NBA:  Nuggets & the Playoffs // MLB:  Early Expectations; Colorado Rockies.   

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NBA:    IT’s now about the numbers and positioning, about where a team fits along a vertical line reflecting wins and losses across a season about to end, and not so much about how far the Denver Nuggets have come but how they might compare with teams that they may face during a first round of the year’s playoffs, for instance, having to compete against the Oklahoma City Thunder now ahead of the Nuggets by 10 games (42 wins, the Nuggets are 32 wins and 26 losses), holding first place of the Western Conference’s Northwest Division (Denver’s in second place, but only by one game); or, the San Antonio Spurs, or the L.A. Lakers, teams that the Nuggets rarely beat by more than a few points.

In Wednesday’s bout with the WC-NW’s last place team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Nuggets went from a 24-point lead to finish 117-113, which pointed to an issue that could cause a playoff-designated Nuggets to go by the wayside during a first playoff-round: a late-in-the-game U-turn within a defense that weakens and gets sloppy enough for even a mediocre team to start scoring huge against the Nuggets. Yes, in that game, Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried and Aaron Afllalo combined for 79 points, and the Nuggets have achieved 37 three-pointers in its last four competitions---the shooting power and accuracy is alive and well among the Nuggets starters and reserve, but the Nuggets defense has been inconsistent throughout the 66-game season.

A downside is this: of the Nuggets eight remaining games, six are challenges by WC teams at par with, or ahead of, the Nuggets in the race for a playoff slot: today vs. the Lakers, followed by games against Houston (2x), the L.A. Clippers, the Phoenix Suns, the Thunder. Unless the Nuggets can improve their defense tactics to where the team can suppress opposing shooters enough to maintain a lead during each of the six upcoming WC games, even if it’s only of a few points up, well, it can be grueling and sad season finish, with playoff impossibility full on the horizon.

If the Nuggets defense that is needed fails to materialize, then the Denver team will need to produce an offense that scores as many points as it had during Wednesday’s Minnesota game, meanwhile keeping fouls to a record minimum, otherwise, “goodbye playoffs.

MLB:     In popular author John Grisham’s new novel about baseball, a rookie finishes four for four in his first MLB game appearance, which happens almost “never,” no more than fulfillment of the expectations that experts and fans have for their preferred team’s first weeks of an MLB season. The 10 or more games played in these weeks usually surprise us, not with a lot of amazing feats or comical blunders, instead with a lot of soft opposites from what ballplayers were expected to do based on a previous season or their accomplishments, or lack thereof, during spring training, for example, the New York Yankees were expected to be ahead of the pack from the get-go and it hasn’t happened, and the Los Angeles Dodgers were to have a nearly numberless start and they took a series away from the San Diego Padres, one of the three games a shutout.

And the Colorado Rockies beat the San Francisco Giants, 17-8, unexpectedly on Wednesday, April 11, neutralizing the Giants CY Young award pitcher, Tim Lincecum, after suffering a 7-0 loss to the Giants on Monday, April 9. The Rockies lost to the Giants again on Thursday, 4-2. They are now sub-par, if you will, having lost four of six games.

But it was Wednesday night’s win vs. the Giants that seemed to address both the potential and stigmas of an MLB franchise that seems to show up in the first two weeks of April. We want to think that last year’s positive attributes are still around and that the baggage is gone, and then we see both and they are fully animated. Last year, the Rockies were able to pile on runs, they had one of the best records of total runs achieved, but they kept giving away runs, too, enough of the latter for the Rockies to end 2011 under .500.

What good are runs if your defense can’t produce “outs” quickly during consecutive innings? Having purchased 17 runs against any team is remarkable, especially vs. a pitcher like Lincecum, his reserve and the Giants defense, but giving up 19 runs in three games is something to worry about.

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