OKLAHOMA CITY — The Nuggets practiced with a playoff intensity Tuesday. They hope it carries into tonight’s game.
Tuesday’s practice featured focus from the players, notably Kenyon Martin, quarterbacking the defense with a Peyton Manning bark and bite.
“I’d say it was an A-minus practice. It was pretty good,” said coach George Karl, whose Nuggets look to even the series in Oklahoma City. “There was some anger out there. We got after it; we got a lot of things done. We went after it with the right attitude.
“The whole thing is, the process is only beginning (to determine) who’s going to come out of this series. In a loss, the list of good things you did isn’t very long, but I think the list of good things we did in the first game was pretty long.”
Karl played amateur psychologist when asked about the mind-set of the teams. With two off days in between games, he felt if the Nuggets fed off their frustration — notably from the missed goaltending call, for which the league apologized— it could be motivating.
“It lingers with you in your subconscious,” Karl said. “I think two days is probably better for us (than the Thunder) because of our health and our mental health.”
As for health, all of the Nuggets except Arron Afflalo (hamstring) practiced Tuesday, though Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton are still battling ankle pain. Afflalo likely won’t play tonight.
Free throws aren’t free points.
Denver’s abysmal foul shooting (63.6 percent) has been a hot topic of discussion. Karl said that the media was making too big a deal about it.
“We just must admit that Melo and Chauncey made us a great free-throw shooting team. We’re not a great free- throw shooting team anymore,” Karl said. “Now, we should be better than we are now, but it’s never going to get back to where it’s one of your top strengths, unless we change our offense.
“We’d have to go away from the pick-and-roll and hitting the guy, attacking the rim and trying to get 30 free throws a night. We could change our offensive philosophy, but I think that would be more advisable to do in training camp than in the playoffs.”
Sixth-man shout-out.
The Lakers’ Lamar Odom won the NBA’s award for the top reserve this season, it was announced Tuesday. In the voting, Denver guard J.R. Smith finished 10th, receiving two second-place votes (out of 117) and one third-place vote. Teammate Lawson finished 12th, nabbing a lone second- place vote. Since the league began giving out the award in 1982-83, no Nugget has won.
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
