air's Nuggets dynasty

[air]

Thanks for the questions, people. You can still post a couple and I'll try to make the best I can out of it! Meanwhile, here's the Hawks game.
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DENVER OVERCOME HAWKS IN ATLANTA WITH ROUTINE WIN

Denver 86
Atlanta 79

Salim Stoudamire's 28 points was not enough for Atlanta to manage a surprise win over Western Conference high-flyers Denver. Atlanta played good defence, but in the end Denver had more scoring ability and came away with a win. Denver's star was center Marcus Camby, who dominated the inside with 22 points and 7 rebounds. Kenyon Martin had a harder time against Hawks forward Al Harrington, putting up only 15 points to make it an average performance by his standards. Another forward Carmelo Anthony was making the highlight reel once again, with spectacular dunks and drives to the basket. Denver are still looking very good, but they had a setback today with Brazilian post player Nene getting injured early in the game. "I doubt it's anything very serious", he said. "The team needs me so I can play even if it's hurting a little. We still need more wins."

Starters:
Denver (11-4 before game)
C M. Camby
F K. Martin
F C. Anthony
G J. Johnson
G J. Williams

Atlanta (3-9 before game)
C J. Collier
F A. Harrington
F M. Williams
G J. Smith
G S. Stoudamire

Player of the game:
Camby DEN 22/7

Team leaders:
DEN: Anthony 18/3, Martin 15/7
ATL: Stoudamire 28/3 ast, Harrington 14/9, Childress 16

Box scores:
Nuggets
Hawks

Pictures:


Anthony grabs the board and throws it down.


Bzdelik looks on as Nene hobbles off the court.


Martin and Harrington had a tough battle.

[air]

NBA STANDINGS, January
(team, wins-losses)

Regular season length is 29 games

WEST
San Antonio 13-3
Denver 12-4
Golden State 8-4
Portland 11-5
Phoenix 7-4
LA Lakers 7-5
Sacramento 7-5
Memphis 8-6
----------------
Minnesota 9-7
Houston 7-6
Utah 5-7
New Orleans 6-10
LA Clippers 6-12
Seattle 3-9

EAST
New York 7-3
Indiana 8-4
Washington 8-5
Philadelphia 8-4
Boston 9-6
Cleveland 10-7
Detroit 8-7
Orlando 5-6
----------------
Miami 4-6
Toronto 5-10
Charlotte 4-9
Milwaukee 4-10
Chicago 3-9
Atlanta 3-10
New Jersey 3-14

[Emiliano]

Great win...keep it going man

[air]

Cheers, Emiliano! I'll just post this interview thing one more time to make it the latest post. Just one or two questions and I think I can make something out of it.
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Kenyon answers your questions
by Denver Post sports writer Mike Nugget

Denver Nuggets star Kenyon Martin has agreed to an exclusive reader interview with the Denver Post. You have the chance to ask what you want to know from Kenyon himself! Send in your questions today!

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Any question will do, after all these are fan questions. Cheers. I'll try to get some pics for the interview too.

[.LA.]

Great win. Closer than I thought it would be. Kenyon with 15? At least my theory of him being "Super Human" is out the window. He does have a weakness!

[air]

Yep. With fatigue effect, free throw difficulty and double team effectiveness all up, it's not so easy for him to score 50. It's better that way. And Harrington's not a bad defender it seems. But then I have Camby to go to.

Lakers game will be up tonight or before tomorrow afternoon European time.

Here's the starters for the game at Staples Center:

Denver (12-4 before game)
C M. Camby
F K. Martin
F C. Anthony
G J. Johnson
G J. Williams

LA Lakers (7-6 before game)
C B. Grant
F L. Odom
F C. Butler
G K. Bryant
G C. Atkins

Nuggets latest: Brazilian power forward Nene has recovered from his injury and is 100% fit according to Nuggets medical staff.

[.LA.]

Good luck. Should be a nice matchup at the PF position.

[colickyboy]

man, i love the quality of your screenshots. must have an awesome video card. these are some of the best-looking pictures i've seen

and sweet deal for joe johnson

[Keo]

Nice win against Atlanta, good luck against LAL.

