Rick - This one's for you and those "likeable" Denver Thuggets

[WayOutWest]

http://rumorsandrants.com/2009/05/there-are-plenty-of-reasons-to-hate-the-denver-nuggets.html

Yea rick, you're so right about the Nuggets! 

[msc]

That website is awesome ...  I guess I'm not the only who is tired of these punks. 

I just wish this Laker squad had more moxy (sp?).  Denver's consistent propensity to take horrible shots, let their emotions get the better or them and self implode should be a recipe for the Lakers defeating them in the series.  Unfortunately, too many Lakers have disappeared and it will take them reappearing to wipe out these Thuggets.  We'll just have to wait and see which team shows up tonight.  I'm already nervous! 

[WayOutWest]

I'm already nervous! 

Tell me about it!  IMO this game is the series, whoever wins this game wins the series!  LETS GO LAKERS!

[msc]

I'm already nervous! 

Tell me about it!  IMO this game is the series, whoever wins this game wins the series!  LETS GO LAKERS!

Agreed.  Biggest game of the year ... is it bad that I want to start drinking now ... at work ...

[rickortreat]

http://rumorsandrants.com/2009/05/there-are-plenty-of-reasons-to-hate-the-denver-nuggets.html

Yea rick, you're so right about the Nuggets! 

OMFG!  These are reasons to hate the Nuggets!? Seems more like a rant for a Laker fan!

OK, so they are NOT squeaky clean.  Far from it, they do have some dirty players.  But crying about how one player uses his first name only, when it is a common practice among Brazillian sports stars is a joke, and so is complaining about how Dahnty - aw who gives a crap how he spells it!

Believe it or not, I really don't care who wins the series, not based on any of that nonsense.  I really did not like Bynums foul on Andersen though.  The guy is dribbling the ball and it isn't coming up higher than his waist and Bynum brings both hands down on him from above his head- that's a thug play. He could have stepped in front of him, or had his hands down at the ball level and it would have been fine. I thought his actions were excessive, but the NBA doesn't seem to think so.  Watching Bynum I get the impression he's a jerk as well as an air-head.

Even so, that's no reason as Kenyon Martin has done things just as bad or worse!  I'm not a big fan of Karl- he's no more likeable than Jackson, but I do like Billups- someone I didn't like and now realize I misjudged- a much better player than I realized. I also like Kleiza, not that he's a great player, but a sound one.  I was impressed with how Denver's other players kept working even when it was clear that "Melo" was having a bad game.

I just want to see a good hard, CLEAN game tonight, one not marred by technicals or illegal plays or any cutesy flops. One of you wrote a post on another thread comparing LA and Cleveland, and I thought it was very apt.  They are tending to rely too much on their one star, and the rest of them are just standing around watching for the most part. That is doing their stars no favors, and it is hurting their team's chances. It also makes for some bad basketball.

The big issue tonight is will LA's role players step up? It's not Kobe or Gasol who's going to lose the game for them, but Ariza, Odom, Farmar even Fisher and the afore-mentioned Bynum.  IF they can outplay their Denver counterparts they will deserve to win.  So far in the series Denver's role players have been outplaying LA's. May the best team win.

[Joe Vancil]

First time I've seen the Jones trip.

That's not a flagrant.  The push-in-the-back is...the trip is not.

[WayOutWest]

Believe it or not, I really don't care who wins the series, not based on any of that nonsense.  I really did not like Bynums foul on Andersen though.  The guy is dribbling the ball and it isn't coming up higher than his waist and Bynum brings both hands down on him from above his head- that's a thug play. He could have stepped in front of him, or had his hands down at the ball level and it would have been fine. I thought his actions were excessive, but the NBA doesn't seem to think so.  Watching Bynum I get the impression he's a jerk as well as an air-head.

We all know how you fell about that foul Rick, how do you feel about the TWO handed push in the back foul by Jones on Kobe?  You've already excused away that disgusting trip by Jones, how do you excuse that push?

Have you ever played the game of basketball?  I'll bet you a bar of gold that on any black top court that play will start a fight, in Philly it would probably start a gun fight.  That was the dirtiest play I've seen ALL year.  If Kobe was my team mate I guarantee you Jones would lose a couple of teeth the next time he was withing 5 feet of a rebound or at a minimum when Jones gets up in the air I would undercut him and slug the first Nugget that got within arms lenght of me.

[rickortreat]

I'm down with you on that push in the back, a very dirty, dangerous play.  I'm not so cool about the trip either, since if you are distracted when it happens you could hit your head on the hardwood.  Players fall so much these days we don't make a big deal out of it, but that's a mistake. Hitting the floor with your body is very painful, whether it is asphalt or wood. Good way to break something.

Cheap shots are not part of basketball. You may dislike your opponent, but you have to have respect for him, cause when you turn your back, you're vulnerable.  There's nothing to defend in plays like that, kids are watching this, and you don't want them emulating dirty stuff like that. 

[WayOutWest]

I'm down with you on that push in the back, a very dirty, dangerous play.  I'm not so cool about the trip either, since if you are distracted when it happens you could hit your head on the hardwood.  Players fall so much these days we don't make a big deal out of it, but that's a mistake. Hitting the floor with your body is very painful, whether it is asphalt or wood. Good way to break something.

Cheap shots are not part of basketball. You may dislike your opponent, but you have to have respect for him, cause when you turn your back, you're vulnerable.  There's nothing to defend in plays like that, kids are watching this, and you don't want them emulating dirty stuff like that. 

Amen!

[Joe Vancil]

I'm actually okay with the trip, since both players are on the floor.  It's not the nasty undercut...just a simple little foot-hook.  Heck, you do something similar when defending any pick-and-roll play.

It might not fare as well on asphalt as it would on wood, but I can say that if I got tripped on a play like that - especially after I'd just pushed off for leverage, I wouldn't take it as anything overt.  Can't even see myself raising an objection on that one.

I'd really like Skander to see that one.  He takes worse trips than that every game.

[WayOutWest]

I'm actually okay with the trip, since both players are on the floor.  It's not the nasty undercut...just a simple little foot-hook.  Heck, you do something similar when defending any pick-and-roll play.

It might not fare as well on asphalt as it would on wood, but I can say that if I got tripped on a play like that - especially after I'd just pushed off for leverage, I wouldn't take it as anything overt.  Can't even see myself raising an objection on that one.

I'd really like Skander to see that one.  He takes worse trips than that every game.

I wouldn't do that to Skandy, he might go "car bomb" on me.

[WayOutWest]

I guess you can put Coach Karl on the "Thuggets" list now.