A Few Other Things to Consider

(Boulder-CO) I still haven’t stopped looking at tonight’s box score, (thanks, thaanswer), and I have stumbled upon a couple of other things to take into consideration when comprehensively evaluating game two. First off, the Nuggets only shot 17 free-throws with Allen Iverson not taking a single attempt from the charity stripe and Nene only getting to the freebie line twice. The Spurs didn’t do much better, however they did get to the line 23 time in comparison, but what strikes me weird about this statistic is how many times the Nuggets missed lay-up opportunities where marginal contact was evident in addition to the amount of slashing to the basket Denver attempted.

The next area of concern for the Denver Nuggets is how the Spurs dictated the tempo of the game with transition defense. San Antonio beat the Nuggets at their own game by doubling Denver’s fast break point total, 14-7. I’m not sure if this is a direct result of the Spurs getting back and setting up that zone defense that stifled the Nuggets in the first half, but I think we would all agree that the Nuggets are at their best when fast breaking as much as possible.

And lastly, and directly related to fast break points, is how the San Antonio Spurs distributed the ball better than the Nuggets with 20 assists to Denver’s 17. Aside from Steve Blake’s seven assists and Allen Iverson’s five, the Nuggets didn’t have another player with more than two dimes. This indicates to me that we need more quick passing around the perimeter to open up the lane for cutters and post-and-relocate with our three-point shooters and post players.

This could all be useless statistical analysis in the end of the day, but I just thought I would bring these numbers to everyone’s attention over the next two days as we discuss different ideas that can be of use in the upcoming games.

Feel free to chime in if you have differing thoughts or ideas.