DENVER -- Final four week turned into a flop of finalists.
Meetings of last season's conference finalists got started Wednesday when Cleveland took a huge lead and clobbered defending East champion Orlando 102-93. An even bigger dismantling occurred Friday night at the Pepsi Center.
The way the Nuggets demolished the Lakers, you'd have thought they tried to smuggle coke into the building.
The Nuggets got some revenge against the defending West and NBA champions 105-79. It wasn't even that close.
"Hopefully, this is a big message, not just to the Lakers but to the whole NBA. We're a legit team,'' said Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, who scored a game-high 25 points and outscored Lakers star Kobe Bryant 18-0 in the second half (no, that's not a misprint).
DENVER -- Midway through Wednesday's game, Denver coach George Karl suddenly stopped writing "Rookie'' on his coach's board and instead wrote "Ty.''
Could it be that Ty Lawson, in his very first NBA game, dispelled the myth that Karl doesn't have an appreciation for rookies?
"Things might be changing,'' Lawson said. "Every day up until (Wednesday) he wrote 'Rookie.' But he changed it to 'Ty.' I don't know what that means.''
What it means is Karl has got himself one heck of a rookie. Lawson scored 17 points and handed out six assists to help the Nuggets to a 114-105 opening-night win over Utah at the Pepsi Center.
Denver's previous coach wasn't bashful about title talk.
"To win a championship, you've got to talk championship,'' Michael Cooper said on several occasions as members of the media attempted to keep from snickering.
Let's just say Cooper, who compiled a 4-10 interim coaching stint before being silenced in January 2005, didn't do much more than talk championship.
Now, the guy who replaced Cooper is doing a lot of such spouting. But nobody is snickering.
"I believe this team can win a championship,'' said George Karl, who has led the Nuggets to five straight playoff berths since taking over.
DENVER -- For the first week, J.R. Smith just stared at the walls. Finally, he got a radio and listened to sports talk shows.
Eventually, though, there was so little to do in jail that Smith found himself perusing a chemistry book that was sitting around. Not that Smith claims he now knows his periodic table of elements.
The Denver Nuggets guard spent 23 days in jail in July after pleading guilty to reckless driving for a June 2007 accident that killed his passenger and good friend.
"Oh, by far," Smith said Friday when asked if it was the most humbling experience of his life. "I was in protective custody. They wouldn't let me interact with anybody. I was on 23-hour lockdown. I was pretty much in there by myself. The whole time you definitely see the difference between freedom and not being free."
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
If Ron Artest is a wild card when it comes to chemistry, and Allen Iverson is a tough guy to play alongside of, then who are the NBA's best teammates? Let's talk glue guys this a.m.
Here's one guy's Top 5 Teammates list -- players you want to play with.
After establishing himself as a potential Hall of Fame guard, with offensive skills never before seen in the league and establishing himself as a perennial winner who's only flaw was that he was surrounded by insufficient backup, the last year has done a lot to tarnish that reputation. After being traded to Detroit he was an outright disaster, unable to find his place in the offense or in the locker room. Meanwhile the guard he was traded for, Chauncey Billups, lead his team to the Conference Finals.
As a free agent this summer, Iverson needs to go somewhere quietly and rebuild his image, much the same way that his old coach Larry Brown has in Charlotte. But it might be another small market team Iverson ends up with. One that now features an... eclectic makeup of personalities.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony had an amazing season, leading the Denver Nuggets to the Western Conference finals, where they fell to the Lakers in six games. We caught up with 'Melo during the Nuggets-Lakers series, and he offered some insight about Kobe Bryant that the Magic might want to pay attention to as they prepare for Thursday night's first game of the NBA Finals. He also discusses movie stars he's met at the games, and what he thinks of boxing stars Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
There have been many debates over the MVP award over the last few years -- from Kobe v. LeBron to the merits of Steve Nash's back-to-back awards. You can debate all you want about who should have won each year's MVP, but it is clear that a particular season's MVP is no longer likely to have playoff success.
With LeBron James' elimination at the hands of the Orlando Magic, this season marks the eighth time this decade that the MVP hasn't won the championship, and the sixth time that the MVP hasn't even made it to the NBA Finals. Compare those numbers to the 1990s, when the winner of the MVP award made the NBA Finals seven times and the won the championship five times.
The Nuggets far exceeded expectations this season. The team ranked not as the squad most likely to scare the snot out of the Lakers, but as the old guard least likely to return to the postseason in the New World.
Chauncey Billups, Nene, Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony, George Karl, Chris Andersen, J.R. Smith and Joe Dumars changed that. The opening week trade for Mr. Big Shot completely transformed the spirit of the team, as did Karl's summer decision to focus on defense, even at the expense of his stars' allegiance. Everything else went right, for the most part.
But the franchise sit has payroll cuts to consummate, and little in the way of burgeoning youth to fill the holes. By trading the promise of cap space (in the convenient form of Allen Iverson) for Billups, the Nuggets trade a minor rebuild for contention. It worked -- the Nuggets were legit contenders. But what now? How can they possibly get better?
All year long, the Lakers had a singular, simple goal: to return to the NBA Finals, and avenge last year's loss in the championship round.
They achieved the first part of that goal on Friday by closing out the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, 119-92.
In a series where the referees were the topic of discussion over the past two games, the Lakers made sure that this one wouldn't be close enough for the officials -- or the Nuggets -- to have any say at all regarding the outcome of this game.
DENVER -- Final four week turned into a flop of finalists.
DENVER -- Midway through Wednesday's game, Denver coach George Karl suddenly stopped writing "Rookie'' on his coach's board and instead wrote "Ty.''
FanHouse 
DENVER -- For the first week, 
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
Allen Iverson
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos. 
There have been many debates over the MVP award over the last few years -- from Kobe v. LeBron to the merits of 
The Nuggets far exceeded expectations this season. The team ranked not as the squad most likely to scare the snot out of the Lakers, but as the old guard least likely to return to the postseason in the New World.
All year long, the 
