NBA: DENVER NUGGETS @ MID-SEASON // MLB: COLORADO ROCKIES, LINING UP (Reprinted from Tuesday’s Posting) 

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            “SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

NBA:    STRETCHING a double digit lead isn’t commonplace in the NBA, and so it hasn’t been a frequent occurrence for the Denver Nuggets during the 2011/2012 66-game season. Ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers last night at the half by 18 points, the Nuggets saw its lead diminish considerably, coming out on top anyway as the game ended, 104-95, a victory that at 19 wins and 17 losses put the Nuggets back into second place of the Northwest Division of the NBA’s Western Conference, nine games behind first place team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Yet consistency lies elsewhere for the Denver franchise, visible within performance data that has accumulated steadily into mid-season across 36 games. For example, the Nuggets have a points-per-game average at around 103, higher than that achieved by opposing conference teams. The Nuggets are also ahead of its competition in number of assists, rebounds and steals, and while below other NBA teams with regard to field goals, three-pointers and free throws, the difference isn’t by much.

Too, seven Nuggets players have double-digit ppg averages, Danilo Gallinari the highest with 17 ppg, Al Harrington next at 14. Harrington also has the most points accumulated by a Nuggets player since day one of the season, .502 as of Tuesday, and his shooting percentage is the team’s highest, .455 for more than 35 games played. Also as of Tuesday, Harrington has had the highest number of field goals and three-pointers among the Nuggets players, 191 and 49 respectively.

When describing the Nuggets overall consistency, we could say that the team has been above .500 since December, though not by much, it now being .528, which places the Nuggets as eighth best within the Western Conference and 14^th among the NBA’s 30 teams.

And from looking elsewhere at how bad matters could be, the Nuggets appear as if at basketball’s commanding heights, e.g., Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Bobcats are feeding at the bottom---the Bobcats are in last place of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference, and last within the entire NBA, all from a 4-29 record, thus a .121 average. Directly above the Bobcats are the 7-28 Washington Wizards, at .200.

Yet proportionality, or the lack of it, can be the reckoning. Were the Nuggets in the Western Conference's Southeast Division, they’d be in last place, behind fourth position team, the Memphis Grizzlies, now 20-15, at .571.

On the bright side, the Nuggets can climb upward in division and conference rankings from its mix of star players and emphasis on teamwork. As an example, Ty Lawson may have proved last night that repairing from an injury can bring more agility and strength from where damage had occurred. Lawson’s a 5-11 player, shooting accurately above towering players like the Trail Blazer’s nearly 7-foot forward, LaMarcus Aldridge. Lawson managed this mostly in the fourth Q vs. Portland, scoring 11 of his 18 points of the game, and he had nine assists (this after suffering an ankle injury). Lawson was one of the first of the Nuggets starters to reach double digit ppg this year.

Too, high scorers Gallinari and Nene will soon be returning to the Nuggets from injuries, along with Lawson likely to push the Nuggets further above .500, keeping that second place consistency going.

The next pivotal game for the Nuggets will be against the San Antonio Spurs, leading the Western Conference’s Southwest Division at 24-11, .686---Sunday, March 4, @ San Antonio.

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MLB:     “Who are these guys?” That has to be a common response to the 2012 Colorado Rockies 40-man roster. More than half of the ballplayers listed are “unrecognizable,” to Colorado fans, anyway, the rest being the infielders, outfielders and pitchers who were in multiple games during the 2011 MLB season. 

So, who’s returning? Among infielders, Todd Helton, Jason Giambi, Johnathan Herrera, Troy Tulowitzki and Eric Young, Jr. For the outfield, Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez. Among pitchers, Matt Belisle, Rafael Betancourt, Jhoulys Chacin, Juan Nicasio, Esmil Rogers, Alex White. Regarding a catcher, the three candidates for April’s lineup are new: Ramon Hernandez, Eliezer Alfonso, Jordan Pacheco and Wilin Rosario.

Spring training will, of course, determine who will constitute the starting line-up, and which hurlers will be mid-game relievers and closers. This means that a team with more than 25 new players could in April be mostly “the old Rockies,” a selection from the crew of years before, the new additions a catcher who can hit and field above the margin, likely Ramon Hernandez, obtained from the Cincinnati Reds, and at third base, Marco Scutaro, from the Boston Red Sox, and a third outfielder, Michael Cuddyer, from the Minnesota Twins.

New and promising for the Rockies pitching staff will be RHP Jeremy Guthrie, from the Baltimore Orioles, and RHP Guillermo Moscoso, from the Oakland A’s.

Of much value this year will be the Rockies pre-season schedule of games in March, when 11 of 31 challenges will be against teams within the division that the Colorado team hopes to be leading by late September, starting with a game versus the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 3. There will be two more contests vs. the Diamondbacks before April, and two each vs. the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. That’s roughly around 40 hours of playing time (equal to an average work week) for Rockies manager Jim Tracy to refine the existing roster and settle on an opening day lineup. Given how often most big league managers revise their line-ups during the regular season, maybe spring training isn’t long enough for any baseball team to ever be more than a work in progress.

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