Denver at Los Angeles (05/21/2009)

Practiced well but is in pain and endurance is questionable. Cuts and stops could aggravate further.

lakers by 10

          Here is your rekamyenoM

 Denver Team Total UNDER 103

cant wait to here wat ur picks is for today so i can bet against you!!!......ur numer 1 fan.....checcmystyle!!!

magic and the over last night, lets see if the lakers can come thro the same...lakers/over first half, lakers/over game     lets definetely gamble bol 

EWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!! Devin - If by "gamble" you mean "have gay sex with you and possibly contract something" then no thanks - - - and also if by "gamble" you mean the Nuggets cover, then no thanks either..... Sorry, but unlike your boyfriend with you, Kobe is just too much man for this Nuggets team. Better luck at home - and I like the Nuggets, don't get me wrong - but not here, not in L.A., and surely not siding with your Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Lance Bass, Spandex and Leather Jumpsuit wearin' ass..........

 

He's good to go...

It will be hard to play the OVER/UNDER because of JR Smith! What is JR SMITH updates?

Nuggets at Lakers -5.5
"Bball is about matchups"

Lakers: KB redislocated his finger will play
Nuggets: K Martin L ring finger fx will play
            JR Smith R knee sprain, did not practice, did running  in whirlpool instead, will play

Line has fallen 3 pts since Gm1, consensus must be leaning Den after they led most of Gm1

LA loses home court advantage if they lose tonight, no pressure on Den

Den has come back strong after their 2 losses in the playoffs, after 2 pt loss to NO they won in NO by 58pts 121-63, after 2 pt loss in Dallas they win by 14 pts 124-110

Feeling in LA is they got lucky and stole the game at the FT line, but also that Lakers played ok and Den played well and Lakers still won. (not sure this is correct)

Big problem for Den was off rebounding only 7 vs 17 for LA, contributing to shot attempt differential of only 74 for Den and 90 attempts for LA. (That's 16 more shots or 21% more attempts) Considering they only lost by 2 that's amazing.

Denver's off efficiency in the playoffs has been off the charts at 117.3 vs 107.5 in the reg season
Lakers were 109.8 in the reg vs 107.9 in the playoffs
(means they score 117.3 pts per 100 possessions)

Also Den shot only 65% from FT line vs season avg of 76%. While Lakers were 83% from FT line vs season avg of 77% (if they shoot their avgs that's 6 pts more for Den)

Expect J Smith to contribute more than 8 pts tonight,
D Jones will get more than 1 pt also (his early foul trouble guarding Kobe took him out of Gm1)
Nene is capable of have big gms in the 20s from time to time

I expect C Anthony to get into the lane tonight more than Gm 1, and Den to be more physical.

Poor Lakers haven't figured out the key is getting Gasol the ball in the low post. He shoots like 55% and 78% FT's, and hardly ever gets doubles. Give Fisher's attempts to Gasol and Lakers win every gm.

Taking Nuggets -6

I think both teams come out with the same intensity they did at the end of game one, both teams play sharp and loose, and I'm looking at that 1st quarter total of 53 and thinking about the 23-point-egg LA laid on tuesday (and D Fish finally getting his shot back) and I'm seeing it fly over the 53.

There will be absolutely no rust in this game, probably way less nerves.  Both teams should start well.

And despite the fact that LA is just 1-5 this season when leading in a playoff series, I think last night's game finally scared the shit out of them, and gave them the idea for the first time that they could actually lose 4 games to someone, and I think they'll be all business tonight.

*I expect Gasol to score more than 13 points,
* for the Nugget supporting crew of Smith, Andersen and Carter to shoot better than (4 of 15)
* for Nene to score even more points because no one's paying attention to him (or he's possibly a matchup problem) and the Lakers still just love to give up those dunks and lay-ups,
* and for Melo to continue to get his, despite the fact that Phil is going to try and limit his touches based on how their offense originates.  He's just been too good.
* And let's not even talk about whatever positive impact Chauncey has on this game.  He's continued presence is a guarantee.

For all of these reason I do like the *Game total over the 212.

As for the side, the million dollar question about Denver is how much of a backbreaker was that loss?  And if you read the Denver Post, you get the feeling, based on observations of George Karl sitting and stewing for an awfully long time after the game, and the general Nugget demeanor in the locker room, that it really hurt them alot.

And why the hell wouldn't it?
Jesus Christ.
Sportswriters . . .

There's also a lot of finger pointing at Karl from fans bringing up the occasional coaching blunder that's cost them this season and questions of whether the players have championship pedigree, in contrast to credit given to Phil Jackson for sending double-teams at JR Smith knowing he's a) probably rarely seen them and b) hit a great number of big shots for the Nugs that have actually sparked them to victory on occasion.

But to me, it all smacks of heartache.

George Karl is good, good coach and in retrospect, Game One had to also be encouraging for them because they know if they shoot better than 65% from the line tuesday night, they're already up one,
and the opportunity is still there for them to take a split back home to Denver.

So I think they're coming right back at LA, and I think we're going to have another close, even higher scoring game with LA winning somewhere along the lines of 112 to 105.

Just 2 free cents from the Angry Feline