I have made the very difficult decision to start a new Nuggets blog and it is with a great deal of sadness that I announce this will be my last post on Pickaxe and Roll. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank SB Nation for the opportunity they gave me to run this blog and work with what is currently the best group of NBA bloggers on the internet.  SB Nation is a first class organization that only cares about promoting great blogging and I will always appreciate my time here.  I leave with nothing but a great respect and good feelings towards the network.

Thank you to everyone at SB Nation and thank you to all of you who have read, commented, posted and spread the word about Pickaxe and Roll.  I owe you all a debt of gratitude for making this blog what it is.

I struggled with the appropriateness of declaring the launch of my new blog here on SB Nation’s platform and after a great deal of thought I decided to take the middle of the road.  Instead of ignoring it or putting the name in big bold letters I will just say if you are interested in visiting it you can click here.

Box Score | Highlights

Due to the family festivities of New Years’ Eve and New Years Day I still have not seen all of the Denver Nuggets game at Toronto.  I did see most of the second half though and what I will say is both teams played hard and the game was very physical.  The Nuggets have always been capable of playing physical against some teams, the Spurs in particular, but they tend to get pushed around from time to time by teams they are not as motivated to play rough with.  Last night Denver met and exceeded the physical play by Toronto.  There are some nights where the officials allow a physical game based on the way they call it and the team that responds best is typically the team that will win.  The Nuggets responded and won the game, resulting in George Karl's 900th career win as an NBA head coach.

Regardless of how you feel about Karl, that is an impressive accomplishment so congratulations to Coach Karl.

Since I have not seen all of the game I will direct you to the recap by Ryan McNeil over at Hoops Addict who was an important member of the media throng at the game.

Razzle Dazzle Game Stats

Pace Factor – 91.7

Def Efficiency – 116.7 – I will say in the second half from what I saw the Nuggets defense was pretty solid.  Toronto hit some good shots.  However, after yet another sky high defensive efficiency rating the Nuggets now are statistically worse with Chauncey Billups in the lineup than they were before he joined the team.

Offensive Efficiency – 124.4

Raptors Republic | Raptors HQ 

The Denver Nuggets have not lost a game to a non playoff team yet this season.  They demolished the Toronto Raptors in the first meeting in Denver by 29 points.  The Raptors are 4-12 over their previous 16 games.  All signs point to a Nugget win tonight.

The thing that always scared me about playing against Toronto is their dangerous shooters such as Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono, Jose Calderon and even Carlos Delfino was a good weapon from long range last season.  You could not rotate quick enough to cover all of them and it seemed like whoever was open would make you pay. 

Well, this year has been different.  Anthony Parker and Jason Kapono have not been shooting the ball anywhere near their previously lofty standards.  Calderon is still a very good shooter, but he always looks to set his teammates up first.  Delfino is completely out of the picture as he is playing in Russia this season.

The one thing that scares me is the Nuggets propensity to let struggling teams build confidence early in games.  Toronto still has plenty of shooters who can light you up.  As we have pointed out recently Denver has not been playing very well defensively lately, but Toronto is a team that could help them get back on track.  Kenyon matches up well with Chris Bosh, at least as well as can be expected, Nene is listed as questionable with his neck strain and that means Chris Andersen will probably start.  Jermaine O’Neal has a slight advantage there as he should be able to get some room to shoot his nice midrange jumper with Andersen sagging off with the hopes of notching a block.  Carmelo Anthony should be able to handle Joey Graham as long as he stays in front of him and boxes out.

Denver is in good shape on the perimeter as well.  In the first game George Karl chose to put Dahntay Jones on Calderon and Jones did a great job of frustrating Calderon and playing physical with him.  The reason the Nuggets could get away with that matchup is because Parker is a smaller shooting guard and Chauncey matches up with him very well.  It will be interesting to see if Karl employs the same strategy tonight.

I have not been impressed with the intensity the Nuggets have played with following losses lately and I can only hope that tonight is different. 

Denver Nuggets Game Notes

Previous Matchup:  Game 19 – DEN 132 TOR 93

Raptors Republic | Raptors HQ

Update:  According to both the Post and the News Nene will start tonight despite feeling "sharp pain in his neck."

