Replayables: Nuggets vs Lakers
February 28, 2010
“I thought they looked cooler, dressed cooler, acted cooler, and balled better than everybody.”
Episode 2 of the Replayables! If you missed the first one - Sonics vs Lakers, Game 2 of the 1996 Playoffs with Danny Ball - you can check it out here. In this series, a guest and I rewatch an old game, discuss what it meant then and now, and hand out awards for various performances - some serious, but mostly silly.
For this episode, I invited my good friend (and future brother-in-law!) Jack Dollard to replay a Nuggets game from 2010. We both became fans of the team in this era, so we had to go back and watch Melo, JR Smith, Nenê, KMart, Billups, Birdman, and company take on the Kobe, Pau, Fisher, Artest & Bynum Lakers.
The Set Up
Chris Gunther: Why this game?
Jack Dollard: By the time I started watching the NBA on TV, Carmelo Anthony was by far the coolest thing I could watch. I like Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant and all of that, but I was so beyond a fan of Melo. Then Allen Iverson. Not only were their basketball skills elite, I thought they were actually the coolest people in the world. I thought they looked cooler, dressed cooler, acted cooler, and balled better than everybody. Those two guys really made me fall in love with the game, and they’re both on the Nuggets, wearing the best jerseys in the league. I started watching a bunch of Nuggets games - the down years, the good years. I started young and I never gave them up. I couldn’t. I love it.
CG: That all comes through in this game. Carmelo is having so much fun out on the court. He’ll make an incredible play and then it’s just big smiles all the way down the court. At the end of the day, it’s a game, and the players are out there balling and having fun. Carmelo reminded you of that a little bit more than others.
JD: Totally. It’s humanizing. Like, “Oh my gosh, he’s not just a killer right now. He’s having fun.”
CG: You grew up in upstate New York. Do you have memories of watching Carmelo back at Syracuse?
JD: I didn’t really watch him there; I was so young. But I grew up rooting for ‘Cuse and as I start finding out about Carmelo and going to the Carrier Dome and seeing Melo’s picture hanging up, it’s like, okay, he’s that dude. He’s a Syracuse legend.
CG: So then this game in particular. Your first choice was actually not this game, but the prior matchup 18 days before this, which we unfortunately couldn’t find a stream for. But, you want to tell me what happened in that game before we get into this one?
JD: That was a game that I’ll never forget. I was at my best friend’s house, the Gunther’s.1 We’re in New York, so it’s like 10pm when it started. My buddy Andrew’s not a big basketball guy, but he’s like, Kobe and your favorite team? Yeah, we could watch. We’re sitting there and he’s losing interest after a couple quarters and just passes out. I’m like, I can’t fall asleep! Chauncey Bills is going off. Kobe’s going off. It’s Melo, it’s Nenê. And his dad, the biggest sports fan ever, comes running down to the basement. At this point, it’s 12:30am and he whispers, “Jack, are you up? Are you seeing this? I’m coming to watch with you.” We watched until 1 in the morning, and it was just amazing.
CG: This game comes a couple weeks after that, and was broadcast on ABC with Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, and Mark Jackson on the call.
JD: JVG rules. Anything he says, I’m listening.
CG: There might be a little bit of nostalgia at play. When I watch games live with him, I can get sick of him complaining about literally everything. Things that don’t matter at all. But watching it back from 15 years ago, we’ll get into it, but it’s just great entertainment.
Before we get too far into the awards, I’ll set a little bit of the context. Late February game, coming off the All-Star break. Nuggets are third in the West, Lakers are first and the defending champions (spoilers, they win it again this year, go back-to-back). We have two of the top four scorers in the league: Carmelo third and Kobe fourth. Kevin Durant would ultimately win the scoring title.
Running through the starters: We got Carmelo, KMart [Kenyon Martin], Nenê, Chauncey Billups, and Arron Afflalo. Afflalo is one of my favorite guys on the Nuggets from this period. I don’t really know why.
For the Lakers, Derek Fisher, who doesn’t really show up. I had to check if he was playing in this game at one point. Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest, Andrew Bynum, and Pau Gasol. I also saw Adam Morrison and Luke Walton are on the bench for this one.
This is Steph [Curry]’s Rookie season. He does not win Rookie of the Year; that goes to Tyreke Evans, I think on the Kings.
JD: Wait. Oh my gosh. That’s Tyreke’s best year of his career!
CG: There you go. Somebody I get confused with Ty Lawson, too, who does appear in this game.
JD: Ty was so good at UNC. He and Tyler Hansbrough. That era was when I started getting into college basketball, and then the Nuggets got Ty Law. I was pumped.
