The Kobayashi Game
Carmelo Anthony (photo. Mannion)
It was tough to come up with a name for what the Nuggets did to the Hornets last night. The Oz and “Ivan Drago vs. Apollo Creed” references worked for the mere 20-piecings of Games 1 and 2, but last night? The Nuggets damn near won by SIXTY, 121-63, setting an NBA playoff record for margin of victory. Call it the Kobayashi Game: Chauncey and Carmelo and crew ate up the Hornets like Takeru Kobayashi plows through 50 and 60 hot dogs, kind of gross to watch but so fascinating you can’t look away … As much as we talk about the Kobes and Duncans and D-Wades as guys who will go into “Cut the bullsh*t, this ends HERE” mode on a whim, Chauncey deserves to be on that short list of guys who will impose their will on a game or a series. Chauncey never got a chance to win Game 3 because he couldn’t get the ball in the final seconds, but this time he took care of business early. Chauncey’s numbers weren’t that big (17 pts, 8 asts), but he did most of his damage and set the tone in the first quarter with open-court steals, contested threes and impossible fadeaways. He ran the offense and led the defense and had Denver up 20 in the first quarter. The Hornets visibly gave up around halftime, and the second half was like playing a video game against somebody with one hand … Plenty of options to pick from for the defining image of this game: K-Mart literally putting his ass on Tyson Chandler‘s head after a dunk; Chris Paul going 1-on-5 while his teammates just stood around; ‘Melo (26 pts, 7 asts) shooting Peja‘s face off; Linas Kleiza lining up threes with no defender within a car’s length of him when the Nuggets led by 50; Byron Scott mentally checking out and barely talking to his team the entire second half; or James Posey sitting on the bench moping by himself well after most of the arena had left … It was kind of obvious that Rick Kamla and Steve Smith were announcing the game from a back room at the NBA TV studios. No sideline reports, no insight on anything we couldn’t plainly see on TV ourselves, no sense of them actually being in the building — way to take a page from ESPN’s book when Team USA is playing overseas and they don’t wanna send Mark Jones and Bill Walton on an expensive flight … Nice call by Smitty when he was talking about N.O.’s coaches and mentioned assistant “Paul Pressley.” Of course he meant to say “Paul Pressey.” For the youngsters, Pressey was the guy Nellie used as the original point-forward back in the ’80s; the pre-cursor to Stephen Jackson on the court … Actual exchange overheard from where some of the Dime crew was watching the game: “Is that Lil’ Wayne sitting right there?” “I thought that was Whoopi Goldberg.” … A reporter actually asked George Karl after the game, “Is there any worry that this was too dominating of a win?” …
Kobe Bryant (photo. Chris Sembrot)
The Hornets may be dead men walking, but the Jazz are officially flat-lined. While those with an interest in the Lakers going all the way this year will be bothered by yet another big lead blown in the second half — Utah was down 22 and got it all the way down to six in the fourth quarter — it was still a mostly dominating effort. Kobe dropped 31 points, including some deep threes and one jumper right before halftime where he was falling on his back as he released … Jerry Sloan didn’t go out quietly. Late in the fourth, after Deron Williams dove for a loose ball, slid into the Jack Nicholson seats and didn’t get the benefit of the call, Sloan went nuts on the ref and got kicked out … Miami’s first possession of Game 4 ended with D-Wade chucking an airball, which mirrored Al Horford‘s opening-possession air from Game 3. And just like Al’s airball set the tone for ATL’s Game 3 stinker, Wade’s shot foreshadowed the Heat’s struggles last night. It took Miami almost six minutes to make a field goal, all while Josh Smith was putting in circus layups and Horford was dunking on everybody. Miami fell behind by 20 in the first half after another five-minute slump without a bucket, and despite a second-half rally to get within three points in the third, couldn’t produce when they needed to, losing 81-71. Wade (22 pts, 9-26) had about 3-4 airballs and/or ugly bricks … Jermaine O’Neal had another of his games where you think he did major damage, then the box score shows you he wasn’t as dominant as you thought. If you were watching, J.O.’s 20-point, 6-board outing somehow seemed like a 30-10 line as it was happening. We don’t know how he keeps doing that … Remember all the hype surrounding Jarvis Varnado going into the NCAA Tournament? Remember how the Mississippi State big man got thoroughly dominated in his brief tourney appearance by Jon “Matrix” Brockman? Apparently not worried about the bad lasting impression, Varnado threw his name into the NBA Draft yesterday, but hasn’t hired an agent. Good call. Varnado’s shot-blocking instincts and production is off the charts (he’s led the nation in swats two times running), but he’s a good 20 pounds away from being an impact player in the League, and his offense needs a lot of work. He’ll likely end up back at school … We’re out like Boozer and Deron …
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April 28th, 2009 at 6:03 am
tp says:
first
the hornets giving up this game worse than when the lakers mailed it in last year in the finals?