Round four of the Blogger MVP/Rookie of the Year ranings are up over at Raptors HQ.

You can view my ballot here.

For those of you who are Bronco fans in addition to Nugget fans make sure you check out the story and discussion over at the Mile High Report.

Box Score | Highlights

There you have it.  The Atlanta Hawks are good, especially when they are making threes from the parking lot with the shot clock winding down.  The Nuggets defense is not as good as it was early in the season.  In fact, the Nuggets have had eight straight games with a defensive efficiency of over 100 and over their previous 20 their defensive efficiency has been over 100 in 16 of them. 

During that 20 game stretch Denver’s defensive efficiency has been 109.1 which would place them in the bottom third of the league for the season.

That is not the team we put our faith in early in the season.  It is frighteningly similar to what they did last season.  Their defensive efficiency was actually in the top five for much of the first month or two of the season.  They ended up a top ten team, but their efficiency was very poor the last four months of the season.

What has been the problem?  First and foremost it has been a lack of desire.  The Nuggets knew that in order to run with the big dogs they needed to be able to get stops when it counts.  They did a great job of playing with that mentality for all four quarters.  They were a good defensive team and they knew it.  Instead of working to build on that foundation they have chosen to turn it on only when they have to.

We all know that is not the mentality that the best defensive teams in the NBA operate under.

On a more tactical level the Nuggets pick and roll defense has become shoddy.  The bigs are not hedging very well at all and that creates a beve of issues.  The ball handler has plenty of room to shoot or drive.  Because there is no pressure he can also hit the roller cutting down the lane.  Another problem is the Nuggets have begun to rely on switching far too often as their primary pick and roll strategy.  The result of those switches are mismatches all over the floor.  Mismatches result in either easy baskets or double teams, which can frequently result in easy baskets.

The other issue that has arisen that has weakened their pick and roll defense as well as their defense as a whole is their lack of communication.  They have displayed confusion on both switching screens and defensive rotations more and more over the last couple of weeks.  Hopefully they bottomed out in the first half against the Kicks where they seemed more confused than a hillbilly at a foreign film festival. 

The other area where the Nuggets have fallen short of the standard they set early in the season is their lack of on the ball pressure.  They seem content to allow their man to survey the floor and pass it to whomever he wants.  Ball pressure can help make up for breakdowns in other areas by restricting the offensive player’s view of the floor and by threatening the passing lanes with active hands.

To be fair, the Nuggets have also faced more efficient offenses over the previous month as their schedule has increased in difficulty, but good defense is good defense no matter where, when or who it goes up against. 

And oh by the way, the Nuggets record over their last eight games 3-5 and over their last 20 games they are 12-8.  They need to do better.

Other Observations from Game 32:

• I have to wonder how much Nene was just looking for a night off and the sore neck happened to be as good an excuse as any.  This was only the second time since the 2003-2004 season that Nene has played in 31 straight games and before training camp he admitted that he still felt the effects of his chemotherapy treatments. 
  
• There was a popular movement a couple of years ago that gained a lot of traction amongst Nugget fans that postulated that Marcus Camby was the most indispensible Nugget.  After tonight’s game look for the Nene is the most indispensible Nugget movement to take off.  Interestingly enough just today I wrote that the Nuggets can survive without one of their big men for a few games here and there, but if one of them goes down for a prolonged period of time they will be in trouble.  Well, I would hate to see the Nuggets play without Nene for more than two or three games and I doubt they will be able to trade for anyone who is capable of filling even a portion of his shoes.  We all knew that Nene would be a major key to the Nuggets success this season and tonight served as a reminder of that.
  
• Now that Linas Kleiza has heated up Chauncey Billups is in a shooting slump from three point range.  He has only made six of his last 30 attempts good for 20.0%.
  
• As J.R. Smith has regained his shooting touch he has gotten away from setting up his teammates.  When things are not going well he does a better job of setting up his teammates, which is great, but until he realizes that he can get his own points and use his talents to get his brothers in arms easy hoops he will never reach his full potential as an offensive player.
  
