Be honest: If you’ve followed the Nuggets for almost any length of time, this all feels like an alternate reality.
Somehow, the whole town has slipped into a parallel antimatter universe where the Nuggets wait in isolated majesty while others fight it out for the right to play them in the Western Conference finals.
In the regular universe, the Nuggets have been the Washington Generals for 41 basketball seasons, one of those teams that must exist so that other more glorious teams have someone to beat. You don’t even have to go back to the worst of it, the long playoff drought, the Denver United for Nuggets Credibility (DUNC) protest caps, the run at the worst record of all time.
Even after Carmelo Anthony arrived, lifting the Nuggets from the ranks of the laughable, they were doomed to face the ultimate NBA champion or runner-up in the first round three out of five playoff trips. Their jerseys should have said “Fodder.”
“And then to see the circumstances of the playoffs — kind of, every once in a while, it tilts our way,” George Karl said Friday in apparent amazement. “That doesn’t mean it means anything. It just kind of seems like the karma and the energy to be successful isn’t as heavy or against us as much as in some other (years).”
Actually, it seems as if all the bad historical karma has been turned on its head, which is what happens in the parallel antimatter universe, as I understand it.
For example, if San Antonio’s Michael Finley misses the 3-pointer that tied the Hornets at the end of regulation in the final game of the regular season, the playoff bracket falls differently. And it’s hard to imagine it falling any better for the Nuggets than it did, serving the beat-up Hornets and a Mavericks team they swept during the regular season.
Even now, as they prepare for the likelihood of playing the Lakers, a team they have never beaten in a postseason series, Kobe Bryant and his chorus are showing sudden signs of vulnerability, as if on cue. After Houston extended them to seven games Thursday, the hot topic on the national talk shows was what’s wrong with the Lakers.
“There’s a chemistry, there’s a togetherness that’s lacking, that was there earlier this year that isn’t there now,” Karl told Jim Rome on his ESPN television show, answering the question of the day.
“I think there’s a mental fatigue to going to the Finals last year and then having this demand that they go to the Finals again this year. It’s not as easy as young players think it is. And I think the injury to (Andrew) Bynum has made them more vulnerable. Phil (Jackson) likes to play big. He likes to pound you on the boards. He likes to have that extra energy off their bench. And it seems the Bynum injury has weakened their rotation a little bit.”
Speaking earlier with the local wretches, Karl pointed out that the Rockets’ “will to compete” seemed greater than the Lakers’ in at least two games of their series.
In a certain light, this all looks a little like the parting of the Red Sea, but the sense of surrealism also suggests it could end anytime, like a dream. Playing as well as they did in the first two rounds, the Nuggets would not have chosen to take a week off right now.
“When I’m on a team that’s playing the way that we’re playing, at a high level, and they don’t have anybody banged up, I just like to keep playing,” Chauncey Billups said.
Karl will be consulting people in San Antonio and Cleveland, people with experience at advancing early and waiting around. He could also speak with the Rockies, although their layoff before the 2007 World Series may not be exactly the right model.
“I don’t know if I’ve waited this long for a conference final type of opponent,” said Karl, who got out of the first round with some frequency before joining the Nuggets. “Usually, it’s sped up, unless you sweep. But I don’t know what that means. I’m not Gregg Popovich or Phil Jackson or guys who’ve had the luxury of probably having this experience three or four times.”
With the exception of Kenyon Martin, whose Nets waited around in 2003 to find out they would play Billups’ Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals, the Nuggets are strangers in this strange land. But they will tell you this: They could definitely get used to it.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297 or dkrieger@denverpost.com
