Although we’re all fans of lacrosse, I think in general, players and those involved on the business side tend to forget what it’s like to be a fan.  (You can replace lacrosse with your favorite sport, but for ease, it will be my preferred reference.)

Fans feel a sense of ownership and even protectiveness over their teams and players, even if it’s completely irrational.

Just like a parent, they see everything through a skewed lens. They will cheer and stand up for a player against his detractors simply because he’s on their team but put that same player on the other team and their tune will probably change.

Recently I had an interesting discussion on Twitter with Andrew McKay and Teddy Jenner* about this concept.  To them, it’s very strange and even frustrating how fans can hold grudges against players long after the players themselves have moved on.  Or how fans make broad assumptions about the players based on their limited information.

For a lot of the players, they have played on the same teams or against one another in different leagues over several years and have built camaraderie on and off the field.  You might find players who had a tussle on the field chatting over a beer afterwards.  For the players, they can go all out during the game and leave it on the field.

But as fans, our only real involvement in the game is our emotion.  We cheer.  We jeer. We celebrate. We get angry.  We get upset. We feel the excitement of a win.  We feel the pain of a loss.

But whereas a player can work out their frustrations on the field, telling a fan to rein in their emotion and get over it can be a whole other story.

When a fan sees a player on their team on the receiving end of a cheap shot, just like a protective sibling, they get upset and more than likely develop a dislike for the instigating player.

Off the field, the instigating player might be the nicest guy in the world, volunteering for local charities and giving back to the community.  But to that fan, he’s just a dirty player.

Is it right? Does it even make sense? No, of course it doesn’t.

But fans are given very limited information in emotional situations and as humans they try to process that limited information and expand on it to obtain a bigger view.  This generalization and assumption is actually common enough to have a name.  It’s called the Halo Effect and no, I’m not referring to the Bungie video game.

Dictionary.com defines the Halo effect as a potential inaccuracy in observation, as of a person, due to overgeneralization from a limited amount of evidence or the influence of preconceived beliefs or a prior hypothese.

While some players seem to enjoy their reputations, good or bad, others find it frustrating.  Some don’t want to be viewed as a role model, up on a pedestal.  Others don’t want to be viewed as a villain.  In the major sports, most players have very little if any interaction with their fans.  But in professional lacrosse, that dividing line is much thinner.

Fans can talk to players after the game and interact with them on Twitter and on Facebook.  As you’d expect, some players are certainly more open and receptive than others to this interaction.  Even though quite a few players are on Twitter, not all of them are responsive.

How does this interaction change a fan’s view?  It probably reinforces some views and possibly changes others.  I wouldn’t be surprised if in some ways this interaction actually increases some fans ownership of a team’s players.  But in general, I think it’s a good thing as it helps fans to see players as people too and get a different view of them beside what they see on the field.

What do you think?

*(On a side note, if you’re a lacrosse fan and you’re not already following them on the net, you’re missing out. Check out The Laxist and IL Indoor)

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Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

Carmelo Anthony met with the New York Knicks on Thursday and the New Jersey Nets on Saturday in Los Angeles during NBA All Star Game festivities.  Representatives from the two most active players in the Melo Trade Drama pitched their respective visions for building a future contender around the Nuggets’ prolific All Star small forward.

Thursday night, Knicks owner James Dolan snuck in a surprise meeting with Melo just a few hours after word leaked in national media that the Nets had scheduled a face-to-face meeting with Anthony for Saturday night.  Representatives of the Knicks, including Dolan and GM Donnie Walsh, were reportedly unable to get a commitment from Carmelo that he was willing to wait out the trade process and sign with New York as a free agent this summer.

Saturday night the Nets, represented by Russian majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov and rapper/minority owner Jay-Z, sat with Melo at a swank LA restaurant and pitched their vision of a future in Brooklyn starting in 2012.  Anthony was born in Brooklyn, lived there for the first 8 years of his life, and has said that playing on Long Island would be “perfect” because it is the “place of my birth.”

