NBA At 2: Nuggets Ready For A Clash
It could be the most intriguing match-up in the first round of the 2011 NBA Playoffs. Thanks largely to the way teams are seeded, with the top seeds playing the bottom seeds in the first round, the middle teams usually provide the best series, and this year should be even more entertaining if today’s standings hold true. If the playoffs started today, the Oklahoma City Thunder would host the Denver Nuggets . . .but just to make things more interesting, the Nuggets and Thunder meet twice this week as they prepare for a possible first round match-up.
"I think if I was grading the game I would say that Oklahoma City did a great job," Nuggets head coach George Karl said on Wednesday night in Dallas, the day after his team lost in OKC 94-101. "They had a little more of a sense of urgency having lost the two previous games and they came in with a little more pep to their step. I thought (Kevin) Durant had a great game and we need to do a better job on him. We can do a better job on him. The loss was disappointing, but injuries were a factor and I think the game was quietly saying we miss Arron Afflalo a little bit and we’ll get him back before the playoffs."
There’s a chance the Nuggets will have Afflalo back as early as tonight, when they play host to the Thunder, but even with his team intact Karl doesn’t like seeing his team’s possible first round opponent twice in the week before the playoffs.
"Not really. That’s not the best way to go about doing it," said Karl. "I like the first two or three games to kind of be in the process of understanding who has an edge, what edges you have, and I think we’re kind of figuring that out now. The longer a series goes, I think the actual strategy of the series becomes kind of negated. Early in the series you try to understand what their doing, what’s working, what isn’t working, and by games four and five it’s usually the little things you’re trying to tinker with."
In the case of the new-look Nuggets, there are plenty of little things to tinker with . . .starting with which the direction from which they attack an opposing offense. With Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups gone Karl has implemented an equal-opportunity offense that gives everyone a chance to score. He believes the team’s all-for-one, one-for-all mentality is more important than have one particular leader to run the offense through.
"I don’t think we’re going to have one leader, but I do see mental toughness on our team," Karl explained. "I think what leadership is is not letting tough situations rock the boat to the point where it becomes a problem. There are maybe a half a dozen times a year where you need leadership, where a guy needs to step up and tell a story or talk about a situation. I don’t think we’re going to run into that situation. I just think we’ve got to be mentally tough and the old guys have got to help the young guys, the young guys have got to be listening and attentive, and the coaches have got to rally the troops and hang in there and show them what two plus two is. It’s not as complicated as it gets made out to be."
The Nuggets could also potentially face the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, a scenario that seemed unlikely before the Mavericks embarked on their current four-game losing streak. For his part, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle can’t help but admire what’s going on in Denver.
"It’s clear to me that this day and age in the NBA is different than it was back in the 70′s and 80′s." says Carlisle. "When you traded a major player for other good players, the team that got the major player always, seemingly, is the team that won the trade. This day and age in the NBA is different. It’s a strength in numbers league. Superstars still carry a lot of weight, don’t get me wrong, but in a situation like Denver, where you have a coach like George (Karl) who is very good at taking a group of guys and molding them into a system, they have the opposite situation which makes their depth even more of a favorable thing and they do a great job of taking advantage of that. The ability to take advantage of it is something you don’t just dismiss as ‘it could happen to anyone in the league,’ they build their personnel that way, they play that way. There is a lot of motivation there, after two major stars leave the team, to prove that they can play too. It’s a very healthy kind of thing."
It’s certainly turning out to be healthy for the Nuggets, who have been one of the most impressive teams since the trade deadline. Whether they wind up catching the Thunder or the Mavericks in the first round, they promise to be a handful. The Mavs and the Thunder may have established stars, but the Nuggets have a team identity that has given plenty of established stars a run for their money already.
A Look At The Playoff Tie-Breakers
(1) Division leader wins tie from team not leading a division
(2) Head-to-head won-lost percentage
(3) Division won-lost percentage
(4) Conference won-lost percentage
(5) W-L Percentage vs. Playoff teams, own conference
(6) W-L Percentage vs. Playoff teams, other conference
(7) Net Points, all games
OKC has the tiebreaker over Dallas for the 3 seed in the West. (tiebreaker #1)
NO has the tiebreaker over Portland and Memphis. (#2 for Portland, #3 for Memphis)
The Portland-Memphis game on Tuesday will determine their tiebreaker. (#2, current season series 1-1)
NY currently has the edge over Philly at tiebreaker #3, but there are still division games to be played (two for NY, one for Philly – season series 2-2).
Boston has the tiebreaker over Miami (won season series 3-1).
And, if it comes down to this, Houston has the tiebreaker over Memphis (won season series 3-1).