• After handling the ball like it was a sub prime mortgage the past few games it was good to see Anthony Carter end up with seven assists and only a single turnover.
  

Razzle Dazzle Game Stats

Pace Factor – We have a new leader in the race for the slowest Nuggets game of the season with a pace factor of only 81.6.

Defensive Efficiency – When you give up 109 points in a game with a pace factor of 81.6 the result is a defensive efficiency rating of 133.7, the worst of the season.

Offensive Efficiency – 111.6, not bad, but nowhere near good enough when they play defense the way they did tonight.

Peachtree Hoops

Sorry for the short “preview” but that 5:00 start has snuck up on me. 

Here is all you need to know about tonight’s game against the Hawks.  Atlanta is good team and they are really good at home.  This is the last game of an eight game home stand for them.  They beat the Cavs (the only loss the Cavs have suffered since November 19th!) and the only game Atlanta has lost during this home stand was a nail biter to the Celtics.

The Nuggets had better gird their loins for a tough, but winnable, game.

Denver Nuggets Game Notes

Peachtree Hoops 

I noticed a new trade rumor as well as an old one floating around the internet involving the Denver Nuggets and figured it might be fun to address both of them.

Talking Trade with Oklahoma City?

The search for an additional big man continues as Denver has been listed as a possible destination for both Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox of the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

Joe Smith would seem to be a no brainer, but he is pretty light in the rump and I would have to question his ability to play defense in the post.  Offensively, I think he would be a great fit as he can set screens, play unselfishly and drain the midrange jumper.  Wilcox is a more impressive physical specimen, but he is such an inconsistent player.  As with Smith, I question his ability to be a stout defender on the block.  He has the bulk, but I do not know if he has the heart.

The other issue is after having no problem with shipping Chucky Atkins out in exchange for almost anything I am now hesitant to deal him because of the horrible recent play by Anthony Carter.  Until either Carter changes his ways or a big man is seriously injured I do not do either one of those deals.

I am also not so sure that the Nuggets need to add another big man.  They can clearly survive a short term injury to one of their big men as we have seen Andersen, Martin and Melo miss time recently.  Making a trade for another big man might give the Nuggets management one less thing to worry about when they go to sleep at night, but I do not think it is a necessity.    

Linas Kleiza for David Lee?

I also saw a report that the Nuggets were on the verge of acquiring David Lee from the Knicks for Kleiza, but George Karl convinced the front office that Kleiza was too valuable to trade away.  Kleiza is an important player for the Nuggets and over the past couple of weeks his three point shooting has come around and he has hit some big shots.  As we saw yesterday Lee is an absolute beast.  He is a great rebounder and scores all of his points in the paint.  You never have to worry about him settling for jumpers because he never does settle for jumpers.  Denver also needs to consider the possibility of Kleiza wanting to leave Denver after this season although he will be a restricted free agent.

Even though I personally would pull the trigger on that deal I can appreciate where Karl is coming from.  The Nuggets do not have a player like Kleiza on the roster and having his perimeter offense on the bench is reassuring.  Also, Lee somewhat duplicates Kenyon Martin.  While Kenyon is not the rebounder that Lee is and he plays more on the perimeter offensively than Lee they are roughly the same size (or maybe even exactly the same size as both are listed at 6’9” and 240 pounds) and I can understand why Karl would balk at giving up a unique player for one that he sees as somewhat of a duplicate.

Box Score | Highlights

The Denver Nuggets must have had fun toying with the Knicks today.  Even though the point total ended up in the area where the New York Knicks have the best shot at winning and New York put together a couple of pretty impressive runs, I never felt like the Nuggets were in trouble.

If the early start time caused any problems for the Nuggets they were of the mental instead of physical. 

I thought physically they handled the early start time pretty well.  On the other hand, mentally they were not all there.  Defensively Denver was very confused and players were frequently caught out of position.  There were several instances where some players would switch while others would not resulting in two defenders on one player and other situations where one or two guys rotated, but no one else would resulting in one or two players not guarding anyone.  The Knicks took 13 threes in the first quarter because their three point shooters were open at least 13 times. 

Denver locked down on defense for most of the second quarter and most of the fourth and that ended up being good enough.