Prokhorov, who swore off Melo trade negotiations a month ago, was very much involved in the Nets’ pitch and described the meeting as “fantastic, trust me.”  The eccentric Russian billionaire continued to describe what he saw as a thoroughly successful meeting saying, “No words, live music, excellent atmosphere. We looked into each other’s eyes. Just real man talk.”

Both teams likely promised to chase after other top-flight free agents in coming years to give Carmelo a Championship-caliber supporting staff in either New York or New Jersey/Brooklyn.  Names like Chris Paul and Dwight Howard will definitely come up early and often once Melo settles in somewhere with a fresh contract.

So, now that Anthony has met with his top two suitors, it is up to Melo and the Nuggets to figure out where he is willing to play out a 3-year $65 million extension.  Either the Knicks or Nets will only give up the rich trade packages they have offered the Nuggets if Carmelo Anthony signs an extension first.

The Thursday NBA Trade Deadline looms, and all parties involved will be served well by a trade coming to fruition.

The Nets have already pushed the Knicks to the brink, forcing New York to up their offer past their initial comfort zone.  That’s good business for a regional competitor with plans to crash the neighborhood next year.

The Nuggets are simply lucky to have multiple suitors to force competitive bidding.  For a while, the Knicks’ offer of young power forward Wilson Chandler and a first round draft pick looked like the best available option.

And Carmelo has an opportunity to end up back in his birth state in either scenario, with all of the benefits (mostly in lucrative endorsement deals) of playing in America’s biggest market to boot.

Keeping all that in mind, it is hard to believe that a deal will fail to get done before midday Thursday.  Both the Knicks and Nets have made reasonable offers considering their respective bargaining positions.

That the Nuggets continue to press the Knicks to sweeten their offer with the addition of gargantuan 7’1” center Timofey Mozgov will certainly delay negotiations, and perhaps even be the sticking point that sends Melo to the Nets.  But at the end of the day, if the Nuggets fail to make one of these trade packages real, there will be hell to pay in Denver and New York alike.

Check out our ProSportsColorado podcast on this ongoing Melo Drama

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Packers 21, Bears 14
A little more than a month ago Aaron Rodgers had sustained his 2nd concussion of the season, the Packers had lost 3 out of 4 games, and their season was on life support.

Now the Green Bay Packers are going to the Super Bowl.

The Pack took the opening kickoff and quickly drove the ball 84 yards in 7 plays, with Rodgers going 4/4 for 76 yards and capping the TD drive himself from a yard out on a textbook bootleg.

Early in the 2nd quarter Green Bay extended the lead to 14-0 on a 4-yard TD run by James Starks, the surprise star of the playoffs.

The Packer defense dominated the Bears in the first half, rendering Jay Cutler and Matt Forte ineffective.  At the end of the 2nd quarter Cutler threw a deep pass for Johnny Knox, but Sam Shields intercepted it for the Packers.  Cutler was hit in the knee on the play and left for the locker room early.  He played the opening series of the 2nd half but only threw one pass as the Bears went three-and-out.

Whether the Bears training staff held him out or he didn’t have the courage or desire to go back in, Cutler had played his last snap in the NFC Championship.

On the Packers’ first possession of the 2nd half, Rodgers was picked off at the Chicago 6-yard-line by Brian Urlacher, who returned it 39 yards before Rodgers himself made a TD-saving tackle.  The pick started a shaky second half for Rodgers, who had performed nearly flawlessly in the playoffs up to that point.

39-year-old veteran Todd Collins took over for Cutler, but went 0/4 passing on two possessions and failed to capitalize on Urlacher’s INT before himself succumbing to a leg injury.

We knew that a quarterback who once played in the state of Colorado would have a chance to lead the Bears to the Super Bowl.  We didn’t know that his name would be Caleb Hanie.

With only 14 pass attempts in his NFL career, Hanie entered at QB for the Bears late in the 3rd quarter.  On his 2nd pass attempt, Caleb threw a perfect strike on a crossing route to Knox for a 32-yard gain to the Packer 1-yard-line.  Chester Taylor scored on the next play, and the Bears had new life at 14-7.