Denver’s X-Factor: Ty Lawson
When the Nuggets traded Chauncey Billups at the trade deadline it was a huge leap of faith that Ty Lawson was ready to take the reins full-time. The leap has paid off in a big way, and Lawson talks with HOOPSWORLD about learning from Chauncey, his relationship with Raymond Felton, being a leader on a team of veterans, and more in this exclusive interview:
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More Than Lip Service 2011 – Part III
This week HOOPSWORLD has been covering the story behind the NBA’s Green Week initiative, starting with NBA VP Kathleen Behren’s look at steps the NBA as a league has taken towards being more Green. Next we heard from NRDC Senior Scientist Alan Hershkowitz, who confirmed that the NBA is giving far more than lip service to this vital initiative. Today we bring our story to a conclusion with a look at what the Amway Center in Orlando has done to achieve Gold LEED certification for their new facility. For more information on the LEED certification process, link here! For the Magic, the decision to earn LEED certification was made at a very early stage.
"We actually decided that we wanted to achieve LEED certification before we even put the first shovel in the ground on the building," Orlando Magic President Alex Martins tells HOOPSWORLD. "Our goal was to achieve baseline LEED certification, but as we went through the process and as we continued to explore the opportunities through the certification, it became clear that we had the opportunity to strive for Silver and potentially even Gold LEED certification. Fortunately, through the work of our architects and construction team we’re able to achieve that Gold certification."
LEED certification is challenging, but achieving Gold certification takes a concerted effort on the part of everyone involved in the construction of a new facility, as Martins explains:
{AUTHOR_BOX}"It’s certainly a challenge. You have to have a clear plan in place, it’s not something that can happen by accident and you can’t try to achieve it halfway through the process. From that very first shovel in the ground we achieved certification points with things like recycling unused construction materials and making sure that we weren’t moving any of the dirt or debris to a landfill. From the very beginning we were achieving LEED points from the start of the construction. Then, as we planned for materials in the building, we planned on things like recycled materials for our flooring and lower-emission paint for the walls and things like that. It’s a challenge to achieve Gold LEED certification and it’s a process that has to be in place from the onset if you’re going to achieve that kind of status."
The Amway Center certification is just one part of a bigger effort taking place in Central Florida, where the City of Orlando is planning to become one of the top ten cities in the country in terms of being Green.
"We believe this is an important issue for Central Florida," says Martins. "We have a mayor here in Buddy Dyer who has made it a priority for the city. He has set the goal for us to be a top ten city in terms of being Green and reducing our carbon footprint, even to the extent that we are going to have electric charging stations for cars throughout the city beginning later this year and our Orlando Utilities Commission is one of the leaders nationwide that has focused on sustainability. Their brand-new headquarters is LEED certified, so it’s definitely a goal of our community to be one of the top ten Green cities in America."
The best part of all of this Green talk is that it’s not only the socially-responsible course of action, it’s also the smart business move to make sure facilities are operating at a high rate of energy efficiency.
"The building itself is operated by the City of Orlando, and clearly the work that we’ve done here with LEED certification is going to make the building operate more efficiently for them," Martins explains. "For example, the building, from a square footage standpoint, is three times the size of the old Amway Arena and it will actually use less water and thus be more financially efficient for the city than the old facility. Things like the low-flow water fixtures in the restroom, we installed a cistern in our system and it collects all the rain water for irrigation of the perimeter of the building and thus no other additional water is necessary to irritate all of the landscaping around the building – from that standpoint along the city of going to save dollars. We’ll also save from an electric standpoint with things like energy-efficient light bulbs through the entire building and light fixtures that automatically turn off when people are not in rooms throughout the building. All of these elements make the building much more efficient and thus the city will spend less money on energy consumption."
Achieving Gold LEED certification is an impressive accomplishment for Orlando’s Amway Center, but it’s not the end of the story. They have to work to maintain that standing by replacing energy efficient light bulbs with energy efficient light bulbs, but using eco-friendly cleaning materials as they clean the building on a daily basis, and continuing to focus on the reduction of the building’s carbon footprint as new technologies become available. It’s not an easy task, which makes it all the more impressive that NBA facilities like the Amway Center are looking to lead the way in this effort.
For more information on the NBA’s Green Initiative, which extends well beyond the scope of the Green Week event, please visit their official site: NBA.COM/GREEN
HOOPSWORLD Twitter: HOOPSWORLD has launched a new Twitter module where we will be releasing more breaking news and insider-type information via Twitter. Make sure you are following all of our guys to insure you are getting the very latest from our team: @stevekylerNBA, @AlexKennedyNBA, @jfleminghoops, @TheRocketGuy, @EricPincus, @joelbrigham, @alexraskinNBA, @stephenlitel, @TommyBeer, @DPageHOOPSWORLD and @YannisHW.
NBA Chats: There are two NBA Chats today starting with Yannis Koutroupis’ weekly NBA chat at 10:30am EST. Yannis covers the San Antonio Spurs and is the Senior College Basketball reporter for HOOPSWORLD. Alex Kennedy will host his weekly NBA Chat at 3pm EST, so get your questions in early. Susan Bible will host her weekly NBA Chat tomorrow at 11am, if you want to get an early start. You can always find the next chat here: Upcoming NBA Chats.
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