Uh-Oh

After the Nuggets game on Sunday there is not much to say. But I have found a way to put what I think into 2 two very sophisticated words…

‘Uh oh’.

The Utah Jazz are the NY Mets, of a year ago. They can’t keep players healthy. Kirilenko was an All-Star in 2004 and he went down down the stretch. Okur has played in 70 plus games in 8 straight years since entering the league; and he goes down with an Achilles injury.

Okay, so Deron Williams is proving to be the best young point guard in the NBA and Carlos Boozer is returning to his All-Star caliber form at the exactly the right time. But playing 2 on 5, and losing, is not a good thing. We lose to bad teams at bad times during the year, but this is the playoffs. There should be a different, more no mercy mentality with our team and our best player.

Melo showed why he is not considered an elite player in the NBA. He may be the most versatile scorer in the NBA. He can post up the smaller, quicker Bruce Bowens of the world and then take the Shane Battiers to the hole off the dribble. But he needs to grow up.

Okay, the refs were not giving him all the calls. But this is the NBA playoffs, this is the time of the year where you keep your head and overcome adversity. Instead he got frustrated and gave into the pressure and emotion of the situation. This is not what championship caliber teams and superstars do. You don’t see Lebron losing his head in key situation? No. You don’t see Kobe fouling at the most inopportune time when you have 5 fouls? No.

Carmelo is unstoppable with the ball in his hands, but if you can get in his head he can’t do anything. And this, in part lays on the coaches shoulders.

The situation for Adrian Dantley may be the hardest a coach has ever had to deal with. Coach Karl is the heart and soul of the team. He is the epitome of the team and although it may be subconsciously the players are affected by not seeing and hearing their orange lossanged leader on the sidelines.

But we have seen this happen before. Ala Larry Bird and the Indiana Pacers. Ala Isaiah Thomas and the New York Knicks. A great player in his own right, but the lacking intellectual capability to maintain a contender into late April. There is nothing new here; the players have a limited perspective on the game. The coaches view is all seeing; you have to keep the egos in check, keep the schedules on time, studying endless amounts of tape and do so much more than draw up the winning play behind the scenes. Dantley is one of the 50 greatest player All-Time but he is no Doug Moe.

With all this said there is no doubt in my mind that the Denver Nuggets still have a very legitimate opportunity to fulfill their goals by winning the NBA Championship. This team is unlike any team in the league. They have some of the best athletes in the league. They have the experience to win it all. They have proven they can beat the best teams in the league on any given night. They can score in bunches. They can play defense, when they want to.

Can ‘Uh oh’ be a good thing?