After forcing Green Bay to punt on two straight drives, the Bears took possession deep in their own territory.  On 3rd-&-5 at their own 15, Hanie threw a pass to Forte.  337-lb. nose tackle B.J. Raji stepped in front and returned it 18 yards for the pick-six with about six minutes left.

Just over a minute later Hanie hit Earl Bennett for a 35-yard TD pass (thanks to a poor defensive effort by Nick Collins) to cut the deficit back down to a touchdown.

The Bears made one last drive in the final 3 minutes.  On 4th-&-5 at the Packer 29 Hanie threw over the middle for Knox, but Sam Shields grabbed his 2nd INT of the day to seal the victory for the Packers.

For the first time in 13 years (when they were stunned by Elway, TD, and the rest of the Broncos crew) the Green Bay Packers advanced to the Super Bowl…

…and Jay Cutler will always suck.

Steelers 24, Jets 19
The Steelers opened the game with a marathon 15-play, 9-minute drive.  Ben Roethlisberger scrambled for 12 yards to convert a 3rd-&-12, and Rashard Mendenhall carried the ball eight times on the drive, capping it off with a 1-yard plunge to put the Steelers up 7-0.

The drive set the tempo for a first half of Pittsburgh dominance.

The Steelers imposed their will on the Jets with their rushing attack.  Mendenhall led the charge with 95 first half rushing yards.  After a Steeler field goal, Roethlisberger rushed for a 2-yard TD midway through the 2nd quarter to extend the lead to 17-0.

The Jets offense held the ball for less than 10 minutes and went three-and-out twice in the first half.  With less than 2 minutes left before halftime Mark Sanchez was sacked at his own 20 by Ike Taylor, causing the ball to fly out of his hand.  William Gay scooped it up and ran it back for the touchdown, which was upheld after a booth review.

With a 24-0 lead, the Steelers ticket to Dallas looked like it had already been punched.

But Rex Ryan’s boys weren’t going down without a fight.

After finally getting on the scoreboard with a field goal at the end of the half, the Jets took the ball first in the 3rd quarter.  On the fifth play of the drive, Sanchez ran a bootleg to the right.  Santonio Holmes’ defender fell down, and Holmes broke wide-open for the end zone.  Sanchez hit him with a perfect throw at the goal line, and the Jets suddenly had a pulse.

The momentum completely turned in the Jets’ favor.  Roethlisberger struggled, throwing his second interception in the 3rd quarter, and the once-dominant Pittsburgh rushing attack was now stuck in neutral.

Starting late in the 3rd, the Jets went on a 17-play, 88-yard drive and had 1st-&-goal at the Pittsburgh 2-yard-line.  Shonn Greene was stuffed on 1st down, Sanchez had a pass knocked away on 2nd down and was nearly picked off on 3rd.  On 4th-&-goal at the 1 the Steeler defense made the most critical play of the game, stopping LaDainian Tomlinson and killing the Jet drive.

The Steelers botched the snap on the next play resulting in a safety.  On the ensuing possession the Jets drove 58 yards in 10 plays, culminating in a 4-yard TD pass to Jerricho Cotchery with 3:06 remaining.

The Jets had all three of their timeouts as the Steelers took over, and a battle for the game clock ensued.  Pittsburgh took two plays to move the chains, leaving the Jets with just one timeout.  On 3rd-&-6 at the two-minute warning, after the Jets had used their final timeout, Roethlisberger hit Antonio Brown for 14 yards to clinch the Steelers’ third AFC title in the last six years.

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NFL guidelines prohibit a controlling owner from also owning a majority share of an NBA, NHL or MLB team.

Kroenke’s ownership of the NBA’s Nuggets & NHL’s Avalanche have been preventing Stan from making a move on the remaining 60% of the NFL’s Rams.  The current owners of that 60%, brother-sister combo Chip Rosenbloom & Lucia Rodriguez, agreed last year to get out of the Rams business.  They even found a buyer in Shahid Khan, a businessman from Illinois in good standing with NFL brass.

But Kroenke and his 40% would not back down.

