Since he told his team he had throat cancer last week, George Karl said with a smile, “They’ve probably been nicer to me.”
With a smile of his own, Carmelo Anthony said, “We’re always nice to George, man!”
Indeed, the Nuggets have a fascinating family dynamic, now more than ever. In the course of a season, players and coaches squabble occasionally, but according to Anthony, the Nuggets have calmed since the news broke.
“Anytime you hear information like that, you’re always going to have sympathy and you back off and lay off,” Anthony said. “We just want George to get right, take care of his health, and let us do this.
“He’s more calm. He’s thinking about it. You can tell he’s thinking about it. Anybody would. It’s on his mind all day long, but he can come in here and get it out of his mind a little bit when he’s coaching. He tries to forget about it, but I know it’s hard to do.”
Not bad.
With the win against Boston, the Nuggets are now 6-0 against the Celtics, Lakers, Magic and Cavaliers this season. Overall, the Nuggets are 25-11 against teams over .500 and 12-8 against the others.
“It’s time,” Kenyon Martin said of the team’s focus. “We don’t want to turn the switch on in the end of April. The time is now.”
Comeback thwarted.
The Celtics, trailing by 20 in the first half, tied the game in the third quarter at 66. But they never got the lead.
“You knew they were going to strike,” Denver guard Chauncey Billups said. “But it was disappointing that we couldn’t hold. We knew this game would be won or lost in the fourth quarter, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