[air]

Cheers, LA, Sensation.

Colickyboy, I actually have the cheapest GeForce 4 that was available a couple years ago. I installed the lighting patch and was surprised that I could run the game on maximum detail settings. Maybe it's the fact that I make the shots smaller by 50%.

And I have checked out your Bulls, too. Just haven't managed to post yet..

LAL will be up soon.

[Emiliano]

Good luck against LA! Lets see JJ plays against Kobe....

[air]

MARTIN RETURNS TO FORM AS NUGGETS OVERCOME LAKERS LEAD

Denver 92
LA Lakers 86

Kenyon Martin's 46 points helped Denver Nuggets to extend their amazing winning streak to nine games. It didn't come easily though, with Lamar Odom's defence proving a tough match for Kenyon at the start of the game. Denver ran out of offensive options in the second quarter, and the Lakers seemed to have the game in control, taking a nine-point lead going into the third quarter. That would all change, as the Lakers had to remove the tired Odom from the game towards the end. Nuggets kept feeding the ball to Martin, and with Luke Walton proving no match for the former number one pick, Denver took the lead and didn't look back. The Lakers' unlikely leading scorer was point guard Chucky Atkins, who seemed to make every shot he put up. Atkins finished with 28 points. Had the Lakers been able to keep Odom on the court at the same time as Martin, it could all have been a different story.

"This game really showed that this team has character to come back from a difficult situation to win the game", said Nuggets center Marcus Camby. "We've been able to take the lead in recent games but tonight was different. This team really believes in themselves." Camby had 10 points and 10 rebounds. The Nuggets will look to extend their winning streak against Dallas next week, who are currently underperforming with their record showing 5 wins and 5 losses.

Starters:
Denver (12-4 before game)
C M. Camby
F K. Martin
F C. Anthony
G J. Johnson
G J. Williams

LA Lakers (7-6 before game)
C B. Grant
F L. Odom
F C. Butler
G K. Bryant
G C. Atkins

Player of the game:
Martin DEN 46/9

Team leaders:
DEN: Camby 10/10, Anthony 14/2, Nene 10/6
LAL: Atkins 28/3/4 ast, Odom 11/9, Bryant 15

Box scores:
Nuggets
Lakers

Pictures:


Johnson takes it inside for a change.


Camby rises highest.


While Chucky Atkins keeps going until the final buzzer.

[air]

DENVER EXTEND WINNING STREAK TO TEN BY BEATING HOPELESS DALLAS

Dallas 84
Denver 97

Denver Nuggets extended their winning streak to ten games after beating the Dallas Mavericks tonight at the Pepsi Center. Dallas had been the biggest disappointment of the season with a record of five wins and five losses. They now have a losing record after playing another disappointing game in Denver. Judging by the game the Mavs played, it is no surprise to see them under .500. Their scoring is still (almost) there, but their defence was completely non-existent. They were hurt most on the inside by Kenyon Martin and Nene, who had the better of Keith Van Horn and Dirk Nowitzki, who was injured in the third quarter. Nowitzki returned in the fourth but was unable to make any impact on the game.

"The defence was the key tonight", said Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony after the game. "Our defence was better and we rebounded the ball well. That's what got us the win." Denver will be looking to stretch the winning streak further when they travel to Utah to meet the Jazz next week.

Starters:
Dallas (5-6 before game)
C E. Dampier
F D. Nowitzki
F J. Howard
G M. Finley
G J. Terry

Denver (13-4 before game)
C M. Camby
F K. Martin
F C. Anthony
G J. Johnson
G J. Williams

Player of the game:
Martin DEN 25/6

Team leaders:
DAL: Finley 24, Terry 18/3/3 ast, Nowitzki 12/5
DEN: Camby 16/11, Nene 18/3, Anthony 13/4

Box scores:
Mavericks
Nuggets

Pictures:


Erick Dampier was the only Maverick able to hold Camby, Martin and Nene.


Nowitzki's injury made it even harder for Dallas.


Keith Van Horn was no match for Denver forward Nene.

[air]

It's funny how I got so good all of a sudden... or how my opponents got so bad!? Dallas' had simply no defence. I might still make a few adjustments to make it harder in the post. Then again some random small forward is no match for K-Mart and Nene.