April 28th, 2009 at 6:12 am
smity far away says:
j.r smith gets the best form of payback against byron scott if they finish new o off 4-1. however, if denver somehow happens to get blown out in denver, this series may go to seven. otherwise…i’m not seeing denver past the second round. they’re still suspect to me.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:14 am
tp says:
btw sloan’s antics (much respect to the dude) were a bit much. the game was pretty much decided and those were a bunch of really good no calls at the end. at least he showed some fire and heart to the end. as for next year, let boozer go, resign milsap, problems 1-5 have been solved.
speaking of heart, i remember when braveheart (turiaf for those who dont know) bodied up ronny price and ended up decking his ass. lil price didnt appreciate it very much and got up in turiaf’s face while wiping away his tears. look, i respect his efforts in that “come back” but i hate this dudes act. throwing a tantrum with 3 secs left, does he really wanna mess with the jacker d fish?
April 28th, 2009 at 6:15 am
tp says:
smity:
who’s going to beat them? dallas? i’m pretty sure they are much more suspect than the nuggets. they’ll beat dallas pretty easily before getting destroyed by the lakers in 5.
April 28th, 2009 at 7:05 am
Dayo says:
Can’t remember watching d-wade stink as badly as he did last night. Can only hope he bounces back soon enough, or the series’ll turn ugly.
I don’t have a problem with him dominating the ball in crunch time, however, you’ll think after bouncing the ball for like 10 or 15 seconds (out of a possible 24), he’ll make a drive to the hoop. What made everything worse was that after overhandling, d-wade was repeatedly pulling up for contested 20 foot jump shots!
Really sad and disappointing!
April 28th, 2009 at 7:08 am
JAB says:
i’m laker for life, but i don’t think that denver is such an easy route. you know gasol can’t defend down low and nene is underrated. plus every laker’s pussy but kobe…and lamar…okay and ariza. no one of our points can defend chauncey, maybe shannonwill in two years (to the haters – i know he’s no point, but he’s got the potential to be a good defender)
having said that, i think kobe will win first two, then gonna try to involve the others, they gonna drop at least one as a consequence – series ending 4-2
call me nastrawhatif – i want van exel
April 28th, 2009 at 7:17 am
mavs all the way says:
tp? is this tony parker? you’re going down!
mavs will give them thuggets a good fight.
they may be 0-4 against them in the regular season but that’s the point, it was the REGULAR season. some of those games doesn’t have JHo in it and at those times, mavs was kind of still finding themselves, trying to get their rhythms. dallas in 6.
April 28th, 2009 at 7:26 am
that's whats up says:
how can the Defensive Player of the Year, Chris Paul, allow this to happen?
I give him half another season before his whiny little bitch ass starts demanding a trade
April 28th, 2009 at 7:31 am
erichv96 says:
I don’t see how you can call the nuggets “suspect” considering the way they played last night. The 3 games they’ve won have been by double digits and have been over by the start of the 4th quarter. They lapsed in game 3 and still almost won. The Lakers are still the team to beat in the west, but the Nugz aren’t going to be pushovers. Mavs will probably play better than the Hornets did, but they won’t take the series
April 28th, 2009 at 8:02 am
springz says:
I’m still shocked about the whole thing…
April 28th, 2009 at 8:20 am
M says:
The Nuggets have been for real. No real player with superstar talent yet still they perform very well at this time.
A dark horse for the title maybe, it would definitely be a major upset.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:37 am
POPPI GEE says:
Houston Up!
Honestly it should count as 2 losses when you get blown out by over 50. Prison rape!
Crap N.O. didn’t drop the soap, they just threw it down on the ground.
For now for Utah all I will say is “SCREAM UTAH!” and Price was nice.
