Denver Post sports writer Benjamin Hochman posts his Nuggets Mailbag on Tuesdays during the 2009-10 NBA season.
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Do the Nuggets have a longtime rival like the Broncos with Oakland and Kansas City?
— Michael, Boulder
Michael – Good question, f’sho. Because the Nuggets have so many pockets of bad seasons in their history, it was hard to maintain a consistent rivalry (though there was the dubious 2002-03 rivalry with Cleveland and others, as the fans sorta hoped their rival team would WIN a lot, thus skewing the lottery for drafting LeBron James, Darko Milicic and Carmelo Anthony).
The Jazz and the Trail Blazers are Denver’s division rivals, and I feel that Nuggets Nation should be even more fired up about these teams, notably the Blazers, who had the same 54-28 record as Denver last season and are two games behind Denver in the division race right now.
But, it seems, there’s currently no bigger rival than the Los Angeles Lakers — at least from the Nuggets’ side of things. There was already a little animosity in the air back in the mid-aughts, when all the Kobe/Colorado stuff happened. Then, in 2007-08, the two teams met in the first round of the playoffs (L.A., of course, swept Denver, en route to the NBA Finals). Entering the 2008-09 season, the Nuggets hadn’t defeated L.A. in the regular season since the Coolidge administration, but the Nuggets had that statement win on Feb. 27, 2009. That night, Denver won 90-79 and the mighty Lakers shot 29.8 percent (which is as wretched as that Taco Bell commercial where the guy thinks he’s getting an “inside deal”).
Then the two teams played a heated six games in the 2009 Western Conference finals, and the Lakers won the playoff series against Denver, again en route to the NBA Finals (this time won by L.A.).
In the 2009-10 preseason, Denver’s Chris “The Birdman” Andersen got into an on-court scuffle with the Lakers’ Lamar Odom. The game was in San Diego, but the pro-Lakers crowd started chanting, in unison: “Bird-man (isn’t good)! Bird-man (isn’t good)!” And Andersen, like a true villain, simply flapped his arms like wings in response.
Now, it’s harder to gauge how much the Lakers fans consider Denver as the “hated” rival because, some would argue, it’s not a rivalry until your team loses. I decided to cross enemy lines, if you will, and ask my good buddy Peter Klausner, a Lakers diehard, about where Lakers fans stand in regards to Denver:
“There’s no question that the Nuggets pose the biggest threat to the Lakers’ chances of repeating as Western Conference champions. It’s also clear that the Nuggets are determined to remind us of this every time they take the floor and compete against us. But the great rivalries are born in the playoffs, and it’s hard for us Laker fans to view the Nuggets as a true rival when the postseason results have been so lopsided. Maybe if they knock us out of contention someday, we’ll think of it as a worthy rivalry. But until then, they’re just another doormat that put up a good fight.”
Hi, B. I’m sure David Stern is doing a good job, except the back-to-backs. It is absurd for any team to play a game, go to airport, arrive at new city at 4 a.m. and play that night. The Nuggets have five games in seven days several times this year. It is not fair to the teams, or to the fans. Look what San Antonio did last year in Denver: I paid to see Tim Duncan and other stars, yet they were benched to rest them after they played the night before. There has to be a way for Stern to make the schedule without any team playing a back-to-back. What do you think?
— Mathew, Denver
Mathew – Very good points indeed. Back-to-backs stink. They taint competition. Yes, they’re part of the game and every team has them, but if there was a way to rid of them, they should. (Some would suggest getting rid of back-to-backs by shortening the schedule. But while owners appreciate the purity of fair competition on the court, I can’t see them giving up 15-20 games on the schedule, because that’s a lot of hot dogs.)
If anything, the Nuggets benefit from teams coming off a back-to-back — they snatched big wins this season against the Lakers and Utah because fatigue became a factor. I wrote a story earlier this season detailing the Nuggets’ “swag” at Pepsi Center, and a lot of it came from the fact that the other team had to deal with the long travel and the altitude.
Love the mailbag. What will the Nuggets do with Johan Petro? Is he ever going to see significant minutes? Does he not practice hard or not understand the scheme/plays? What keeps the Nuggets’ only 7-footer out of the rotation? Thanks!
— Ben Wade, Littleton
Ben – What’s up, man? Yeah, it seems like the most action Petro gets at games is during that Pepsi Center big-screen-interview thing where he proclaims his nickname is “Big Sexy,” and then says so in four languages.
Petro is still a work-in-progress. He’s more of a roaming big man that is working in practices on his inside game (where the Nuggets would be able to use him more — if they’re to use him at all). He’s not the best low-post passer on the planet, either. But Nuggets coach George Karl isn’t afraid to throw him into the fire on occasion, such as against the Magic both last season and this season. And he is 7-feet, so perhaps he’ll log a couple minutes in the playoffs. But don’t look for him to take Birdman’s minutes any time soon.
Why don’t the Nuggets go after the offensive rebound — seems like the other four players are all standing at midcourt instead of going after a possible miss/rebound. Just don’t understand that! Thanks!
— Beth Lee, Parker
Beth – Indeed, the Nuggets are 13th in the league with 10.9 offensive rebounds per game, though that stat is tough to gauge because teams with good field-goal percentages thus have fewer chances for an offensive rebound to begin with (Cleveland and Boston have the third- and second-fewest offensive rebounds per game in the NBA). But yes, there are definitely times when the Nuggets don’t attack the offensive glass with the vigor you’d like to see. A lot of that comes down to just hustle, and as we’ve seen in some of these games (notably in games against lesser opponents), Denver’s intensity hasn’t always been at a high level. Offensive rebounding is as much about want-to as it is about strategy.
If it means anything, Denver was exactly 15th in the 30-team league last season with 11 per game.
Hopefully you can settle a family squabble. We have two rules/statistics questions. 1. If a player is fouled while shooting, does this count as a field-goal attempt? 2. If a player makes a pass to a teammate and that player shoots in a manner that would be an assist for the passing player — however, the player is fouled in the act of shooting and does not make the field goal, but is awarded free throws — does this count as an assist for the passing player? Thank you for helping keep the peace.
— Brendan Essary, Denver
Brendan – Hope I can help! If a player is fouled while shooting, the only time the shot counts as a field-goal attempt is if the shot goes in. (So, theoretically, a guy can finish with, say, 10 points on the night but have no field-goal attempts, because he was fouled while shooting five shots — missed all of them — but made all of his free throws).
And as for your second question, the only time a player would get an assist was if the fouled shooter made the field-goal attempt. As I wrote in , the Nuggets had just 16 assists. But because they went to the line a season-record 49 times, coach Karl wasn’t worried about the low 16 number, because the passing was still present (just not awarded on the stat sheet).
Benjamin Hochman is in his third season as the Nuggets and NBA beat writer for The Denver Post. for the Nuggets Mailbag.