The truly good news from today’s game was that we saw a much different Carmelo Anthony than the one that last took the floor in Phoenix.  Melo did a great job working for good shots, getting to the rim and looking for cutters.  More importantly Melo made shots from everywhere he took them.  He was very good driving and finishing.  He made a hoard of midrange jumpers and drained his only three attempt.  He pulled down nine rebounds and only turned the ball over once.

All in all, the Nuggets dodged a bullet.  The Knicks were embarrassed at home in their last game and played put forth a strong performance.  The Nuggets now face what would appear to be their toughest test of the road trip facing a much improved Atlanta Hawks team.

Other Observations from Game 31:

• For the second or third time this season Dahntay Jones made a mark on the offensive end of the floor.  He did a great job attacking the basket and finishing in traffic.  He even managed to toss in a couple of tough left handed flip shots. 
  
• Chris Andersen did not play because George Karl chose to play Renaldo Balkman instead.  While I do not see how playing Balkman and Birdman is a mutually exclusive proposition.  However, with the Knicks being primarily a perimeter team I think Andersen might have been a defensive liability. 
  
• One of the reasons I preferred Nene to Marcus Camby was that Nene was more willing to defend on the perimeter.  Well, Nene’s perimeter D was pretty shoddy against the Knicks.  He went out to 18 feet willingly, but when it came to defending the three point line he did not get out far enough on players like Tim Thomas and Al Harrington to take away the three.  Between the two of them Nene allowed several open looks from downtown.
  
• I have had it up to here with Anthony Carter.  He continues to make terrible decisions with the basketball and for the first time since he joined the Denver Nuggets I was actually a little upset that Chucky Atkins did not play.  He seemed to finally be getting into a rhythm against the 76ers after playing in his third straight game.   
  
• Oh and congratulations to me for winning my fantasy football league today thanks to a three touchdown performance by LaDainian Tomlinson.  Of course it sucked that he did it against the Broncos, but they were destined to lose tonight’s game.
  

Razzle Dazzle Game Stats

Pace Factor – 95.9

Defensive Efficiency – 114.7

Offensive Efficiency – 122.0

Posting and Toasting | Knickerblogger

As you would expect from a Mike D’Antoni team offense is the name of the game with the New York Knicks.  They give up a few more points when they lose sacrificing 105.6 points per game in wins and 110.0 when they lose, but the real difference is the complete lack of offense in losses.  In their 11 wins New York has averaged 117.2 points per game.  However, in their 17 losses the Knicks only average 96.2 points per game.  That spread of 21.0 points is the largest in the NBA.  By comparison the Nuggets average 106.2 points per game in wins and 95.5 in losses.  That is a wide difference, but nothing like the Knicks.

What does that mean?  I guess there have been 11 games this season where the Knicks have either been red hot (they have plenty of explosive players such as Al Harrington, Nate Robinson and or have faced non existent defense.  If Denver can manage to play a little defense and challenge the Knicks shooters they should be able to pull off a road win to start this four game trip.  On the other hand, if they let the Knicks get off to a good start as they did the 76ers last night, the Knicks are probably not going to cool off and let the Nuggets back in the game the way Philly did.

There will be an obstacle Denver will have to face other than the Knicks tomorrow.  NBA players are creatures of routine and habit and this game will be the most non-routine game Denver will play this season.  Tip off is scheduled for 11:05 AM Mountain time.  I am willing to bet that the players will have to be on the floor warming up before the time they usually get out of bed for a typical road game.  It will be awkward for the Nuggets and the early start time will be an issue.  The good news for the early start time is they will have plenty of time to fly to Atlanta and get settled in for their game Monday against the Hawks.

More good news is after going 2-1 in his absence Denver will be getting Carmelo Anthony back as he is listed as probable for the game tomorrow.

I think we will see a good effort out of the Nuggets.  It is the first game of a road trip where they have a legitimate chance of winning all four games (the only winning team they will play is Atlanta) and hopefully they will use their comeback victory against Philadelphia as a motivational victory instead of proof that they can afford to only play a quarter of the game against an inferior opponent.

Denver Nuggets Game Notes

Posting and Toasting | Knickerblogger