Stan exercised his option to match Khan’s offer in April, and has since been working to secure the support of NFL officials to become a multi-franchise controlling owner.  That hasn’t happened, despite a precedence set in Miami by Wayne Huizenga’s ownership of the Dolphins, Marlins & Panthers since 1994.

So Stan is getting creative.

A carefully-worded statement released by Kroenke Sports Enterprises yesterday indicated that the Kroenke “family looks forward to owning the Rams, Nuggets & Avalanche for years to come while being compliant with all stipulations set by the NFL.”

The Denver Post reported that Kroenke’s son, Josh (also VP of Team Development for the Nuggets), would take majority control of the Nuggets.  And although that report has not been confirmed, the Kroenke’s seem to be trending towards a splitting of sports franchise real estate within the family.

The NBA Board of Governors would need to approve such a transfer, and the NHL would need to approve any ownership movement with the Avalanche.  However, Stan & Company may stand a better chance of diversifying their collective ownership by avoiding a special exemption from the NFL.

The NFL’s competition surely won’t mind causing trouble for the biggest league in American sports.

And while the NFL can still stifle any potential sale of available St Louis Rams ownership to Kroenke, he has certainly raised the stakes by showing his willingness to press the issue further.  The NFL certainly doesn’t want to deal with a very public dispute over control of the Rams, especially if the matter drags on through the meat of football season.

The Battle of Wills: Stan v League is so far being won by Mr. Kroenke.

Note:

Kroenke has also been increasing his share of the English Premier League’s Arsenal Football Club.  Soccer’s entrenchment in English culture is as deep or deeper than American Football in the United States, and Stan’s dealings across the pond have drawn even more heated criticism and a more tense situation there.  Kroenke is now 0.1% away from being able to make a move towards controlling ownership with his current 29.9%.

None can say that Stan lacks gumption, as he takes on the Powers That Be in the Western World’s two biggest, most profitable sports entities.

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If not for a Kenyon Martin layup, the Nuggets would have gone the first seven & a half minutes of the 1^st Quarter without scoring a single point.  That, combined with atrocious, stationary defense, gave the Suns a quick 18-2 lead over the visiting Nuggets.

Denver struggled so mightily through the opening salvo that they had a paltry 5 points at the midway point in the quarter.

Down 15 with 4:22 left in the 1^st, Carmelo Anthony nailed a tough 21-foot jumper.  JR Smith followed from 18 for 2, 25 for 3 & 26 for 3.  Chauncey nailed a 25-footer of his own on the next trip down the court to bring the Nuggets within 8 points at 23-31.

Unfortunately, Denver’s run fell short and the Suns called a quick timeout to right the ship.  By the end of the opening quarter, Phoenix had inflated its lead back to 12.

Most of the 2^nd Quarter was a back-and-forth slugfest that slowed to a crawl as the referees took over the flow of the game.  Neither team was able to gather any major momentum as casual contact became fouls.  Phoenix dropped a couple of key threes to stretch their lead.

That lead hovered around 16 points until Phoenix called a timeout with 2:35 left in the half.

Denver came out stout on defense, but started missing jumpers in bunches.  The Suns maintained their scoring pace, dropping 11 more to end the half up 70-49.

Even without the Nuggets’ early game struggles, they only shot 38% in the half against 56% for Phoenix.  And despite their spat of threes to close the gap in the 1^st Quarter, Denver started a dry run from deep that spanned the remainder of the half.  That translates to 3 of 10 versus 8 of 12 from beyond the arc and a breezy 21-point Suns lead.

That first half buzzer might as well have signaled the end of the game.

Denver was able to bring the Phoenix lead down to 13 midway through the 3^rd Quarter, but the Suns called a timeout and re-established their dominance.  An 11-2 Phoenix run coming out of that timeout effectively ended the Denver threat by expanding the lead to 22 points.

TNT must have been delighted to have such a barn-burner as their showcase game this late in the season.  No doubt Denver audiences bailed on Altitude early too.  The refs slowed the game with whistles to quell the brewing bad blood as the game got physical.

The final score in the Nuggets’ final game of the regular season was an embarrassing 101-123 depantsing.

