NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

How can it be possible to have the Nuggets go this far in the playoffs? Some say it is all Chauncey Billups and maybe they have something there, because this would put Chauncey in his 7th straight Conference finals. Now that is some kind of record.

“It’s absolutely been a storybook, and I couldn’t write a better script — hopefully, I don’t wake up anytime soon,” said Chauncey Billups, the pride of Park Hill, who finished with 28 points, seven rebounds and a game-high 12 assists. “The win is for all the guys who have been here, haven’t been able to get out of the first round and carried that weight. And it’s for the city, for the fans.”

And so, with an electrifying 124-110 victory, the Nuggets advanced to the Western Conference finals for the first time in 24 years.

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Now for those of us that assume the Los Angeles Kobe’s will be in the finals against the Nuggets, and that is not sure thing, we can no longer assume that LA will automatically defeat the Nuggets and go on to create the storybook matchup of LeBron vs. Kobe.

Carmelo is not just laying down, he is ready!

David Stern may not be too happy if it is Paul Pierce vs. Chauncey Billups, not quite the drawing power there. Carmelo in the finals, who would have thought it would happen this fast and maybe it won’t, but the Nuggets have a solid chance now. In fact, where are the Lakers? Denver is already waiting for them.

Oh yes, Denver is for real

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Dallas is struggling to figure out how to stop the Nuggets. There just does not seem to be any one or two players that need stopping. There appears to be a whole bus load.

With the Mavericks moving back home, maybe they can stem the tidal wave of buckets and pull out a couple of victories.

On Tuesday, for the second straight game, Denver’s top two scorers, Anthony and Billups, struggled at the start. But, once again, the Nuggets found others to step up.

Smith, an athletic guard, scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half, and Nene scored 14 of his 25 as the Nuggets took a 58-55 lead. That made up for Anthony and Billups combining for just 10 first-half points.

In Sunday’s Game 1, Anthony and Billups combined for just seven first-half points. But Nene scored 18 of his team-high 24 before intermission, and the Nuggets led, 51-47, en route to a 109-95 win.

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Carmelo is thinking Defense!

This is a confident Nugget team held together by ex-Piston Chauncey Billups and fueled by the high scoring Carmelo Anthony. George Karl has crafted a team that can score easily and defend when it has to. Even Carmelo was talking about playing defense when interviewed before the half. Yes, you are in trouble when Carmelo is talking defense.

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The New Orleans Hornets needed game 3 in their series with the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets were starting to believe in themselves with Chauncey Billups showing them the way to win in the playoffs.

The Hornets were at home and ready to perform. Chris Paul led the way and the Hornets pulled it out. Carmelo Anthony had a chance to win it at the end, but missed a jump shot with 3.2 seconds left in the game.

Chris Paul puts on a playoff performance of excellence

Chris Paul, who only rested for a hiccup, had game highs with 32 points and 12 assists. David West had 19 points and nine rebounds.

Anthony led Denver with 25 points. Chauncey Billups, who had score 30-plus points in the first two games of the series, finished with 16, eight of which came on free throws.

“I don’t think anybody in the world thought we’d win them all,” Nuggets Coach George Karl said.

Game 4 is Monday night at 7:30 p.m. at the New Orleans Arena.

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It must be mentioned that James Posey played a huge role in this victory. Yes, that is the same Posey that played a big role in the Celtics winning it all last year. After the title with Boston, James Posey signed with the Hornets and continues his off the bench heroics. Posey had 13 points and played some tough defense.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Denver is rejuvenated with elder statesman Chauncey Billups taking the reins and teaching the Nuggets how winning is done. Now Carmelo wants to restore the luster to his image by proving he can win.

The big knock on Carmelo is that he only plays at one end of the floor and here are two hints as to which end that is, offense, offense. Yeah, Carmelo likes to put it up.

My first look at Carmelo Anthony was years ago in 2002 when his 15th ranked Syracuse team took on my might Spartans of Michigan State University. Kelvin Torbert guarded Carmelo for most of the day. Kelvin was giving away a few inches, but was a pretty tough defender. Didn’t matter. Carmelo put up 25 on my Spartans going 5 for 5 from downtown. Syracuse won by one point.

Fans will sit up and take notice if Carmelo wins

Spartan fans will remember that as the game that Chris Hill went 10 for 18 from 3 point land and put up 39 points. By far the highlight of Chris’s career.

Right off the bat, you had to wonder if Carmelo could play defense, because Jim Boheim always has his team in a zone. Once Carmelo was in the NBA, Read more

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

45 points in the game. Tied NBA record of scoring in a single quarter with 33. He tied with George Gervin.

Check out this YouTube

Uh oh.

“When you’re going through it you’re in the game, you’re making shots, the crowd is going crazy, your teammates are going crazy and you don’t really realize what you’re doing until you get in the locker room and it’s on TV and you’ve got everybody talking about it,” Anthony added. “I’ve never done anything like that or felt that way in one quarter.”

Leave it to your friendly columnist to rain on Melo’s parade, but I couldn’t help but ask him about the two free throws he missed in the quarter. At the time, they seemed rather innocuous. However, all it would have taken is one of those free throws for Melo to be alone in the record book.

“I did what I could do, man. My elbow was hurting during those free throws,” Melo quipped with a smile. “I wish I could have made them now that I look back like you said, but it is what it is.”

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Coach K will keep the right attitude

OK, the Redeem Team won the Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympics. Peace is restored and all is normal once again in the World!

