After more than 24 weeks and 82 games of passing interest in playing defense, the Nuggets now find themselves in the position where, without a surge of intensity, their playoff aspirations will end — and probably much quicker than the allotted 15 days and seven games of their opening-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Yeah, I get tired of it, but it’s always the top question,” center Marcus Camby said of his team’s ongoing need to address their opponent’s end of the floor.
The conversation is especially current, given that the Lakers are led by, arguably, the front-runner for the NBA’s MVP, Kobe Bryant. Although any Nugget, save Camby and perhaps Kenyon Martin, would dream of playing defense like Bryant — well, they probably wouldn’t; even in their sleep the Nuggets are all about scoring — the Lakers guard won’t be picking up hardware from David Stern because of his stopping power.
Last season, Bryant led the league in scoring, averaging 31.6 points per game. This year, fortified with a far superior supporting cast, he “dipped” to second, at 28.3, but in the process became far more dangerous.
“He’s grown so much; he’s become the consummate professional,” Memphis Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni said. “He’s a killer professional, with killer skills. I really don’t think you can stop Kobe, I think Kobe has to stop himself. You’ve gotta kinda hope, maybe, that you can get him so riled up that he goes back into that ‘Kobe against the world’ mode.”
Before joining the Grizzlies, Iavaroni was an assistant with the Phoenix Suns, the team that bounced the Lakers from the playoffs the last two seasons. Perhaps not coincidentally, those Phoenix teams employed one of the NBA’s ultimate defender/agitators, Raja Bell.
Two years ago, Bell was suspended for a playoff game after clotheslining Bryant in that opening-round series. Bryant averaged an elbow-numbing, mind-boggling 45 shots a game. His scoring dropped almost seven points below his regular-season average though, and the Suns won a Game 7. Last year, while there were no overt hostilities between Bell and Bryant, the tension was omnipresent. Bryant heaved the rock up “just” 43 times a game in that series, and his scoring actually went up a fraction, but you couldn’t find anyone in Phoenix saying Bell was ineffective as the Suns won in five games.
“It’s not so much that you have to physically confront him,” Iavaroni said. “You have to be smarter than he is, and that’s hard to do because he has a pretty high basketball IQ.”
Bryant also has better players around him than he did in those previous series. If the Boston Celtics’ acquisition of Kevin Garnett was the best move made by an NBA team this season, then the Lakers picking up Pau Gasol from Memphis had to be considered No. 1-A. That in turn has made Lamar Odom, a fine all-around talent who previously never seemed to be able to ascend to the heights necessary for a No. 2 playoff option, even more dangerous.
“Odom is a great third-star kind of player,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “He can put huge numbers on the board. He doesn’t get a lot of calls or options in their offense, but he finds the game.”
Even so, that’s only because Bryant allows it to happen. Karl feels Bryant, who averaged more than 20 shots per game in the regular season, has matured in that respect from seasons past.
“He lets the game tell him what he has to do for the first two or three quarters, and then the fourth is his,” Karl said.
That’s not to say Bryant isn’t above preening and trying to show everyone in the building that he’s the baddest man on the court, especially when the opponent has someone capable of challenging his immense offensive gifts in a macho, one-on-one fashion.
Bell is such a provocateur. But while the Nuggets don’t have that kind of defender in their backcourt, there is a guy on the roster who knows a little bit about flexing his muscles for the cameras. A player with the requisite amount of bravura and chippiness to not only get under Bryant’s skin, but perhaps lure him into ignoring his teammates.
Kenyon Martin.
In looking at his options for defending Bryant, Karl says Martin “is definitely on the list.” And, although Martin starts on the front line for Denver, it’s not as if he’s been locked in on the opposition’s power forward all season.
“I don’t ask for assignments. Whoever they give me, I guard ’em,” Martin said. “Whoever they put in front of me; I may not start on him, but I know I’ll guard him. I’ve guarded everybody in the league this season. One (point guard) through five (center), if you name him, I’ve guarded him.
“Kobe is a tough player, arguably the best player in the NBA right now. He’s a tough cover. If I have to guard him, I’ll try to make it as tough as possible for him.”
Iavaroni feels that even in limited doses, having Martin guard Bryant would be a good idea in formulating a game plan to stop the Lakers’ superstar.
“You’ve got to do something, you can’t just give him the same old looks,” Iavaroni said. “You have to be creative and you have to be able to change on the fly, and you have to go back and forth between taking the ball out of his hands and then forcing him to be the guy.”
One wonders if that may require more concentration, more commitment — more effort — than the Nuggets have displayed defensively this season. Part of the reason why the team finds itself playing from the eighth seed is that it kicked away winnable games all season long, and more often than not, those losses weren’t because it failed to score enough points.
“We give up a lot of points, but there are a lot of statistical categories we do well in and a lot of people don’t talk about,” Camby said. “We finished No. 1 in blocks, and we’re up there in steals and forced turnovers (also leading the NBA in both areas), so we do a good job. We just tend to give up a lot of points.”
That creates a certain symmetry, because Bryant tends to score a lot of points. If those patterns hold, it’s hard to envision Denver being able to prevent falling in the first round for a fifth straight season.
But when it comes to the Nuggets and playing defense, well, argues Martin, there’s a first time for everything.
“If you’re giving up 106 points a game, you’re not playing much D,” he said. “We have to play defense better. Guys realize that and we’re capable of doing it. It’s not like we can’t. It’s a matter of just going out and doing it.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
DENVER AT LOS ANGELES LAKERS
1 p.m. today, KMGH-7, KKFN 104.3 FM
Spotlight on Pau Gasol: The elusive Gasol is a creative big man, who has proven to be a perfect fit for Los Angeles in the last three months. Gasol averaged 18.8 points and 7.8 rebounds in purple and gold, though he has yet to play for the Lakers against Denver.
Notebook
Nuggets: Center Marcus Camby led the NBA with 3.61 blocked shots per game, becoming the second player to lead the NBA in blocks for three straight seasons (Denver’s Dikembe Mutombo, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96). But Camby averaged just 2.3 blocks against the Lakers this season. . . . Denver is one of four teams making its fifth straight playoff appearance (Dallas, Detroit and San Antonio). . . . The Nuggets are 1-3 at the Staples Center this season, losing both games to the Lakers, and splitting with the Clippers.
Lakers: Coby Karl, son of Denver coach George Karl, is on the Lakers’ roster, but is on assignment with L.A.’s Development League team, and will likely be inactive for today’s game. . . . Guard Kobe Bryant averaged 5.4 assists this season, but 7.7 in three games against Denver. . . . And guard Derek Fisher averaged just 11.7 points per game, but 19.3 against the Nuggets, second-most of any Laker behind Bryant (22.0). . . . Coach Phil Jackson faced George Karl in the 1996 NBA Finals, with Jackson’s Bulls defeating Karl’s SuperSonics.
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