Anybody read that joint about that lady Symone Fisher who has been stalkin D Fisher to the point of changing her last name claiming she is the real wife and wanting to be mommy to his kids. Real life “Obsessed”. Say D. Fisher got a restraining order on ol girl. I went to her myspace page and it’s really crazy over dude.
Atl. is probably right up there with being a fun team to watch when they win, but when they lose they suck so bad. Games like that is when J.O. got to get 30 or 40 points and take it all over. Sadly that dog has seen his best years.
Loving how physical the Nuggets are. Sure to be a fight with that squad and who they face sooner or later.
LOL @ either Charles Barkley or Kenny Smith making fun of N.O. and saying “Way to take of for CP3 there guys” cause he got abuuuused!
Loving the playoffs.
Get this W tonight!
April 28th, 2009 at 8:48 am
JA says:
“… and Horford was dunking on everybody”??
Didn’t Al only have 1 FG last night?
April 28th, 2009 at 8:55 am
the_don_mega says:
@GEE: Crap N.O. didn’t drop the soap, they just threw it down on the ground.. LMFAO!!!
that is just straight up nasty man!! LOL!!! before the playoofs began, i thought it would be the blazers that would hand the lakeshow the most fits… but now, i think houston can wrap ‘em up defensively… or the nuggets can shoot it up with ‘em in a showdown… whichever way it goes… it’d be sure to be a heck of a show…
April 28th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Dagomar says:
Wow, sometimes Dime just hits everything right on the head. “Kobayashi Game.” LOL
Billups has completely turned around the Nuggets, but it kind of shows you how bad a leader Melo was all this time. He’s got a long, long way to go before he even approaches the Lebron-Wade-Kobe stratosphere. It’s weird what happened to the Hornets: promising young team one year, and everything falls apart the next. George Karl said Chris Paul looked injured out there and it had better be true, because otherwise that was anything but a superstar performance.
As for Wade, apparently he’s got back pains. He’s got to be at 100% for the Heat to win that series, so we’ll see. Glad the Jazz are done though, that was just a pitiful series. AK 47 is pretty much done as an impact player in this league; somehow he declined without getting old or really being injured. He just lost his confidence when his team got good, and his work ethic is apparently pretty brutal now. Jazz aren’t going to be as good as they could be with him taking up a good chunk of the team’s salary . . . .
April 28th, 2009 at 9:16 am
MSkittle says:
What was up with D Wade last night? He didn’t look like himself.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Dukesman2000 says:
“…and the second half was like playing a video game against somebody with one hand …” Classic!
Dime, y’all have some quotables that are just crazy…you guys are like the Jadakiss of sports writing.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:39 am
The Smart Chris says:
What the hell Dime, did you guys not see how Ronnie Price single-handedly brought the Jazz within spitting distance of the Lakers in the 4th quarter? His follow-up cram was amazing and his heart was left out on that floor in only 12 minutes of play. Ronnie also showed he wasn’t going down without a fight by getting up in Fish’s grill at the end. That dude just got paid from one quarter of hustle and you didn’t even mention one thing about him. Shame…
April 28th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Kudabeen says:
Wow…58 points CP3?!?
I have to admit I was wrong about the Nuggets…I didn’t think they were “this” good. Crazy. A true testament to what a real floor leader can do…
Hornets aren’t putting up much resistance either, but damn…
April 28th, 2009 at 9:45 am
michael lee says:
http://www.annelok.com/Toronto/Ontario/Homes/CoxwellDanforth/Agent/Listing_1939323.html
April 28th, 2009 at 9:51 am
SeanD says:
Had a minor geek-out at the title. Thought it was a reference to the Star Trek Kobayashi Maru test: What do you do in a no-win situation?