CG: I was listening to Zach Lowe a couple weeks ago talk about Carmelo getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. He started reminiscing about Melo’s Denver years, and he talked about how there were some games where you’re like, is “Ty Lawson going to win MVP?” He had those moments.
I added a new category last minute I’m calling the “JaVale McGee Award for Unintentional Comedy”, for him. I’ll hold on to that for later. Anything else you want to mention before we get into the awards?
JD: I’ll own up to this now: I was still hating on the Lakers and Kobe at this point. He was killing us. He was killing everybody, and the Lakers were winning. It was like, “man, stop.” I want the Nuggets to have a chance.
CG: Ha! You weren’t alone, and good to mention our Nuggets bias up front in this one. But yeah, this is LeBron’s first year in Miami, so before the baton is fully passed from the Lakers to that Big Three. So this, in some ways, is Kobe’s last big run.
JD: I did come around towards the end of his career and just realized, I can’t be mad that I’m watching greatness, you know? It’s unbelievable.
CG: All right, let’s get into it. Where do we want to start?
JD: One of the first things I noticed, broadly, and had forgotten about, is the twin towers of Bynum and Gasol. It changes the game. Pau was still doing his thing. Bynum was moving like crazy. That was a a threatening frontcourt.
CG: Bynum had a solid game. Pau had stretches, especially toward the end when the Lakers create some separation. It was brought up several times in the broadcast how the way to play against this Lakers team was with force and aggression because they kind of shy away from that. I don’t know. With Pau and Bynum, then Kobe and Artest are as tough as anyone. Derek Fisher’s small, but strong. I trust Mike Breen, but it did seem like a tough team. Ron Artest especially was just in Carmelo’s jersey the entire game. That was impressive to watch.
JD: My second note was, I forgot how good Arron Afflalo was for us. He wasn’t with the Nuggets for very long, but I don’t remember ever being like, “God damn it, Afflalo!” He’s just solid. He hit shots, he defended well. Definitely enjoyed having him on the squad.
CG: Nenê was also lowkey dominating this game, especially in the first half. He had a few steals; he was the leading the team in steals, which I would have not expected. Like Afflalo, I think I’ve under-appreciated Nenê. He had the whole Lakers frontcourt in foul trouble.
JD: He and Marcus Camby were the first two big men, besides Dirk, that I ever really enjoyed watching. Obviously, they were on the Nuggets, but they would just work harder than everybody and mess up your offense and mess up your scheme and, you know, I’ll get an offensive rebound here, and dunk here. Like you’re saying, they did it all. And it was a boatload of fun to watch.
CG: Alright, let’s get into . . .
The Replayables
CG: We might as well address the recent news early.
What’s Aged the Best (or Worst)
CG: When I first made my notes, I had Chauncey Billups sounding like a future coach in the halftime interview as what’s aged the best. ABC did a whole segment about Billups being the veteran voice and acting coach when George Karl had to miss some games, actually undergoing chemotherapy treatment. So that aged well as of a few days ago. Since then, “Mr. Big Shot” being “all about winning”, to quote Jeff Van Gundy, maybe ages the worst.
JD: For me, I’m looking at it like, the whole broadcast team is gone. Every player on this court is done playing. Everybody’s gone, but Mike Breen’s still doing his thing. He’s aged the best.
The thing that aged the worst, I would say, is the loss of the mid-range shot. I miss watching it, man. Kobe’s walking into his. Melo’s doing his thing. Kenyon Martin’s taking mid-ranges. I mean, it’s just like, it’s a good2 shot! I stand by that. I miss watching it.
CG: The first two baskets of the game were a Gasol skyhook and a Melo jumper from one-foot in front of the three-point line.
JD: Melo is classic for that. Right inside the arc. Courtney Williams is the master of that in the WNBA now. Does not care where the three-point line is.
The Most 2010 Thing About this Game
JD: Tivo. After Arron Afflalo had the double block [see “Most Replayable Play”], Jeff Van Gundy said “He’s going to be watching that on his Tivo on repeat.”
CG: I love that because it’s not a 90s thing, or even early 2000s really. It’s gone by the teens. It’s like a very small window where Tivo is going to get a shout out and this is it.
My first one was, Twitter. It got popular around 2007, 2008, so this is fairly recently after. Before the game JR Smith tweeted “Kobe is great but not when he play me,” so players using Twitter to talk trash from the jump. I don’t know if KD had his burner account set up yet. And then Mark Jackson called it a “twitter” instead of a “tweet”.
The other one I had was the length of the shorts. Billups and KMart especially, with the shorts down to their ankles almost.
