The Nuggets Are Incredibly Stupid
Posted: April 29th, 2008 | Filed under: Last Decade | 3 Comments »
I guess that makes me Extremely Stupid for betting on them again. I’m really not sure where to direct my anger right now.
The final 80 seconds of the game were a total calamity:
- Carmelo fouls Kobe 35 feet from the basket down 4 with over 1:15 left.
- On the ensuing possession Iverson dribbled around in circles for 20 seconds while his teammates stood still watching. Ultimately Iverson had to fire up a contested 3 with the clock running down. Fortunately Lamar Odom bobbled the rebound, and Nene ended up with an uncontested dunk.
- Kobe makes a difficult bank shot to put the Lakers up 5.
- Out of a timeout offensive genius George Karl draws up a play that calls for Marcus Camby to take corner 3. Somehow it goes in.
- Now down only 2 with 33 seconds left all the Nuggets had to do was play good defense without fouling, and they (I) would have been in good shape. Instead they ran around the court like a bunch of decapitated chickens trying to trap the ball. 11 seconds later Pau Gasol made an uncontested dunk to put LA back up 4.
- After another Denver timeout, offensive genius George Karl drew up a play designed for J.R. Smith that put the ball in Nene’s hands 28 feet from the rim. Kobe got away with a hold on Smith, stripped Nene, and was fouled. His free throws gave L.A. a 6 point lead.
- After Smith airballed a 32 footer, Bryant was fouled again. He missed both which gave us a glimmer of hope, but Kobe stole that hope right back when he rejected Linas Kleiza’s last second three point attempt.
I guess I could put it on the refs.
Forte and Dick Bavetta were absolutely awful. The problem is that there were so many bad calls that over the course of 48 minutes it probably evened out. When you bet on a sporting league that employs 68 year old officials you have to expect this.
I’ll pin this one on Carmelo Anthony instead.
Anthony did not play well. Could be the understatement of the year.
He missed at least a half dozen layups. He also wasted a bundle of possessions firing up deep contested jump shots that didn’t even come close to going in. The asinine foul on Bryant 35 feet away from the hoop didn’t help matters, although it was his 6th so at least it took him out of play for the final 75 seconds.
You could also make the case that his poorly conceived comments after Game 3 effectively took the fans out of the 1st half of this game.
Whatever. I am obviously not sleeping tonight. Time to start reading my new favorite website.
No love for the Hawks? I feel you on the poor execution the last minute of the Nuggs game, it was hard to watch.
I didn’t have any money riding on it, yet that was still the most frustrating game I’ve watched in quite some time. I guess you had to restrict your summary to the last 80 seconds for length purposes, but there are definitely way more points from the last quarter that display said stupidity. JR’s contested three-point airball with 9 seconds left on the shot clock (he did get bailed out on a questionable foul call), Kenyon’s fifth and sixth fouls coming on illegal screens, and Carmelo’s missed oop when he sent the ball flying into the stands are the three that stick out in my mind though.
Is there any possible way for you to avoid games like last night? Obviously the Nuggets are a bunch of douche bags, but even if you factor their stupidity into things +4.5 is still pretty incredible value. Is this one of those bets that you keep playing because you have no other choice? Kind of like a “good decision, bad outcome” kind of thing?
I could have gotten away from this particular bet. The line increase between Games 3 and 4 was probably a bit too generous.
It is a slippery slope though. Things can turn sour in a hurry if you start over thinking every pick.
Playing a game like this and watching it lose is a lot less damaging psychologically than passing on it and watching it win would have been.