The loss relegates the Denver Nuggets to a likely 5^th seed, as the Utah Jazz control their destiny in the race for the Northwest Division after a win at Golden State.  Phoenix travels to Salt Lake City tomorrow night to settle the Western Conference seeding with the Jazz.  Only a Suns victory can save the Nuggets from their late-season decent from 1-seed contenders to the 5-seed and a hellish road to the Finals.

The best Denver can now finish is the 4th playoff slot, a 1st round date with the Jazz, and a temporary home-court advantage. Should Utah beat the Suns tomorrow night, the Nuggets will open the 1st round on the road in Phoenix.

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The Denver Nuggets’ playoff seed could be #2 in the Western Conference.  Then again, it could be #8.

With 5 games left, even LA could lose every game and potentially get lifted from their slot as the #1 seed.  (Don’t worry Lakers Nation… they’re waiting for the playoffs to choke.)

Four teams currently sit at 50 wins, 27 losses.

The Nuggets (#3) are among them, tucked just below the Dallas Mavericks (#2) and above the Utah Jazz (#4) & the Phoenix Suns (#5).  The Lakers are a win away from clinching the top spot in the West, and both the Oklahoma City Thunder & San Antonio Spurs are within striking distance of everybody, but unlikely to make the leap.

We’ll know all about OKC’s chances of charging the upper echelon of the playoff field by Friday, as they play Utah, Denver & Phoenix all in a row between now and then.

All of the various tiebreakers could make it a circus to sort out.  Really, so many different potential realities exist over the next week that I have decided to point out the most crucial games by bolding them above.  It’s the best I can do to make sense of the coming madness.

Here’s how it all shakes out…

Dallas controls its destiny as the current #2 seed.

They will face off against Memphis tonight (win) and then travel to Portland (loss) & Sacramento (win) on consecutive nights.  The Mavericks will finish a 3-game West Coast swing in LA against the Clippers (blowout win) one week from today.  They finish their season at home versus the San Antonio Spurs (loss) who have slowly, methodically battled their way to the #7 seed.

Dallas looks likely to hold onto their position at the top of the heap, but have been inconsistent all season.  As Dirk goes, so do the Mavericks.

Final 5 Prediction: 3-2

Phoenix is a long-shot to catch up from the #5 slot

The Suns have been on a tear, winning 24 of their last 30 games.  They welcome the Spurs to Phoenix on Wednesday (win) before traveling to Oklahoma City (loss) on Friday.  Then they return home for two games in three nights against Houston (win) & Denver (win) before heading immediately to Utah (loss) a night later to close out their season.

The Suns are a dangerous team entering the playoffs, but will be too tired traveling to Utah the night after a home game versus the Nuggets to catch up to Dallas in the standings.

Final 5 Prediction: 3-2

Utah sits at #4 looking up at the NW Division title

The Jazz are a serious danger to the Nuggets in the NW Division title race.  Denver won the season series, so Utah will have to out-win the Nuggets from here on.  But they have an interesting mix of easy teams on the road and tough teams at home.  Not a good combination for a club that struggles outside of Salt Lake City

Tomorrow night the Jazz will welcome a dangerous team to town in the Oklahoma City Thunder (win), but Utah has handled the Thunder very well in the past.  The Jazz then go on a 3-game swing through Houston (loss), New Orleans (win) and Golden State (loss) before coming home to face Phoenix (win) a night later.

That’s right, Utah and Phoenix will meet in SLC for an all-out battle on April 14^th to close the season.  Luckily the game is on ESPN so everyone can watch the fireworks.

Final 5 Prediction: 3-2

The Nuggets probably need to win 4 of 5 to improve beyond the #3

Even then, a loss to Phoenix on the final night of the Nuggets’ regular season could spell doom for their seeding if the Suns can hold par until then.  In fact, Denver is the most vulnerable team in this field with injuries to Kenyon Martin & Chris Andersen still handicapping their frontcourt.  The Nuggets have taken a big (6’11”) step towards fixing that problem.