JD: Derek Fisher’s shorts are low key big too. But yeah, I feel like Chauncey’s and Kenyon’s are definitely just Nenê’s extras or something.
CG: It brings me back to the days of ordering AND1 shorts from the Eastbay catalog.
Anything else from 2010? I had Lost. There’s an ad for the final season of that TV show.
JD: The broadcast quality isn’t great, you know, but the score bug, I miss the old score bugs. This era of NFL and NBA score bugs is very nostalgic.
CG: Funny you mention that because the game Danny and I did, Lakers vs Sonics from 1996, there wasn’t even a score bug. They would flash a score up every five minutes, and down the stretch, you’re like, “It feels like an exciting game, but I don’t know how close actually is!”
Detlef Schrempf Award for Best Name
CG: Lots to choose from in this one. I don’t know if you saw, but the Ringer came out with a list of the 117 best names in the NBA over the last 25 years. Two players in this game make the list. Nenê was #62 (Nenê is so powerful it just drowns out everything else. The first name arrives with such force you’re just like, Yeah, I got it. And that’s saying something when he’s sitting on a last name like Hilario).
Any guesses for the other?
JD: Arron Afflalo?
CG: He wasn’t on the list at all, and I think that’s the biggest oversight! The alliteration is there. The spelling with double-r instead of double-a: “Arron”. Afflalo just sounds great, even though I spell it wrong every time. We’ll talk about memorabilia you’d want from the game, but for me it’s definitely his Nugget’s jersey. But anyway, he’s my choice, but not the Ringer’s. No nicknames either, so Birdman’s not in there.
JD: They wouldn’t put Chauncey in there, would they? Carmelo?
CG: Carmello. As Tyler Parker wrote, “A name so known and so smooth, you need only say the first. Madonna once said, ‘I sometimes think I was born to live up to my name . . . Carmelo had to be a major NBA player.”
Kobe Bean Bryan is also underrated. Pau is great.
JD: I always thought “Derek Fisher” sounds like the guy that’s going to come fix your house, not an NBA player, you know? Or a Mac Miller alter ego.
‘Boom Goes the Dynamite’ Award for Best Announcer Call
“This game means nothing.”
CG: Let’s get to the announcers. I got a bunch of notes here. So we got, as mentioned, Mike Breen on the play-by-play, with Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson arguing as the color commentators. We don’t get any halftime show in this YouTube stream, but Stuart Scott is on there with Michael Wilbon. Great era of ESPN. You said you had a line for each of these in-game announcers. You want to give me those?
JD: You gotta love anytime Mike Breen gets a good call. Early in the fourth, Lamar Odom is coming down the right side and banks it off the glass with one hand, falling away, and gets the and one. I thought he was going to say “Bang!”, and he go, “BAAAanks it in”.
CG: The tease!
JD: As far as Van Gundy, I wouldn’t even say anything in particular about this game
CG: He wouldn’t say anything about the game!
JD: My favorite part is when he starts talking about something random, and then takes himself out and leaves Breen and Jackson to figure it out without him. “Is it NEné or NeNÊ?” and then he just goes quiet. The worst thing that happens is he gets Mike Breen and Mark Jackson to laugh, and that’s just awesome. I couldn’t pick just one for JVG.
CG: I had like six for him, I’ll run through quickly. Off the bat, and this one’s especially entertaining for us spending time watching this game 15 years later, the first thing he says in the whole game is “This game means nothing.” And here we are 15 years later. Made me question things a little bit. And then, of course, him and Mark Jackson immediately disagree and fight over whether the game matters or not.
Later, he just goes full in on Mark Jackson for being an overrated defender out of nowhere.
JD: Yo, that was crazy!! And Mark Jackson’s just like “Where is this coming from?”
CG: “A rage inside that’s been burning for years.”
JD: He’s literally waiting to say that on air.
CG: Two others. One that made me think of a reference you’ll definitely get. He’s talking about drinking the Chauncey Billups Kool-Aid, and says “I’m going to take a drink from his Kool-Aid too, whatever his flavor. Mine was grape, but if he wants cherry, I’ll drink cherry too.” Which immediately brought to mind Brian Reagan’s Little League stand-up set.
Too spot on. Last one I’ll say is, at one point D.J. Mbenga comes into the game and Jeff Van Gundy just goes, “I like Mbenga” [pronounced “bang-a”]. No followup. Just “I like Mbenga.” That’s it.
JD: Hahahaha. It’s stuff like that, because Van Gundy just doesn’t think before he talks, you know? He just lets it fly. And that’s why he was great.