After the Dream Team showed up and mopped up it appeared that the United States and the NBA had the winning formula, just show up with some NBA talent. It did not work.

So a plan was put in place. There was a 3 year commitment and a change in attitude. No longer would just showing up suffice.

Krzyzewski, an assistant on the 1992 Dream Team, the first team that used NBA players, said the thinking after ‘92 was to just send over the best players for each Olympics. But he said what the rest of the world did was different — build national programs from the junior level up. That’s exactly the type of thing McKillop said goes on in Argentina — with a funneling of junior players up to the Olympic team.

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Now with Coach K involved and continuing his involvement only good things are bound to happen. Coach K does it right and does it with class.

“We won a gold medal, represented our country well, and the question is now where do we go from here and how do we get better?” Krzyzewski said. “How do we make this a much better program and make it fashionable [to play for the USA]. We want people to have an intense desire to play for their country out of high school, college and the NBA. I know the guys who did were ecstatic and a number want to do it again.”

As for coaching the team again, Krzyzewski said, “right now I just want to help. I enjoy recruiting and coaching Duke but I’ll see where all of it goes. All I can tell you is that I’ll be involved. I want to be with how we go forward.”

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Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Chris Bosh show off the Gold!

Have you heard that LeBronze James is thinking of changing his name to LeGold James?

OK, bad joke, but it sure was refreshing to see the United States do it the right way. The guys on the team actually wanted to be there. They stayed in the Olympic village and said all the right things.

USA 118 Spain 107

Spain played an inspired game with Manu Ginobili going out early with an ankle injury and Jose Calderon also out with an injury. This did not stop the Spaniards, as they just kept firing the ball down from long range or busting it inside with slashing drives against a good U.S. defensive team.

But it was not enough as Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade led the way to victory with the U.S. making plenty of their own 3 point shots.

Dwyane Wade scored 27 points for the Americans, who found a much gamer Spanish team than the one they humiliated by 37 points earlier in the tournament. Kobe Bryant added 20 points.

In a game so devoid of defense that it felt more like an NBA All-Star Game than one with a title at stake, the Americans had too much offense down the stretch. Bryant converted a clutch four-point play with 3:10 remaining, holding his finger to his lips to quiet the rowdy Spanish crowd behind the basket.

Wade added another 3-pointer that made it 111-104 with just over 2 minutes left, and only then could the Americans relax a little.

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Jason Kidd is amazing

Jason Kidd ran his record to 56-0 in senior international play and collected another gold to place alongside the one he earned in 2000, becoming the 13th U.S. player with multiple golds. source

USA Olympic redemption

The U.S. started planning for this game after the Athens Games four years ago, the low point in its hoops history, following a sixth-place flop two years earlier in the world championships. Jerry Colangelo was given control of USA Basketball and constructed a national team program in 2006, requiring those who wanted to play to commit to three years.

He got Bryant and James quickly on board and landed almost everyone else he asked for, finding a group of NBA stars eager to give up their summer to get back what they felt belonged to their country.

And he needed all of them against a Spanish team that on this day would have likely beaten any other recent U.S. squad.

“Being a part of the ‘04 team, we really didn’t get the opportunity to showcase our talent,” said Wade, one of four holdovers from Athens. “We really wanted to come in and help lead this team.”

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Carmelo Anthony works on his Michael Jordan tongue moves

The Nuggets have signed J.R. Smith to a multi-year contract as a crucial piece to their team.

He shot nearly 40 percent from 3-point range, the best percentage in team history for players with at least 100 3-pointers.

Smith, 22, was acquired from Chicago in 2006 in exchange for Howard Eisley and two second-round draft picks. He was drafted by the New Orleans Hornets in the first round and 18th overall in 2004.

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Smith’s consistent play and 3 point shooting has slowly won Coach George Karl over to his side.

You gotta wonder though, with Denver easily giving up Camby and shopping Iverson if Denver is not on the downhill slope.

How much can Carmelo Anthony carry this team?

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Check out this YouTube of Dwight Howard singing and dunking!

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Manu Ginobili knows Argentina will have to play perfect to beat the Redeem Team

The United States is a 19 point favorite over Argentina in the semi final game that starts Friday morning at 10 a.m., but hold on here. Argentina has beaten the USA twice since Dream Team time and that is an exclusive club. In fact, it was Argentina that took the Silver in the 2004 Olympics after beating the U.S. in the semis.

Still the smart money is on the Redeem Team with the way they have played in this Olympics.

Argentina has really struggled to get to this game.

Argentina had a harder time getting out of the quarterfinals than the Americans did, its fate hanging in the balance as a 3-point shot by Vassilis Spanoulis of Greece arched through the air in the final seconds on Wednesday night, hitting the rim and failing to go in. The Argentineans embraced each other, trudged exhaustedly to their locker room, then got started on the task of trying to find a way to defeat the best-looking team the United States has put on a basketball court this decade.

“We’ve got to play the perfect game, and they’ve got to miss more than usual,” Luis Scola said. “But it’s only one game, that’s all it takes — 40 minutes. We going to play the best way we can, and try to do what looks impossible right now.”

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Manu Ginobili will be starring for Argentina and Kobe Bryant will draw the defensive assignment.

The always quotable Carmelo Anthony had this to say.

“I can’t wait. I can’t wait to get over that hump,” Carmelo Anthony said. “These last two games, there’s no reason to hold anything back. To be a champion you have to beat a champion. They still have the gold medal, no matter who won the world championship in ‘06. We have to go out there and take that from them.”

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