Nuggets 119 - Clippers 107 - Preseason

I found myself thinking along the same lines, however--what am I doing?  why am I listening to this?--as I checked in at halftime, and then hear a fair amount of the second half.  The Clips were ahead at halftime and must have done some damage in the 2nd quarter, but by the time I came back they were behind by 3 and then the game, such as it is, got away from them.  The new announcer--I don't know his name, but I read somewhere that it's unfortunate--was okay, but he's no Matt Pinto.

Some more observations:  Dickau may seem to have outplayed Knight, but Knight was guarding Iverson and Dickau wasn't.  Iverson didn't do a ton of damage, but that doesn't mean much.  Dickau can do some good things, especially in garbage time and against certain players, and it's great to have him on the team.  He's been around enough and has played enough that he is a real veteran and isn't going to make a lot of dumb mistakes, but his primary utility is still going to come if Cassell or Knight is banged up.  Knight is going to get the yeoman defensive duty against guys like Iverson. Steve Nash, Chris Paul, and any of the smaller, quick guards.

Which brings us to QRoss and his 5 minutes.  I think Ross is getting squeezed from both sides.  Knight takes away a big chunk of his "guarding Iverson" minutes, and from the other side it's Maggette time and Thornton time.  Even more telling/disturbing, is that QRoss gets 5 minutes in a game where Mobley (and Cassell) doesn't play!  His minutes went to Thornton and Diaz, which is as it should be during the preseason, but still.

Rebounding is a big issue, but it's hard to judge without Kaman playing.  Camby kills the Clippers and without Brand and Kaman it was no contest.  Powell and Davis probably could have done a better job.  Davis not only got the 7 assists but he was also apparently running the floor quite a bit.  I think he's going to do very well.

There was one wtf Dunleavy moment:  in the 4th quarter, with about 10 minutes left and down by about 15, Josh Powell got his 5th foul.  MD put TThomas back in.  There was no reason to do that, and it was about 3 minutes later that he brought in Korolev.  MD didn't seem to realize that YK can function as the same player as TThomas, especially in preseason garbage time.

And what about Aaron Williams?  Not a sniff.  With Diaz doing his best Barbosa and making things happen--Mike had to tell Ralph that Diaz isn't a PG--and YK out there, a promising 20 year old shooter on a team with no one who can shoot, Ralph was saying it's just tough because the 15 roster spots are all already taken.  They were talking about how YK has to be perfect, as he missed his free throws.  No discussion of how they'll be carrying Aaron Williams on the team and will never use him, with Powell, Patterson, and Thornton all playing ahead of him.

Pretty interesting game, against a very good team, with key Clipper players sidelined.