, coach George Karl and Allen Iverson share their thoughts.
PLAYOFF PROBLEMS NUGGETS’ NUISANCE
Carmelo Anthony is familiar with the hurt and aware of the stigma.
“I’ve been in the playoffs three years and never made it out of the first round,” the Nuggets star said.
So when he is asked if just getting to the NBA playoffs is satisfying anymore, Anthony’s answer is no. Each year his eyes become a little more steely when he says it. His words become a little more stern.
But what makes this year different?
Maturity. Motivation. And more talent around him.
“I really don’t think this series is going to be the same thing as two years ago,” Anthony said of the Nuggets’ 2005 series against San Antonio. “We’re much older, kind of a different team. We kind of know what to expect from the San Antonio Spurs.”
Anthony is 3-12 in the playoffs. Ironically, his first opening-round loss to Minnesota in 2004 was Kevin Garnett’s first opening-round win in his eighth try.
But it was after San Antonio beat up Anthony that the 6-foot-8 forward began to get annoyed.
“That arena was crazy,” Anthony said. “It was loud, it was crazy, you couldn’t hear nothing. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be crazy this year.
“We got a way better team than we had in that series. But we know they are going to come focused and prepared, so we got to do the same thing.”
The coach
Want to annoy the coach? Ask Nuggets boss George Karl about recent playoff shortcomings.
“How many years did it take Michael (Jordan) to win? It took Kevin Garnett how many?” Karl said, trying to hold his temperature in check. “You all make it out to be easy. This isn’t easy.”
Karl has been on the losing side in the first round in each of the past four playoffs in which he has coached, dating to his last Milwaukee Bucks team in 2002-03. He is 4-12 in those seasons.
Yet he also has taken two teams to the conference finals and one to the NBA Finals. His take on the Nuggets’ string of making the playoffs is defiantly positive.
“Making the playoffs four years in a row is pretty (darn) good,” Karl said. “The NBA is a tough business to put winning or excellence on the court on a year-by-year basis.
“That’s why the San Antonio Spurs, I think, is an incredible franchise for what they’ve done over a decade of time. Maybe it’s not a decade, but it seems like a decade.”
The Spurs, coming off the NBA title in 1999, last lost in the first round in 2000 to Phoenix.
The all-star veteran
Allen Iverson was brought to the Nuggets for this time of year. The guard was fortunate enough to get out of the first round of the playoffs the first time his Philadelphia 76ers got there in 1999. Philadelphia beat Orlando before being swept by Indiana in the second round.
So, while he can’t sympathize with Anthony’s plight, he can empathize.
“I think it’s important for him to get that monkey off his back,” Iverson said. “To win a playoff series, to have that confidence in himself and his team.”
Having a short memory is key to playing well throughout a series, Iverson stressed.
“It is hard (to win a series),” Iverson said. “One or two plays can turn a whole series, not just a game. It can determine what happens to us psychologically. If something happens, a bad call or something like that in Game 1 and you’re still worried about that thinking it’s going to happen in Game 2, then that’s what you’re going to be concentrating on and it can affect you going into that game.
“Whatever happens in a playoff series, whatever happens in that first game, you’ve got to let that go. You’ve got to go on to the next game, try to do the positive things you did in the game before and the negative things you have to work on in practice so it won’t happen in the next game.”
Or the next season.