On top of all that, the Nuggets will be without head coach George Karl, likely well into the postseason.  That means Adrian Dantley will be on an island making the tough decisions about how to handle bumps in the road along the way.

And bumps there will be, as the Nuggets head to Oklahoma City (loss) on Wednesday before coming home to face the Lakers (win) on Thursday night.  Then the rising San Antonio Spurs (win) come to town Saturday, followed by Memphis (big, thumping win) on Monday.  The final test will be in Phoenix next Tuesday, and that game is likely to mean the difference between potentially two or three spots on the playoff ladder for both teams.  Call it serendipity, the whole nation will watch that battle live on TNT.

Final 5 Prediction: 3-2

You may have noticed that I predicted each team to finish 3-2 over their last 5 games.  This is no fluke.  It is not a designed reading of schedules intended to raise the tension.  No, this is actually how I expect the final 5 games to shake out.

If the breaks go as predicted, even if Denver loses to the Suns in their final regular season game, then the Nuggets will hold onto their current seed.  Phoenix will have won the season series, but Denver would move forward as the #3 so long as they stay on par with Utah and ahead of Oklahoma City to win the NW Division.  (The Lakers will almost assuredly win the Suns’ Pacific Division.)

So get to a TV if you can, find a bar with the full NBA package if you must, but watch as many of these games as you can.  It may just be a warm up for the Main Event, but this next week is going to be one hell of a show.

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Ubaldo Jimenez rocked the radar gun at 99 mph, with an average fast ball speed of about 96 mph, and became the first Rockies starter to win on Opening Day in 6 years on Monday afternoon.

The Rockies faced a tall task in entering Milwaukee to take on the heavy-hitting Brewers, but Jimenez pitched 6 solid innings for the win.  Matt Belisle and Matt Daley put in solid performances in middle relief, the former putting out a fire started by lefty reliever Randy Flores in the 7th.  Daley induced a bases-loaded pop fly on the infield to end the Brewers’ only real threat to a Colorado lead that started at 2-0 in the 1st Inning.

The Rockies led 4-0 before Milwaukee fought back with tallies in the 5th & 7th.  Both teams scored in the 9th Inning to make it a 5-3 final in favor of Colorado.

Shawn Estes was the last Rockies starter to get a win for Colorado on opening day.  Ubaldo Jimenez got into some trouble in the 5th, but calmed down and closed the inning with only a single earned run.  That was the only run Jimenez, the Rockies’ new staff ace, gave up on the day.

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With 8 games to go, the Nuggets will need a win tonight at the Mavericks and a strong finish to reacquire the 2^nd seed in the Western Conference playoff field

Despite a losing effort in Orlando on Sunday, the Denver Nuggets clinched a playoff slot with 8 games to go.  Memphis lost to Milwaukee in OT to set a basement for the Nuggets’ playoff seeding.

Now Denver will travel to Dallas for a showdown with the Mavericks.

The Nuggets need this game for a lot of reasons… namely the three teams surrounding them in the standings.

The Dallas Mavericks sit at 2^nd in the West just a half game ahead of Denver with one less loss and a game in hand.  Dallas has a cakewalk to the 2-seed with 4 of their remaining 9 games coming against non-playoff teams.  Unless the Nuggets steal a game in Dallas tonight, they will be watching as the Mavs walk away with the home-court advantage.

The Utah Jazz are tied with the Nuggets at 48-26.  Denver won the season series so Utah will need to win an extra between now and mid-April to take over the Northwest Division. Aside from a home game against the Knicks tonight and a home-and-away series versus the Golden State Warriors, the Jazz have a tough schedule to close out the season.  If the Nuggets hold

The Phoenix Suns lurk a half game back from both Denver & Utah with one less win but a game in hand.  The Suns have a difficult road stretch this week, all against Eastern Conference teams.  If Phoenix can improve at all on their 7-game winning streak against poor-to-middling opponents (or just grab 2 of 4 through the end of the week) the Suns will control their own destiny to close out the season.  They play 3 of their final 5 at home, and their final two are against Denver (home) and Utah (away).

Quite the recipe for a rapid rising of Phoenix in the standings.

