Notes from the brink. . . .
If it’s any consolation to the Nuggets, they just lost a playoff series to a team that may not lose any playoff series.
The Lakers were a very good team before Pao Gasol’s arrival from Memphis in early February. And now? Let’s just say Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace ought to receive a playoff share from Kobe & Co.
“Gasol just seems like he’s the piece that was missing,” said Nuggets coach George Karl. “He has come in and done a great job of taking a talented team and now making it big, making it defensive-minded, making it long, making it passing-oriented. He has added a lot of weapons to their team.”
Said Carmelo Anthony, when asked about the Lakers’ title hopes: “They have a chance, especially the way they’ve been playing.”
For the record, the Lakers are 26-5 with Gasol in the lineup, 5-4 without him.
Then there’s Anthony. If it means anything to you, Melo, Tracy McGrady feels your pain.
Melo’s regular-season career stats in five NBA seasons: 24.4 points per, .462 shooting percentage. His career stats in 22 playoff games going into Game 4: 21.1 and .388. Call it an educated guess, but I’m thinking his man is shooting a little better than .388.
Melo in the aftermath: “You’ve got to take your hat off to how the Lakers played, not just tonight but throughout the series. From every aspect of the game. Defensively, offensively they’re just doing everything they needed to do to win the series. The results didn’t end up the way we wanted them to end up, but I can say we left it out there on the court tonight.”
And the future? “We’ve got the whole summer to think about that,” said Anthony. “I’m pretty sure when we get back here next year, our minds will be clear and it’s a new start. I don’t know where we go from here.”
Kenyon Martin on the difference in the series: “Layups. Their layups and our lack of defense. They shot layups at will and we didn’t do a good enough job of helping one another on the defensive end. When a team shoots layup after layup after layup, it’s discouraging. We put ourselves in this position. Ain’t nobody else did it to us but us. So each one of us needs to look in the mirror and re-evaluate where we want to be.”
It goes without saying that changes are coming for the Nuggets. As in, Martin wasn’t going to comment on it. “I don’t work upstairs,” he said. “This is my locker right here. I don’t park in the back.”
Karl on Melo’s history of playoff shortcomings: “It (takes) a tremendous talent, for five years, to bring your team to a playoff performance, as Melo has done. But in the playoffs, there’s high criticism. It’s not a really good performance when you lose. You’re a loser when you lose and you’re celebrated as a winner when you win. No one is going to write one guy is a winner and the next guy is almost a winner.”
Food for thought for Melo bashers near and far: The Nuggets are one of four NBA teams to make the playoffs in each of the five seasons he has worn a Nuggets uniform. Their regular-season record during that span is 231-179. Charles Barkley doesn’t want me to tell you, but LeBron James is 222-188 in his five seasons with the Cavs.
The Nuggets are 4-20 in the playoffs in Anthony’s five seasons – 3-16 under Karl, who has lost in the first round 10 times in the 17 seasons in which his teams have played in the postseason.
Karl: “There’s a drive and an anger that we haven’t been able to find … in the first round. But unfortunately that’s the nature of the beast in the Western Conference.”
It’s not like Anthony is the only local dude struggling in the playoffs. Chauncey Billups is 12 for 42 in the Pistons’ first four games vs. the Sixers.
Just wondering: Wouldn’t designated crowd arouser John Elway, with that artificial knee of his, have fit in well on that stout Nuggets defense?
Spotted in the Pepsi Center crowd: Lute Olson, who coached Luke Walton at the U of Arizona.
What, you thought I was going to say the Grim Reaper?
The bottom line: How surprised are we supposed to be that the Nuggets went 0-fer the series? They were 0-3 vs. the Lakers during the season and were outscored by almost 11 points a game. And no, Gasol didn’t play in any of the three games.
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
