NBA:  Leaping Ahead; Denver Nuggets //  NFL: Week 11, “Observations;” Broncos & Panthers.

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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” will continue to post its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

 

NBA:    FROM seeing how things turn out for as many as six NBA franchises in the early days of the league’s 80+ game season, it’s easy to decide that for most of them the few pre-season games aren’t enough “pump and preparation” for a rocketing regular start, for an early and then sustained commanding lead among other franchises.

And by the mid-season All Star break, and then in April as likely post-season teams start to challenge one another, it’s easy to think that for those few teams that started off badly and couldn’t catch up the long season wasn't enough preparation for anything above the .500 mark, an obvious example of this being the now 1 win-2 losses Charlotte Bobcats (4^th place, Eastern Confernce’s Southeast Division). The Bobcats have been a bottom-of-the-pile franchise for several seasons. Last season, the Bobcats lost 39 of 66 games. Not much better now are the 2-3 Cleveland Cavaliers (4^th place, EC’s Central Division), finishing last during the 2011/12 season, 29 games behind.

So, too, have the now 0-3 Washington Wizards been a bottom holding team, they’re in last place of the EC’s Southeast Division, and were next to last as the 2011/12 season closed, 20 wins, 46 losses, 25 games behind.

And, the current EC Central Division’s last place team, the 0-5 Detroit Pistons, ended up second from the bottom last season, 25-41, more than 20 games behind.  

Yet other teams match high expectations early on, like the current 4-1 Miami Heat (1^st place, EC’s Southeast Division), the 4-1 San Antonio Spurs (1^st place, Western Conference’s Southwest Division) and the 3-0 New York Knicks (1^st place, EC’s Atlantic Division), also the 3-2 Oklahoma City Thunder (2d place, the WC’s Northwest Division).

Then there’s the suddenly unexpected, for example, the Minnesota Timberwolves now leading the Western Conference’s Northwest Division, having finished the 2011/12 season in last  place, 26-40, 21 games behind. Too, there’s the NBA WC/Pacific Division’s last place 1-4 Los Angeles Lakers, having the third worst start of the current NBA season above the Wizards and the Pistons. Last season, the Lakers finished atop its division, 41-24. More than likely, L.A.’s Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol haven’t figured how to fuse their talents in ways that it took three seasons for the Miami Heat’s LeBron James, Dywane Wade and Chris Bosh to blend into, and two seasons for the New York Knicks Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire to partner up consistently..

Other surprises? Last year’s Golden State Warriors now leading the WC/PD, after finishing last season, 23-42, 18 games behind; and, the Milwaukee Bucks being ahead of the now 3-2 Chicago Bulls and atop the EC’s Central Division, last year 31-35 vs. Chicago’s 50-16 finish.

Of course, anything can happen after only a week or so of any NBA season, though usually the expected outperforms the unexpected.

Nuggets, of a different brand.   Of the 15 teams that as of today have won two of four or five games played (that’s one half of the NBA’s 30 teams), the Nuggets have one of the more grueling November and December schedules, including 23 games on the road, and 13 versus teams now holding first or second place within their divisions. Add, a Lakers team likely to force its way up from its poor start. The dark side of this is the threat of loss to teams such as the Heat, the Timberwolves, the Warriors and the Lakers, thus the Nuggets staying below .500, the bright side that a tough schedule early in a season makes for lessons learned and improvements in place before the All Star break. Also, the Nuggets have headed deeper into the road game storm from recent wins, last night’s victory against the Houston Rockets, 93-87, and Tuesday night’s win vs. the Detroit Pistons, 109-97 (Momentum matters, especially when entering a November game vs. the Heat, two days later vs. the Spurs.)

Whatever happens, Denver won’t be a version of the Bobcats or of the Pistons as the new season progresses. Though there isn’t a superstar to be found on the Denver roster, noteworthy is that you can’t find below-the-margin players on this team, either. The Nuggets reflect the unselfish, they represent teamwork being the main “stand apart” theme for winning, comprising highly skilled players, though none of the amazing caliber regarding the one or two skills that make for MVP status. If an experiment were to be contracted for pitting a team of superstars, e.g., the Heat, against a non-star team reflecting teamwork above all else, the Nuggets would be an outstanding choice for the latter.

The above-cited being so, a few years ago I asked Nuggets head coach, George Karl, what he believed was the Nuggets worst liability, his fast response, “Defense. We’ve got to improve the defense.” A weak defense is what teams comprising two or more superstars can exploit best, it’s how such franchises win games without a lot of grind and sweat, and it’s what the Nuggets still have to improve if they are to again make the playoffs (they’ve gotten there nine seasons straight).

NFL:  Week 11   ---   OF the eight NFL franchises leading their divisions within the two NFL conferences, one has remained unbeatable, the National Conference’s 8-0 Atlanta Falcons (NC South), and two are at 7-1, the American Conference’s Houston Texans (AC South), and the Chicago Bears (NC North). Only two of the remaining leading franchises have fewer than six wins, the 5-3 Denver Broncos (AFC West), and the 5-3 New England Patriots (AFC East). The remaining leading teams of six wins to date are the Baltimore Ravens, the San Francisco 49ers, and the New York Giants. Of course, these teams are in the running for post-season billets and a chance to get to the Super Bowl, but if their rates of advance, that is, their win-loss ratios, stay roughly the same as now, it’s likely that the AC's Texans or Ravens will be playing the Falcons or the Bears for the Super Bowl trophy. And, the next six or seven games that these teams will be playing could indicate which of the four could be left behind and be replaced by other franchises as the competing teams for conference supremacy and Super Bowl attendance, for instance, six of the Falcons eight games left to play will be against teams below .500, and so chances that the Falcons will stay unbeatable are quite good.

Consider that more than half of the Texans remaining games are also vs. teams below .500. And, neither the Falcons nor the Texans will be playing more than one other division leading franchise---there’s a Texans/Bears match this Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Ravens and the Bears will be facing more than two division-leading teams between now and the end of the regular season, and they’ll also face other teams that are above .600 by December 30, when the season ends.

So, transitioning toward hard fact is the guesswork about the Falcons and the Texans being NFL 2012 conference champions and Super Bowl contenders.

Broncos & Panthers---for this page’s take, scroll down to the column posted Tuesday, November 6.

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