This always happens in the playoffs. Just not so soon.
One game into a first-round series, you’d think Nuggets guard Dahntay Jones was Bruce Bowen by all the complaining going on.
“I’m smart enough to realize if we both get ejected or something like that, he’s done his job,” said Hornets star Chris Paul, who got a technical foul for fussing with Jones in Game 1.
His coach, Byron Scott, was more explicit when asked about Jones’ play:
“Being physical and aggressive and playing hard, I appreciate that from any NBA player. Being that I played in this league, I know how tough that is. But being a little dirty? I don’t appreciate that. And I don’t respect it.”
Like Bowen, Jones appears shocked to hear such things. And, like Bowen, he is as softspoken and reasonable as a diplomat when he responds.
“I’m not trying to be annoying,” he said. “I’m just trying to put pressure on him and play hard. What Byron was talking about, I don’t know. It’s the playoffs. It just is what it is. You just take it as it comes and get ready for playoff basketball.”
Told of Paul’s remark about trying to get him ejected, Jones shrugged.
“That’s putting too much of an emphasis on what’s going on between me and Chris Paul,” he said. “That’s not the whole game and has nothing to do with the wins and losses. If he’s anticipating a scuffle, then I don’t know what to say. My job is to put pressure on him and try to trap him as much as possible. I’m not trying to get in a scuffle. I’m not trying to get him kicked out of the game. That’s not something I’ve been worried about.”
Jones paused, then added this:
“People don’t like it when you play hard. People don’t like it when you get physical.”
To be perfectly honest, even Jones’ teammates say he’s annoying on the basketball floor. In fact, Anthony Carter almost got into it with him at practice the day before Game 1.
“That’s what Dahntay do,” Carter said. “I mean, he get into me in practice like that and I get frustrated. It’s just the way Dahntay plays. It’s nothing against Chris Paul. He don’t have no grudge against him. He just plays everybody like that.
“Like, the day before the game, me and him like to got into it because he was fouling me, and I was getting frustrated. But it’s just something that he brings to the team, and he’s just doing a great job of it.”
Even Kenyon Martin, the Nuggets’ best on-the-ball defender, agrees Jones can be obnoxious, but he clearly admires the trait.
“If I played against him, he’d probably get up under my skin,” Martin said. “But that’s what we need. That’s what you want at this time of the year.”
So K-Mart, as an expert witness, just how does Jones manage to annoy people so quickly?
“Just by crowding you, bumping you, grabbing you, holding you,” he said. “That’s what it’s about — not letting guys be comfortable. You let guys be comfortable on this level, makes for long nights.”
The Nuggets in past years complained about Bowen hacking Carmelo Anthony so often it was almost a tradition. So hearing another team with the same complaints about them, especially directed at a guy who played only 21 minutes in Game 1, takes a little getting used to.
“Dahntay reminds me a little bit (of) those little bugs in the summertime that always fly around your head when you’re sweating a little bit and you can’t get ’em away from you,” Nuggets coach George Karl said.
“He has a knack of being a gnat.”
Off to this flying start, you can expect diplomatic relations between the two teams to continue to deteriorate tonight.
“I like teams to complain about refereeing,” Karl said. “There’s going to be more (in Game 2) than there was in Game 1. There’s going to be more in Game 3 than there was in Game 2. It has a way of growing.
“So what’s new? That’s what’s great about playoff basketball.”
For the Nuggets to be developing their own version of Bruce Bowen might seem like going over to the dark side after all these years complaining about the original. But let’s face it — Bowen has three rings. It does seem to work.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297 or dkrieger@denverpost.com
