Not So Fast, My Friend

At the beginning of the season, I tabbed Lakers-Cavs(with the Cleveland LeBrons winning in 7) as my preseason championship pick. When the playoffs started, I stuck by my prognostication, with the only change being Cleveland winning in 6. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the Finals.

The NBA's favorite batch of hoodlums, the Denver Thuggets, er, Nuggets has emerged as the team nobody wants to play....and not just because they don't want to get jumped in the parking lot.(Side note: It's hard to feel sympathy for a guy whose retort to being called a "thug" is saying that he plans on "taking care" of the situation in the type of discreet manner that leads people to assume someone's getting punched in the mouth. That being said, the Cubes-KMart tiff essentially boils down to one man's perception of what a thug is and another man not trying that hard to veer from that perception. Though the fact that Mark Cuban would call Kenyon Martin a "thug" when he has an alleged domestic abuser as his starting point guard and a pot smoker who opposes the national anthem as his small forward doesn't really given Mouthy Mark much of a leg to stand on. P.S. If you're man enough to yell at another man's family after a playoff game in which your team had been getting smoked the entire series, then you should also be man enough to apologize to the man face-to-face and not through your blog.) The Nuggets, led by possibly the most underrated coach in NBA history in George Karl, have shown the right blend of front-court toughness(thanks to Kenyon "Baby, I'm A Thug" Martin and the Brazilian Ben Wallace, Nene'), offensive aggressiveness(courtesy of Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith, who haven't met a shot they didn't like) and veteran leadership(Detroit castoff and hometown hero, Chauncey Billups). With their series with Cuban's Mavs all but over(Game 6's potential clincher comes Wednesday in Denver), the Nuggets will have time to gather their thoughts as they await either a hobbled Rockets team or an underperforming Lakers squad.


Assuming the Lakers wake up and eliminate a Rockets team now led by the always combustible Ron Artest and point guard Aaron Brooks(which, much to my chigrin, is NOT Saints' legendary quarterback Aaron Brooks.....bummer), the Nuggets would appear to be a tougher test for The Lake Show than the H-Town bootknockers have been(that's a 90's R&B reference....KING ME!). For one, K-Mart and Nene(provided they both are healthy...which is always a crapshoot) are the type of physical, gritty intimidators that would scare the piss out of Lakers bigs' Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Look what K-Mart has done to Dallas' Mr. Softee, Dirk Nowitzki. He's brutalized Dirk to the point that he's gotten Mark Cuban aggitated and rushing the court....THAT NEVER HAPPENS!(Ok, that's a bit of sarcasm, but nonetheless, K-Mart is a tough guy to deal with....NOT a thug, though.) Another key mismatch would be Billups against the two-headed inept monster of Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar. Now, Fisher's old and Farmar just plain sucks. While Aaron Brooks was a well-known scoring tour de force at Oregon, Fish-Mar has made Brooks look like Oscar Robertson as of late. Billups is a big, physical guard who likes to use his big body to fend off defenders and drive the lane. Outweighing Farmar by about 20 pounds and being younger than Fisher by about 80 years, it seems likely that Billups will be have his way with the duo which will allow him to either score at will or dish off to his bruising bigs inside.

The other key matchup will, of course, be 'Melo vs. Kobe. While 'Melo is a rising star, he's not on the same atmosphere as The Black Mamba. The key difference here though would be that 'Melo has a solid supporting cast of wing players like the sharpshooting Smith, the rangy Dahntay Jones and the bulky Linus Kleiza, whereas Kobe's supporting cast(Trevor Ariza, Sasha Vujacic, Luke Walton) are talented but have the tendency to disappear in key spots(see last year's Finals or more recently, Game 4 of the Houston series). With the size and skill to defend admirably inside, Denver will force Kobe to take over more than ever(which, for those scoring at home, the Lakers don't do so well when Kobe's shot count goes above 24). Already banged-up with a lithany of injuries as well feeling the effects of a rigourous Olympic schedule and an NBA odometer that's continuing past the 1,000 game mark, Kobe might not be up for another long series against a team as gritty as the Denver Crips, er, Nuggets....sorry.

That would lead to an upset special that absolutely nobody saw coming and bring us to a conselation NBA Finals that might be more entertaining than the one everyone had drawn up early in the season: Nuggets vs. Cavs. The main drawing point is going to obviously be 'Melo vs. LeBron squaring off for the first time since high school. Heralded as the second coming of Bird vs. Magic, Anthony and James came into the NBA in 2003 amidst much hyperbole. The rivalry started off quick with LeBron taking the Rookie of the Year but 'Melo taking his Nuggets to the postseason. LeBron would inevitably sky past 'Melo, taking his team to the Finals a couple years later and winning his first MVP this season. However, despite the discrepency in notoriety, the matchup is closer than some would think. First, unlike Kobe, 'Melo has the thick frame and younger legs to at least stay with LeBron on defense(whereas Kobe's thin frame makes him look like Eminem to LeBron's 50 Cent). Never the best defender in the world, 'Melo can be motivated by the fact that he knows LeBron well and by the fame that toppling LeBron on the world's biggest stage would give him. There's also the story of Karl, who was successful with Seattle(bringing them to the Finals once) and Milwaukee(coming close numerous times), returning to the Finals after sitting on the sidelines as NBA's most combustible coach. Cavs coach Mike Brown will also be making a 2nd attempt at getting a ring and he knows that a taking the title here would give him and the Cavs an upper hand at retaining King James come the end of next season. There's also the story of Chauncey Billups, Denver's forgotten son, who spent the first few years of his career as a journeyman combo guard with no place to stick before emerging with the Pistons. After being traded in a salary dump for Allen Iverson, Billups can show up his former employer by taking home another ring.

Now, of course, we're getting ahead of ourselves. By no means am I suggesting that I'm picking the Nuggets to win it all or even get past L.A. in the conference finals. However, having watched my Hornets get dismantled by 58 points at home by the Rocky Mountian Crime Family, I'm aware of what these gangsters, er, Nuggets, can do. Everyone loves an underdog....even if it comes from the most unlikliest of places.