Denver sends New Orleans fishin'

Denver took care of business at home closing out their series with the New Orleans Hornets in yet another dominating victory, 107-86. Carmelo Anthony led all scorers with 34 points as he look focused at the chase of advancing to the second round for the first time in his 6 year career. Chauncey Billups exuded that same focus as it seemed to rub off on the entire Nugget team. Billups added 13 points and 12 assists. The Nuggets shot 51% from the field. J.R Smith continued is offensive exploits with 20 points of the bench against the team that once drafted him. David West was a lone bright spot for the Hornets, finishing with 24 points and 9 rebounds. Chris Paul continually saw different bodies with length all over him. Denver switched a lot of pick and role screens were athletic and long forwards like Kenyon Martin and Chris "Birdman" Anderson. Denver meets Dallas in the second round Sunday May 3 3:30 ET on ABC

Home Team Blowouts

Both the Atlanta Hawks and Denver Hawks thoroughly destroyed their respective opponents in game 1 of their 1st round series. Atlanta beat the Miami Heat 90-64, while Denver beat the New Orleans Hornets 113-84.

Josh Smith had highlight dunk after highlight dunk after highlight dunk, as the Heat looked helpless to stop him or any of his teammates. Smith had 23 points and led all 5 starters who finished in double digit scoring. Dwyane Wade struggled scoring only 19 points on 8-21 shooting.

Chauncey Billups introduced his playoff savvy to Denver and more importantly to the Hornets as well. Billups knocked down 8 3pt field goals on route to tying a NBA playoff record for most 3's in a playoff game. Billups sparked the Nuggets early and often while finishing with 36 points and 8 assists. Sixth Man of the year candidate J.R. Smith sealed the blowout with a relentless offense effort down the stretch tallying 19 points off the bench. Chris Paul paced the Hornets with 21 points, 11 assists and 5 rebounds.

Judging from the competitive nature of both Paul and Wade, the outcomes of game 2 in their respective series will surely be much different. Both series' resume play Wed. April 22.

Drama in Blowout

The Denver Nuggets (54-27), at the time, beat the Sacramento Kings (16-65), also at the time, 118-98. J.R Smith scores a career-high 45 points on 11-22 shooting from the field (11-18 from 3), including setting a franchise record for 3 point field goals in a game. With those records you would assume that seems about right, correct? However there was some drama and issues behind the naked eye of the box score. Early in the first quarter Kings forward Spencer Hawes went up strong for a dunk and was fouled hard by Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin. Martin was assessed a flagrant foul. While Hawes seemed to re-injure an already troublesome knee, that has already undergone microfracture surgery and surgery to repair a torn meniscus. After watching Kenyon throughout his entire career I would believe that this foul was not intentional. It looks as if he is attempting to wrap up Hawes before his dunk attempt which Martin has done numerous amounts of times before. The right thing to do? Maybe not, players have had that look as if to say, "damn" after they are being held on their way for 2 points. Nonetheless MRI showed nothing more of a strain for Hawes. King owner Joe Maloof responded by calling the play "thuggery". "That was thuggery," Maloof said, "and you can quote me on that. Kenyon Martin wasn't trying to block the shot. He went right at Spencer when he was running full speed and at the [height] of his jump, when he was most vulnerable. Completely unnecessary. The Nuggets might not want to hear this, but there was no excuse for that, and he [Martin] needs to apologize to Spencer and our organization. That just wasn't right," Maloof added" Maloof is entitled to his opinion however I question his choice of words. Thuggery? If Matt Harpring, who is just as likely to give an opponent a hard foul, were to have fouled Hawes would Maloof call it thuggery? I highly doubt it. He chose to call it this for the simple fact of Martin's many tattoo's and perceived image. Martin did however apologize to Hawes after the game, but refuses to apologize to Maloof. "I'm not apologizing to him whatsoever. I don't owe him or the Sacramento Kings an apology," Martin said. "I apologized to the person I needed to apologize to when I saw him when I was leaving the game. If you don't know the circumstances -- he wasn't there, he wasn't in Denver -- then he should worry about his team getting better and getting out of last place," Martin said.

Another member of the Kings organization seemed upset at the end of the contest. King guard Bobby Jackson was not pleased with J.R Smith's career night. “That’s not being professional,” Kings guard Bobby Jackson said. “At the end of a game, if a guy’s hot, you’re already up by 20, sub him out. Get somebody else in there. You just can’t do things like that. This league is not about that. It’s like they wanted to embarrass us and put on a show. You’ve got to be respectable. You’ve got to respect this game. That’s not respecting the game.” After a Smith 3-pointer gave Denver a 100-83 advantage with 6:55 left in the fourth, he tried seven more 3-point attempts. He made three, missed two and was fouled on the other two, making all six free throws. One came with 32.9 seconds left and the Nuggets up by 20. “He played well tonight,” Jackson said. “Why let him continue to do that? If we were a dirty team, we could have taken him out of the game, and going into the playoffs, what are you going to have? Most teams aren't going to let you do that to them. At the end of the day, he’s going to shoot the ball every time he gets it. I think it’s upon the coach to take him out the game. He’s already at 30 points. There was no way we were going to come back.”
When I first read of this I thought of how the Nuggets had beat up on the Isiah Thomas coached New York Knicks. At first thought, I blamed Thomas for blatantly encouraging Mardy Collins to foul J.R. Smith on his way for a highlight dunk on a way to a blowout win in New York. As a professional you obviously don't want to get blown out, but at the same time your level of play should dictate the outcome not come to such a wide margin. As a player, you should not and can not have intentions on hurting a player regardless. Now again the same Denver team is a similar situation of being accused of running up the score. Is it George Karl's fault? Is this showboating? Should he adjust subbing for moral reasons and shy away from controversy?
In this instance maybe it's not the Nuggets fault the Kings weren't playing any defense? Either way it's a tough call. I agree Smith probably shouldn't be on the floor late in a game that was already decided directly before the playoffs were about to start. These athletes are the best of the best. Their competitive nature is superior. It's not like they are in middle school where kids feelings are involved and the game is more about sportsmanship more than it's raw seek of winning and money. I can never get mad at another player for kicking my butt, that's what I'm setting out to do. I'd be more angry with myself than a coach or opposing player if they are torching me for 40 points.