Checking in for the Nuggets, No. 11 . . .
Alan Jackson?
Robin Yount?
Nick Nolte circa 1982?
No, it’s Chris Andersen, he of the floppy blond hair and the bushy blond mustache.
Birdman has changed his look these days, but his tenacity has been the same. The big spark off the bench entered Saturday with three double- digit rebound nights in the previous seven games. For the season, Andersen has averaged 6.4 rebounds per game (just 0.3 less than Carmelo Anthony), and while Birdman was 44th in the league in rebounding average, he was 22nd in rebounds per 48 minutes (13.6).
“Rebounding is not easy,” said acting Nuggets coach Adrian Dantley, a former NBA low-post player. “If you’re rebounding, you’re going to take a beating (in the post), so that’s why you probably don’t see that many guys rebounding that often. If you go to the boards 20 possessions, you might only get three rebounds, and how many guys want to keep doing that, year-in, year-out? So if you get a guy who goes to the boards hard, just to get a few, that’s a compliment to them. So as long as Bird is on the offensive boards, blocking shots, we’re a good basketball team.”
Also, with Saturday’s second-quarter block, Birdman tallied his 500th career swat. Naturally, his faithful followers gave him a nice ovation at the Pepsi Center.
Glory days.
One March ago, Ty Lawson was the talk of college basketball, leading North Carolina through the NCAA Tournament. Now the point guard is a Nuggets reserve, and he’s feeling a little nostalgic.
“I watch the ‘One Shining Moment’ video — it brings back memories about how much fun it was playing in that tournament,” Lawson said. “It’s a little weird, because the last three years, I was playing in it. It brings back old memories. And there’s been a couple upsets — March Madness.”
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
