SALT LAKE CITY — Yes, the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference defeated the No. 2 seed, but many involved in the Denver-Utah series believed it wasn’t an upset.
Asked about the Spurs, who battled injuries for much of the season, Utah’s Carlos Boozer said of San Antonio’s No. 7 seed: “Not their team. The record, obviously, but their team is much better than that. They proved that.
“I wasn’t surprised that San Antonio won. . . . Great game, great series. San Antonio is a veteran ballclub and won a huge series against Dallas.”
Nuggets interim coach Adrian Dantley spoke highly of San Antonio down the stretch.
“Everybody’s afraid of San Antonio, their style,” he said Friday. “They’re always going to play hard. . . . Everyone’s been saying all season that from second to eighth, it’s always tight.”
As for George Hill, the young Spurs guard who played extremely well during the Dallas series, Dantley said, “That’s (coach Gregg) Popovich’s favorite player.”
No surprise. Because Nene was out Friday because of a strained left knee, Dantley had to decide which player to activate. Would it be 6-foot-8 Renaldo Balkman, who has been with the team all season? Or Brian Butch, the 6-11 call-up from the Developmental League — a guy who has never played an NBA minute?
It wasn’t a tough call.
“He’s been on the roster,” Dantley said of Balkman. “I don’t think there’s any secret (why I activated Balkman).”
He said it. Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups, on stopping runs on the road, something Denver struggled with this season: “When (the Jazz is) on a run, you need to be a little more focused on executing and stopping the run, minimizing the run. For us, we need to do a better job at being smart when (an opponent) is on a 6-0 run, knowing that the next possession is huge.”
Funny exchange. Before the game, Dantley was asked about his playing days, and if he ever got into major arguments with the referees. Dantley, who played with the Jazz in the early 1980s, said, “I never got into it with the refs,” and then smiled and said, “I might have gotten into it with a couple of paper writers.”
He then playfully pointed at Kurt Kragthorpe, the longtime writer for the Salt Lake Tribune.
“If I got 28 points,” Dantley said, “Kurt would say the defender did a great job on me. I’d say to him — ‘What do you want me to do?’ “
Kragthorpe smiled and said, “I was 12 years old at the time.”
