The only logical thing was he bet on the Lakers. If he wanted the glory, props, or his nightly spot on ESPN why did he try to emulate the 35 year old Washington Wizards Michael Jordan by taking fade away jumpers for 3 and 3/4ths of the games?
There is no way I believe George Karl said "You have Vladamir Radmonovich on you, DON'T take it to the rim" Nor would I believe that Allen Iverson was nudging his hood-star buddy to say "Keep taking jumpers dawggy, jump shots give you street cred" As a Laker fan even I was yelling at Melo to take Vlad off the dribble! Why it took 3 losses and about 20 minutes for him to start attacking the rim I have no idea. If anything quit on the Denver Nuggets it was the part of Melo's brain that handles logic. Logic tells you to attack the basket when you have a goofy, uncoordinated European player guarding you.
Their style of basketball is a momentum killer. Chris Webber talked about it on TNT last night at half time. The bigs don't get in the flow of the game because AI either dribbles too much then goes to the rack or Melo will catch the ball and it RARELY leaves his hands other then to take a shot. How do you know when the ball is going to come to you or when to run to get the rebound in this offense? After hearing Webber's comments I thought about it for a minute and realized.....where were all the plays for Kenyon Martin? Since when is he Ben Wallace where his only job is to defend and maybe get some put backs/uncontested dunks? This guy is a pretty solid offensive player. Prior to his surgeries he was a chinese bootleg of what Amare Stoudamire is today. Why is DJ Mbenga not being exploited by Marcus Camby on the offensive end? In the same regard did Pau Gasol pay the Nuggets so he wouldn't have to break a sweat? Not only did he get a lot of easy baskets but they didn't make him play an ounce of defense.