Not only is an ascension likely for the Suns, they actually have the best chance of the four teams chasing the Lakers to pull off a miracle and steal the top seed from LA.

Denver, who bit at the heels of the Lakers for much of the season, is missing too much in the absence of Kenyon Martin.  Aside from his stellar low-post defense, Martin was hauling in an average of 9.6 rebounds per game before his knee sent him to rehab.  In recent games, the Nuggets have been missing those two elements very much.  Even bad offensive rebounding teams like the Raptors & Knicks simply got too many second and third chances against the Nuggets without Kenyon to chase them out of the paint.

That brings us full circle: back to tonight’s game at Dallas.

There is no quick-fix for what ails the Nuggets.  Without Kenyon Martin and the steadying influence of George Karl on the sidelines, they have looked (and played) like a middling playoff team of late.

Without the remaining Nuggets stepping up, most notably the bench players (we’re all looking at you JR), Denver will end up exactly that… a middling playoff team with an uphill climb back to the Conference Finals.

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Avalanche defenseman Ruslan Salei, fresh off of a season-long injury, is back among the ranks of the unavailable. Salei played for his native Belarus in the Olympic Games, and has been back on the ice for Avalanche, picking up one assist in six games. This time the injury is a generic sounding “torso” injury, and according to team he’ll be on the bench indefinitely.

The “indefinite” nature of the injury points to something more than just a common bump or bruise, and could spell the end of Salei’s tenure with the Avs, thanks to his $3M per year expiring contract.

On the other side of the injury coin, Kyle Cumiskey is set to return Tuesday against the Canucks. Cumiskey, suffering the after effects of a concussion, is in the midst of a breakout year, playing in 44 games and notching 14 points (7 goals, 7 assists).

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Johan Petro started this game.

Believe it.  Petro… started.  And yet somehow it all made sense.

Petro started at Center, played for seven minutes, didn’t take a single shot, grabbed five rebounds, and dished a single assist to Melo out of a double-team for a huge early dunk.

Then Johan vanished.

Petro was replaced by Chris Andersen, their shared singular task to guard the paint against the very tall, skinny Portland Trailblazers.  In the absence of the injured Kenyon Martin, smallish Center Nene played Power Forward while two beanpole goliaths swatted away Blazers.  It was brilliant.

By the time Denver went to their smaller lineup, bringing in JR Smith for Andersen, the Nuggets had a 61-42 lead with under two minutes left in the first half.  Denver finished that half on the strength of a bullying Carmelo Anthony drive down the right side of the lane for two points and a 66-49 lead.

Then the world went crazy.  Avatar missed out on Best Picture (The Hurt Locker), and James Cameron didn’t win Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow, also The Hurt Locker).  Somewhere, an Avatar fan is actively fantasizing an Oscar sweep.

But the Nuggets were unfazed.  Towards the end of the 3^rd Quarter we got a great example of why Denver is so functional in the midst of seeming chaos.

JR Smith took a terrible fading jump-shot from 24 feet with two Blazers in his face.  Portland drove the court, worked the left side, and Martell Webster charged in for a sure score.  Then Chris Andersen rose from the paint and swatted the would-be dunk aside.  Nene grabbed the rebound, chucked a strong pass over two Blazers, and JR Smith slammed a half-windmill in front of a rabid Denver crowd.

Smith, who took a bad shot & got beaten defensively, had the presence of mind to charge upcourt as soon as he saw a block.  The Nuggets thrive on playmaking, and they are a team of versatile, athletic basketball players.  That’s why Denver is virtually unstoppable when they find a groove.

The groove is contagious, and that’s why we saw Aaron Afflalo, Johan Petro and even Anthony Carter making plays throughout a 3^rd Quarter where Portland fought tooth & nail to scrape their way back into the game.

And when the Trailblazers got within ten late in the 4^th Quarter, it was JR “Swish” again who started the Rain of Threes that has become the Nuggets’ trademark in big wins.

The Denver Nuggets took down a big divisional matchup against the dangerous Portland Trailblazers 118-106 at Pepsi Center.

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