LOS ANGELES — There’s a guy out there named Justin Bieber, who the kids like. He’s a singing sensation with singles scattered on the pop charts. He was 1 year old the last time Chauncey Billups averaged this many points in a season.
The Nuggets guard puts up 20.3 per game, the most points he’s averaged since his senior year at George Washington, back in 1995 (23.5).
Trying to explain this, Billups went Benjamin Button: “I’m getting younger, man!”
Heading into today’s game at the Lakers, the 33-year-old has led Denver in scoring the past four games and has scored 20-plus in 16 of his past 22 games (20.4). Pretty impressive, sure. But check out this dandy of a stat, courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau — Billups is averaging a career-high in points in this, his 13th NBA season. No player in league history has ever set a career-high mark in his 13th season. Or, for that matter, his 12th. Five guys did so in their 11th — Hakeem Olajuwon, Ray Allen, Sam Cassell, Al Harrington and John Lucas.
“I’m playing in an offense that allows me more freedom to do what I do,” said Billups, in his second season back with the Nuggets. “Last year, I came and my scoring was the same as it was in Detroit, because I was getting a feeling for it — I hadn’t been in a run-and-gun system in a long time. This year, having the summer to prepare for it, to prepare my body for it, I was more ready for the opportunity. In time, if I can have the ball to make decisions and score whenever I want, that’s kind of what I do.”
In a year in which young guards are more the rage than, well, Justin Bieber, Billups is freezing time, as is his counterpart in Dallas, Jason Kidd, who turns 37 next month and tallied an incredible line of 19 points, 17 rebounds and 16 assists in Friday’s win against Atlanta. Of course, it’s Kidd’s leadership role on the 2008 Olympic team that Billups hopes to have in 2012.
For all the big shots of Mr. Big Shot, we can’t overlook the humdrum big shots at the foul line. Billups has made 35 straight free throws — 35! — and he shoots 90.5 percent from the line, fifth-best in the NBA.
Age is just a number, it seems. But age will be the first number that comes up if Billups drops off in the playoffs, fair or not. We’ll have to see if Billups has enough gas in the tank to carry through another playoff run. But it’s amazing to think — if you could have any season’s Chauncey Billups as your point guard right now, you’d probably take the 2009-10 model.
We have company.
Asked if the Mavericks are a contender to finish second in the West, Billups said, “They were anyway, I think.” Of course, he’s referring to the time before the trade with Washington that nabbed Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood.
Dallas (38-21) is third in the West behind the Nuggets and Lakers, 1 1/2 games behind Denver. (And don’t forget Utah, which didn’t make a big trade but is a half-game behind Dallas).
The Mavs have a tough schedule, though. Thirteen of their final 22 games are against teams with winning records (eight in Dallas, five on the road). The big litmus- test game is March 29 — Denver at Dallas. The Mavs split with the Lakers this season. “I’m at the stage where we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” Denver coach George Karl said. “I’m sure we’ll scoreboard watch and all that stuff, but I think we can put a good (win-total) number on the board. I think we will put a good number on the board, and if someone puts a better number on the board, we’ll just have to shake their hands and say congratulations. . . . But we all know we’re capable of winning any game that we play.”
MVP watch.
Behind LeBron James, Anthony and Kobe Bryant, I say Kevin Durant is the fourth-best player in the NBA (and has the best nickname — the Durantchula, ideal for this long-armed terror). His 29.7 points per game are second only to LBJ’s, and he had a streak of 29 consecutive games with at least 25 points, finally thwarted Wednesday against the Spurs. He’s just so much fun to watch — a 6-11 shooting guard, if you will.
Make a change.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas will likely end up back in Cleveland, though the Nuggets are making a valiant push to nab the waived big man. Whatever happens, the NBA must look itself in the mirror and fix this loophole — in which teams trade a player, knowing the guy will be released and then will re-sign with that team (although Denver fans might be mad about Z, they can’t be too mad about the rule, because Antonio McDyess was a key cog in getting the Billups-for-Allen Iverson deal done, and after McDyess came to Denver, he was bought out, and then re-signed with Detroit).
Spotlight on …
TNT’s Charles Barkley
The Nuggets’ locker room sounded like Ernie Johnson’s worst nightmare — 12 Charles Barkleys, all talking at once.
After the win at Golden State, many Nuggets did their best impression of Barkley, the perennial all-star whose distinctive voice and unabashed honesty makes him must-see TV, Thursday nights on TNT.
On this night, some of the Nuggets felt Barkley still didn’t respect the team and what it had accomplished this season (Denver is now 39-19, second in the West). Stating that Denver was 12-10 (now 14-10) against sub-.500 teams, Barkley said Thursday: “Everyone wonders if the Nuggets are legitimate contenders. If you lose to bad teams that shows you something, that they only get up for the big games. That shows you they don’t have that mental strength to go out and beat a bad team night in and night out. That shows a flaw. You’ve got to beat them, beat them like they stole something.”
It’s pretty amazing how much impact Barkley has on the NBA — and the mind-set of NBA players and fans. His show is like “Meet the Press” for basketball.
“That’s one of the biggest shows out there as far as sports,” Denver’s Carmelo Anthony said. “And it’s funny to us — especially on this team, it’s hard to get under our skin. . . . We know how tough we are as a team. That’s people’s jobs to give opinions. That’s just one person’s opinion, no matter who that person may be. We know how good we are, we know how tough we are.
“But everybody wants to hear what he has to say. It’s funny to everyone.”
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