What I like about Mark Jackson is not only the camaraderie and how well he and Van Gundy and Breen all worked together, but Mark Jackson could go from joking around to then bring up a really good point. He was good at his job and deserved to be there, you know. But he brought both sides of it.
CG: The best three-man crew we’ve had.
What Memorabilia from this Game Would You Want?
CG: I had the Nugget jerseys. I love these ones. The dark blue and light blue. The shine. I love the cursive Nuggets logo. The off-center number on the front. Just love it all.
JD: 100% agree. This is probably my top three favorite jersey ever. I had the Allen Iverson of this, but from this game, I would have loved to go get Nenê or something. Nay is classic.
Coldplay Cam Award for Best Jumbotron Moment
CG: Not a ton of fan moments in this one. I just had Jack Nicholson sitting courtside, wearing sunglasses indoors. And the guy next to him, his outfit is just wild. Quite a fit.
JD: It looks like Jack doesn’t even know that anybody else is there. Just looking out with his dark sunglasses on. They showed Jay-Z in the stands. He had a good reaction after a Jordan Farmar and one in the fourth.
CG: What was Jay-Z doing in 2010?
JD: Looks like he bookended 2010 with albums. The Blueprint 3 was 2009, and then Watch the Throne in 2011.
Daniel Radcliffe ‘Alphabet Aerobics’ Award for Most Unexpected Performance
CG: I landed on Kobe having as many assists as points in the first half.
JD: I almost picked that! He almost finished with the same amount too. He had like 14 and 12 or something. He had a couple of drives at the end there that boosted his scoring, but it was close.
Editor’s Note: Kobe played 1,566 games across the regular season and playoffs in his 20 year career. In games when he played at least 20 minutes (he played 43 in this one), he had more assists than points just 10 times (0.6%). In this game he finished with 2 more points than rebounds; his passing total was only that close to his scoring total in 1.3% of his games. He once had 79 more points than assists.
I was impressed, re-watching this, with Lamar Odom. He put his stamp on this one. I forgot how much that dude used to just glide. With how big and strong he was. Watching the game and seeing him get a steal and hit a three and the way he finished the game. He had like 20 points, 12 boards, 4 steals. He might have been the best player on the Lakers that game.
CG: A big man like that able to grab a rebound, lead a fast break, that smoothly. You’re seeing that a lot more now, and he was was one of the guys doing that 15 years ago.
You mentioned the way Odom finished the game, so I guess I should give a bit of a game recap: Nuggets jumped out to a big lead, up 13 at one point, but the Lakers clawed their way back, and then about eight minutes left, went on a big run, got an eight-point lead. Nuggets came back again, but couldn’t get over the hump, and Odom was a big part of that for the Lakers. He had Jay-Z enjoying it.
Javale McGee Award for Unintentional Comedy
CG: I added this category for one moment in particular. Ty Lawson hurt his shoulder and goes to the bench, and the ice bag they have on his shoulder is ginormous! It’s comically large. As big as his whole torso!
JD: It’s like he’s carrying a boom box!
CG: Yes, exactly. And the commentary over the top is the report from Lisa Salters saying he’s got a bruised shoulder and is expected to return. And I’m just like, there is no way he’s returning. Look at this thing! Sure enough, he does not return.
CG: We didn’t get any of the Carmelo classic, “Get the fuck outta here. I got it” on rebounds, but we did get a similar thing, and I’m pretty sure it was Melo. The Lakers are shooting free throws and the second one goes in, and you just hear, clearly, on the broadcast an, “Oh Shit!”
JD: I thought I heard that! That sounded like when Melo grabs the board for sure.
Most Replayable Play
CG: All right, cool. Let’s close it out here with most replayable play. Anything jump out to you?
JD: I’m a big fan of the Arron Afflalo double block. That’s probably it. I think it was on Pau, and then Kobe, that was awesome. And it was like a two-on-one fast break.
CG: I mean, Kobe scores on that 99 times out of 100, but Afflalo gets the double block. Incredible.
This is a Nugget’s heavy post, so sorry to the Ron Artest steal and dunk, a great Kobe drive, etc. etc. But for me, most replayable was a Melo turnaround jumper in the first half. Kobe Bryant is in his face. There’s a second defender crashing at him. He just doesn’t care. Just spin, fade away, jump up, knock it down.
JD: Odom was the second defender too! That was one you just gotta run back and you’re like, you can’t guard that.
CG: And that’s what you were talking about at the very start, of him just being entertaining to watch. Hoopers just hooping, and not worrying about, like, is this a good shot?
Not me. Different Gunther.
Editor’s note: aesthetically good. A Kenyon Martin mid-range is not statistically good.
Fun to go back in time.
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