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San Antonio Spurs vs. Denver Nuggets Series Preview
By Michael A. De Leon | April 21, 2007 | 
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The Spurs (58-24) will be facing a familiar foe when they suit up on Sunday to take on the Denver Nuggets (45-37) in the best of seven first round series. The Spurs faced and defeated the Nuggets in 2005 on their way to a 3rd title. But these are hardly the same Nuggets.
A few midseason trades changed the face of the Nuggets with Allen Iverson coming over from Philadelphia in exchange for Andre Miller and Joe Smith. Another trade netted the Nuggets point guard Steve Blake in exchange for Earl Boykins.
It took the Nuggets until this month to see the benefits of the trades in the win column. Denver was the hottest team in the league in April with a 10-1 record and they defeated several Western Conference playoff teams along the way, including the Lakers, Mavericks, Jazz and Spurs. In April, the Anthony-Iverson combo averaged just over 50 points per game. In addition to that, Iverson averaged 6.8 assists and Anthony pulled down 6.5 rebounds.
When you put together two of the Top 10 scorers in the league, throw in the blocked shots leader, Marcus Camby, who also ranked in the top 5 in rebounding, you’ve got a pretty dangerous combination. The Nuggets round out their starting five with Blake, a steady point guard who’s been racking up the assists since playing with Iverson and Anthony, and Nené, who is having a career year with 12 points and 7 rebounds a game.
The Nuggets bring a group of clutch shoters and defenders off the bench with J.R. Smith, Linas Kleiza, Eduardo Najera and Reggie Evans. There’s quite a dropoff after those four, especially at backup point guard.
The Nuggets aren’t very good defensively as a team, so they will look to score as easy as they can on the run and rely on Camby to defend Duncan and turn back any of the Spurs scorers that are funneled into the lane.
The Spurs will try to impose their will on the Nuggets and control the pace. If the Nuggets are going to have any chance, they’ll have to avoid playing the slow it down style the Spurs love and their big men, Camby and Nené will have to avoid getting into foul trouble.
The marquee matchup is Bruce Bowen on Carmelo Anthony. Anthony has been known to give Bowen trouble, but he is probably still the best periometer defender in the league. Bowen will likely also have to defend Allen Iverson from time to time.
The Spurs will need to avoid letting Iverson and Anthony get hot. Unless Bowen starts on him immediately, Iverson will have a big mismatch and look to take advantage of it with either Finley or Barry starting across from him.
Look for more coverage below including positional breakdowns, our predictions and coverage on this series from around the web.
I also got a chance to talk to Alan Switzer of Nuggets Hoops for a series preview podcast.
Go to the Spurscast page, Download the mp3 or press play on the flash player below to hear Alan and I preview the series.
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