April 28th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Jay Jay says:
D Wade was injured last night, some sort of back problem.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:32 am
justin says:
Back spasms for Wade. That is why he settled for the j all night and wouldn’t take it to the rim. His teammates were lifting him off the bench after timeouts in the 2nd half cause he couldn’t get up on his own. He better get healthy quick if the Heat want to advance.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:36 am
tim says:
I’m thinking Denver is gonna go to the Finals this year.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:41 am
doc says:
D-Wade aint no more injured than everybody else.He put up a stinker just like Paul did.U cant bash Paul then say Wade injured.LA sent Utah packing but they look like last year to me.Impressive offense to where they explode for 20 point leads,but the other team always gonna come back because they are a team full of heartless pussies on D.Utah kept coming back every game but wasnt good enough to pull them out.The better teams gonna pull them out like that Boston comeback last year in the chip.I still see that team not no defensive mindset they were talking about.But maybe they can turn it on I doubt it though.Denver looking nice right now.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Diego says:
Yeah, Dime, your Horford comment is bizarre. Did anyone at Dime watch the Hawks/Heat game last night? Horford did next to nothing–what saved the Hawks was Horford went out early with 2 fouls and then crafty/brutish Zaza did his bull in the china shop routine to the point of 18 boards. Zaza does very well against non-athletic frontcourt guys (like J.O.).
April 28th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Dave says:
Is it as obvious to everyone else that CP3 is WAY OVERRATED, can’t carry a team, and shouldn’t be in the same conversation as Tony Parker, Deron Williams, or Chauncy Billups. He’s a second tier pg who has all the flash and style to get recognized and shown on Sportscenter, but no real hard-core ability to win games on his own. He’s at best the 4th best pg in the league.
props to the Lakers, they handled business, but if someone would man up and play some physical basketball against them I think you can beat them. The Jazz had no huevos, didn’t bang Kobe, Pau, or anyone else on that team and let them have their way but if someone is willing to get nasty the Lakers can be beat.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
ticktock6 says:
That must be the reason for CP’s statistical domination of the above list of point guards.
Eyeroll.
April 28th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
johnsacrimoni says:
I’d love to see this so-called statistical domination of Deron Williams.
April 28th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Big Freeze says:
Wow, the Hornets have one terrible game, and suddenly CP3 isn’t great player anymore.
April 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Dave says:
There are many players who seem to dominate during the regular season when there isn’t as much on the line, but when the playoffs begin it’s a different level of intensity. Head to head CP3 doesn’t compare to DWill, TP, or Billups and in a playoff series he won’t compete at the same level against top competition.
Stats don’t mean anything, look at Boozer…great stats but can’t come through when the competition is playing their best defense.
And the Hornets are down 3-1 to a Denver team that won’t beat the Lakers once so it isn’t just one bad game, I’m looking at the series and the head to head competition of CP3 vs. the other three.
April 28th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Drink the Haterade (KB24 Chip 09) says:
So one question, I’ve been told by some that LBJ would be a better draft pick than Timmy D all things being equal. I have to disagree with that assessment in that Timmy has won 4 chips and has been the best player over the last ten years, MVP of the decade as one reader put it to us a while back. But tell me who would you pick?
April 28th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Dave says:
I’d take LeBron. Duncan is a great player but without TP or David Robinson or the other good teammates and coach Pop Duncan couldn’t do it on his own. I think if you surrounded LeBron with some of the players and coach that Duncan has had he’d have 4 chips as well.
April 28th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Dave says:
AK47 isn’t the same player he used to be. He is terrified to go the hole strong because his two injuries have both occured when he was going inside so his offensive game is now the outside shot which he only hits about 35% of the time. Not only that but AK47 is addicted to video games and stays up all night playing online with his boys in Russia and doesn’t have any strength. He’s lost weight this season, looks like a frail girl, can’t shoot the outside shot, and only plays defense on occasion.
April 28th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
the cynic says:
Sloan is kicking himself for not inserting Price sooner in the series. AK never gets the ball when he should, i couldn’t count how many times he was wide open off curls in the post, but his teammates don’t trust him anymore because he only seems mentally there half the time.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Dave says:
Price should’ve been playing all along, but I guess he was in Sloan’s doghouse because he wouldn’t run the offense like he was supposed to. That was why he put in him yesterday because he knew the Lakers wouldn’t be ready for the freelancing that happens with Price running the offense.
I disagree on AK not getting the ball on the cuts. He really didn’t that play called for him very often, and when he did get the ball he would sometimes get a nice pass, but rarely did he ever take the ball and score it himself like Korver, Harp, or even Miles would.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
MattinVA says:
“bunch of really good no calls at the end”
What a joke. Translation: “I’m really happy the reffs let my boys get away with mugging.” Steve Javie — need I say more?
Your team won. Celebrate. But “good no calls” smack is only good if the no-calls go both ways.
Why was Fischer fouling with 5s left?