Nuggets prove bipolar tendencies in early playoff exit
logo rendering by Ian Cerveny
A year ago the Denver Nuggets were dominant.
Five-game shamings of the New Orleans Hornets & Dallas Mavericks in the first two rounds of the 2009 Playoffs had Denver looking like a Finals contender. An uneven showing against the Lakers proved the Nuggets lack of discipline.
See, the Denver Nuggets are as bipolar as NBA basketball teams come.
When they move the ball well, stretch defenses with a solid percentage from range, and make clean, responsible rotations on defense, the Nuggets are capable of beating any team in the league over seven games. When they get bogged down in isolations, take contested threes, and fall asleep in the defensive paint… well… they lose in six games to the undermanned Utah Jazz.
Denver is Dr. Jumper & Mr. Drive – a constant contrast between raw individual abilities and the need for refined team play.
That’s why the Jazz were such a problem for the Nuggets in these 2010 Playoffs.
Jerry Sloan has put regimented, team-oriented squads on the floor for the better part of three decades. His Jazz will never (repeat, never) win an NBA Championship because they lack exactly the explosive characteristics that make clubs like the Nuggets so dangerous. Utah is too metered for ultimate success in the modern NBA (or even the 1990’s NBA, a shame for all those great Mailman-centric teams.) Their ultra-consistent play will always find itself eventually lacking versus a big-play, big-potential team like Denver or Los Angeles.
And yet, the Jazz were the perfect Yin to the Nuggets’ Yang in 2010. Where Denver was fundamentally deficient, Utah was fundamentally sound.
Bear in mind, of course, that this would not have happened in 2009. The ot-nine Nuggets would have simply overwhelmed the Jazz with the same barrage of offensive firepower that defeated New Orleans & Dallas. But without the commanding influence of one George Matthew Karl manually balancing Denver’s speeding keel, they routinely fell out of rhythm on both ends of the court.
Karl was the glue that forcibly held this band of powerful rebels together.
Adrian Dantley filled in as best he could. But without decades of experiencing playing postseason chess with on-court matchups, Dantley fell prey to Sloan’s superior in-game coaching.
The Nuggets were still capable of forcing the issue, of course, their talent level being so far superior across the breadth of the team from starters to bench. However, the misuse of available players by Dantley and the lack of a personality manager at the helm combined to doom the Nuggets to a series best quickly forgotten.