[Keo]

Two great wins against Conference Rivals. 10 in a row. Keep up the good work.

[Its_asdf]

Hmm.... Carmelo doesn't seem to be getting that many touches. Are you planning to make someone else like K-Mart your franchise player?

I also noticed that Joe Johnson's numbers aren't so great either.... Oh well, keep up the good work.

[joeygraham]

Yeah man, way to step it up. Perhaps it's time to switch the settings (all-star to superstar if you're not there yet)?

[air]

Thanks for the feedback once again.

Dr Funky, yeah, I've had trouble getting the ball to Anthony. He seems to get caught out in the corner many times and it's hard to find a good position for him to score. Then again it's good to have a player who can score even if you don't go to him all the time. The same applies to JJ. I'm better at getting the shooting guard in a scoring position, though.

But with five guys who can score it's easier to cope with double teams by the opponent. Johnson's presence helps everyone's scoring, because he has to be guarded wherever he is. K-Mart is the franchise player, it just turned out that way.

JoeyGraham, the thing is I'm already on Superstar! I will probably make the on-ball physical defence just a little stronger for the CPU.

[joeygraham]

Then perhaps try to take more shots with JJ and Carmelo (well, score with them) especially ifyou are havingtrouble with them. Don't just throw it in to K-Mart or Nene or Camby to finish the play down low. Perhaps that will prove to be the undoing challenge.

[.LA.]

Woah, two more huge wins. You have been unstoppable as of late. How is this happening?

[Kobe101]

Go Nuggets!

[air]

Cheers, people! JoeyGraham, if Martin, Camby and Nene can score I will score with them. Many times they go up against a good defender and it gets harder. Or, they get double teamed. That's when the other guys come in.

LA, I guess it's down to me getting better at playing and the team being very solid. I play man-to-man defence with five good defenders and play offence with five guys capable of scoring. Quite a simple formula.

K-Mart's fan interview will be up in a sec! Stay tuned.

Then I'll see how y'all doing...

[air]

Kenyon answers your questions!
by Mike Nugget, Denver Post Sports Writer

Kenyon Martin is quickly becoming one of the NBA's biggest stars. The power forward has been in great form, with several outstanding performances which have led the Denver Nuggets to a strong position in the Western Conference. We caught up with the Nuggets star today to ask him some questions posted by our readers.

Kobe 101 asked:
Dear Kenyon Martin,
What will it take for this team to win the championship?

Kenyon Martin: I think we just need to keep our focus. I was actually reading the paper one day and that's exactly what Joe [Johnson] pointed out. Everybody's getting real hyped up about our winning streak and how we're going to do this and this, how we're going to win the championship. Well, as far as I know, the playoffs ain't even started yet. A lot of things can happen so we just need to keep playing each game at a time. If we just stick to our game and don't dream about what's been said about us, then we can do it. It's all about that, our focus. Obviously it will help if we all stay fit because we need our bench players, too. That's about it.



Dr Funky asked:
What areas would the team generally need to improve on to win more ball games in the future?

KM: The key to this also is keeping our focus. If we continue winning ball games, we have a chance of winning the championship. We also need to get the ball to the right guys at the right time. We've got so many scoring options here, we need to go to the guys who are hitting the shots. We could also do with a lot more shots. We're not shooting as many as our opponents even though we're winning right now. If we could cut down our turnovers and rebound the ball better, we'd be even stronger than we are right now.



.LA. asked:
K-Mart, the question is, is this the team? Do you think this team right here has enough talent to win the championship? Are there any more adjustments that need to be made, in your mind?

KM: Yeah, I think it is. I also think everyone following the team feels that this is the group of players who can do it. Our starting lineup looks very strong now, there's no weak links. We also have a very strong bench in my opinion. I don't know if there are any more changes that will be made before the deadline, but then again that's not my job. But yeah, the team is very strong.

We thank all our readers for the questions they posted.

[Emiliano]

Great questions and great answers.
I'll think of a question soon

[.LA.]

Great job, air, K-Mart was great in the 'Q and A'. Shoulda had him stutter a little, though.