Nuggets Playoff Question

[Aurress Dearing]

So it pretty much looks like the Denver Nuggets will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. The only thing in question here is which team will be the 4 seed and which will be the 5 seed. The 4 seed having home-court advantage in the series.

The Nuggets & Thunder play each other twice this week.
4/5 Tuesday @ Denver &
4/8 Friday @OKC.

My question is... Is home court advantage worth it?

I'm saying that its really not in this case. I think the Nuggets should keep their cards close to the chest in these 2 games & only play the bottom of the roster for the most part. I know the Nuggets are 15-4 since the trade & one of the hottest teams since the All-Star Break. But being that you could play a total of 9 games against this 1 team in the next 2-3 weeks. I say you save your real punches for when it truly matters. Drop these 2 games (unless your bench just outplays the Thunder, or the Thunder tries the same tactic) and hold your knock-out punches for the Playoffs. Who cares if you have the first 2 on the road & OKC gets 1 more home game than you if it goes the full 7 games.

So, what of it? Opinions please! Do you purposely tank these 2 regular season games this week?

[YEM]

Tank games, no way. Maybe not play your starters all their regular minutes, but eff tanking.

And I think everyone would rather have home court, though I don't think it's as important to have in a "series."

[Aurress Dearing]

Yea, maybe tanking was the wrong term. But I do think you hold your punches until the playoffs. Rest your regular rotation guys. Give some experience to your deep bench.

I'm specifically thinking of:
-resting injured guys like Afflalo, Birdman, Chandler.
-Maybe you start Gary Forbes, who has some starts this season, but is a rookie & hasn't gotten many minutes since the trade.
-You play the new big guys that haven't gotten the minutes, Moz & Koufos; let those guys see their future playoff opponent.

All of these things would better prepare you for your playoff opponent while not showing your full hand.

[YEM]

I'll agree with that. If you can't lose any ground and moving up wouldn't make much of a difference, rest is always a good idea. And like you said, giving the bench some extended playtime can't hurt

[miketheknife]

I think homecourt makes a big difference. I'd hope they play their best guys and fight for it. Game 7's on the road suck balls. Also from a financial standpoint, hell yes the team would rather have 4 potential home games than 3.

As far as resting your guys and not showing your best game, it's good in theory but I personally believe any time there's a shot at moving up the ladder, a team is letting down the fans if they don't put forth the effort.

[rabb]

home court in Denver is especially helpful with the altitude, not to mention the crowd here gets the team going

I have always been against resting anyone leading into something unless they have a major injury, momentum is so important

[Aurress Dearing]

a team is letting down the fans if they don't put forth the effort.

Definitely a negative affect to my argument. The fans pay big bucks to see the team play. This argument comes up almost every year with teams with big-name players. NBA & NFL. The fans pay the big bucks to see Lebron, Peyton, Brady, Kobe, etc.. not bench-warmers.

I also don't know if the Nuggets are locked in at 5. I know it will be hard to move up, but I'm not sure who is waiting just below in the 6th spot, trying to steal that 5 seed.

[miketheknife]

I suggested to my dad this week that the Suns should just sit Nash for the rest of the season and I thought he was going to take a swing at me! So that's where I get my ideas about not sitting your stars from, he is definitely old-school.


Also I thought of this--last year the Suns went to game 7 in the Western Conference Finals, you may have heard about it---it was a pretty close game in L.A. I'm not saying we would have won it in Phoenix--but I certainly would have rather played the game here than at Staples.

[Aurress Dearing]

Very true MTK. You play your stars for the fans. And Phoenix is an intimidating place to play with great fans & a great home court advantage... You definitely want to play at home in a game 7.

[rabb]

I love this Denver team right now, such a huge week

if we can take tonight against OKC, and beat Dallas...even with a loss in OKC (likely), it's a good way to head into the playoffs especially after beating LA Sunday

no Birdman will hurt, OKC has some nasty big men

[Aurress Dearing]

I agree. Love this team. Hope they can keep them all in the off-season, but really, I'm not trying to think about that, just trying to enjoy the "now."

I was really happy when they went 2-2 on their last 4 gm road trip, only losing to the Magic on a last second shot & losing to the Heat the next night on a back-to-back situation.

Thats kinda why I brought up this thread. I feel like beating the Mavs alone will be satisfactory. I just worry that the Nuggets will make such a push & consorted effort to get the 4th seed & win the division that they will:
a) burn out too quick in the 1st rd (especially if they show all their cards/ use all their big punches this week in these 2 games)
b) still fall short of the Division Title as they need the Thunder to lose more than just the 2 games against the Nuggets. Not to mention the Thunder already have the tiebreaker (I think).

[rabb]

Nuggets looked like total ass last night, their shot selection was awful and they couldn't hit a damn free throw to save their lives.

Things got very heated, with at least 3 or 4 shoving matches, so this should make for an interesting playoff series if it happens. Also, Nick Collison can die in a fucking dumpster filled with flaming cobras with AIDS. He flopped trying to draw a charge and rolled right into Mozgov's knee and it looked baaaaaaaad. They said it's just sprained but he has an MRI today, I will be stunned if he didn't tear his ACL/MCL.

It really hurt us too, because after that we just didn't have the bigs to keep up with Bird also out.

[Aurress Dearing]

Yea. Not having Altitude, I was unable to watch it. But I read all the write-ups I could this morning. Seems like we hung with them for the most part. And beyond the scuffles, Moz getting hurt, & missing FTs, there wasn't much to report on.

I was also pissed when I saw the vid of Moz getting hurt. He's been ruled out 10-14 days (currently we are 10 days away from the Playoffs) with a grade 2 sprained ankle & grade 1 MCL sprain. I just worry that once he's back in the Playoffs he'll be tentative & ineffective. The timing of this just sucks. Right when he's getting worked into the lineup, some dick hole causes an injury.

I know the Thunder are trying to be tougher. But I don't think they want to get into a wrestling match with us for 7 games.

[Aurress Dearing]

Fortunately the Nuggets bounced back on the 2nd night of a back-to-back situation on the road vs. the Mavs.

Now my playoff question changes. Do the Nuggets purposely lose to the Thunder (or just not try so hard; i.e. resting starters, not running their true offense, playing the bottom of the bench, etc) on Friday in hopes of facing the Mavs in the 1st round rather than the Thunder?

I say no. As Herm always says:

[rabb]

I think we would make quick work of Dallas...they just aren't quick enough