Anthony Carter is going to get the blame, but the Nuggets lost this game in the last 3 minutes. They simply don’t have the experience in close games. A silly reach in foul, one poor rotation, and one bad possession is all it takes to lose in a game like this.

Denver’s disadvantage on the boards is profound. They’never been good on the boards this season…if only McDyess had stayed. The Nuggets are still one big man away.

By the way, I’m pretty sure that Carter isn’t the Nuggets best passer. Why is he making the in-bounds on the most critical possession of the game? Karl’s confidence in his role players is great, but he deserves part of the blame here as well.

Just in case you didn’t notice, Melo had a HUGE game. Not only did he carry his team, but he probably made himself a ton of cash. A couple more games like this and Melo is going to be lookin’ at some big endorsement opportunities. Good for him.

Ariza was a non factor guarding Melo, just as I said he would be. His lack of strength and his comparitive lack of quickness (Melo is fast for such a big player) were Ariza’s undoing. The Lakers are going to need to adjust in game 2, but how? Who can cover Melo? Kobe wasn’t tremendously successful because…

Kobe won’t get all the calls against Melo that he normally gets as a “first team defender.” Kobe is accustomed to getting the benefit of the doubt, but that’s not going to happen while guarding Melo. I think that means that Melo has officially arrived.

As a Nuggets fan, I think Kobe deserves a flagrant 1 after-the-fact for his shot on Kenyon’s package. I think the timing is suspicious – K-Mart was jawing at Odom about 5 seconds previous to Kobe’s “accidental” shot. However…

As an NBA observer I highly doubt the NBA will do anything, and honestly I don’t know that they should. It’s hard to make that kind of call after the fact. Not only is it unfair (only the refs on the floor should be making that judgment), but it sets a bad precedent. Still, it says here that Kobe is a passive-aggressive bastard.

Two smart defensive assignments – Melo on Kobe (no gimme calls for Kobe) and Ariza on Billups (Chauncey disappeared for while).

Did anyone else notice Ariza flattening himself against a Chris Anderson screen? I bet that hurt.

Denver must correct their rotation problem. Farmar, Fisher, Ariza, and Shannon Brown all benefited from wide-open looks multiple times simply because someone on the Nuggets didn’t rotate. Most of the time, the players that didn’t rotate were Melo and J.R. Smith.

L.A. is still very much a soft team. Gasol and Odom were both intimidated by K-Mart, Nene, and Anderson. One more reason you can write me down for the Cavs winning it all.

Denver is good, but not good enough. Good game.