NBA --- Denver Nuggets: Fast, Ultra-Smart; NBA, Current Standings // World Baseball Classic, Update.

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.  .  .   SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner.

NBA  (Denver Nuggets)  ---   THE CHEETAH is the planet’s fastest animal, 65 mph on a bad day, a Usain Bolt of the beast domain. Watching the 41-22 Denver Nuggets explode starting tip-off against an opposing team, you could easily think that, to a man, they’ve adopted a mantra connecting them to the cheetah, bringing amazing speed to the NBA game, but without loss of a brainy approach + the skills for defense and assault penetration, thus winning blocks and rebounds, steals, assists, multiple field goal attempts from any angle, dunks, free throws. These standard tactics are mentioned here to underscore that the Nuggets have become an “all-tool” team, starters and bench quickly knowing what to do from the take of a D-rebound until a ball is netted (None of those thousand-yard stares that may have belonged to a Nuggets starter at mid-court two seasons ago).  

So, today’s Nuggets don’t just outrun their opponents, they outsmart/outmaneuver them enough to have won, to date, all but three home games on their NBA 2012/13 schedule, and they’ve finally cut away from that number “six,” the amount of games that the 45-16 Oklahoma City Thunder stayed ahead of the Nuggets across many weeks until a few days ago, the Nuggets now at “five” and holding second place behind the Thunder, Western Conference-Northwest Division, while being eight games ahead of third place team, the Utah Jazz, surely a comfortable edge in this season’s final stretch.

Also of comfort, the Nuggets are fourth in the NBA-West and fifth in the full league, with a better win/loss record than two of the three NBA-East Division leading franchises.      

Presently, the Nuggets and the 40-19 Memphis Grizzlies are the only second place teams of six within the NBA to have won 40 or more 2012/13 games. Also, the Nuggets are leading all opponents in number of points accrued (6,227), and in team points-per-game average ( ppg. avg., 105.5), and in successful FG’s (2,388 pts/.475 %), achieved free throws (1,070 pts), offense and defense rebounds (795/1,867), assists (1,429), and in number of steals (530).

Add that the Nuggets usual starters have double-digit ppg averages. And, how about the victory streaks of six, seven and nine, and four 2X, never losing more than three sequentially?  

Too, the Nuggets keep defeating franchises that are ahead of them in the standings, for example, last night’s 107-92 pummeling of the 44-20 Los Angeles Clippers, and the Nuggets taking the Thunder down on March 1, 105-103. Of the six NBA division leading teams, it’s the Miami Heat and the New York Knicks that the Nuggets have yet to beat in the current year.

So, praising some of the Nuggets starters and bench who’ve contributed remarkably during recent wins is far from inappropriate, for instance, guard Ty Lawson is incredibly “on game” when combining assists, shooting percentages, rebounds, steals, and that ability to make that final game-winning shot, as happened with 0.2 seconds left versus the Thunder, March 1. Lawson’s 16.6 ppg average has resulted from 965 points accrued from 355 successful FG’s and 64 three-pointers. Lawson also leads his team in assists---411, and is second in steals, 90, behind guard/forward Andre Iguodala’s 92

High-end with Lawson is Nuggets forward, Danilo Gallinari, 913 points/16.9 ppg avg., the team’s highest three-pointer percentage, .373, and best free throw percentage, .809. As regards economy of force and FG percentage achieved during more than 50 games played and fewer minutes-per-game than given to other starters + bench, the Nuggets forward, Kenneth Faried, and center, JaVale McGee, and center, Kosta Koufas, have stayed in the better than .500 percentage range (that's a Wow!).

Not that the Nuggets can now coast easily into the NBA playoffs. Up ahead are five tough challenges---the 37-22 Knicks, March 13; Grizzlies, March 15; Thunder again, March 19; the  48-14 Spurs, March 27; the 35-26 Nets, March 29.

NBA, Status  ---    The New York Knicks could be the only NBA division leading team to bounce out of a numero uno slot before the NBA season playoffs begin. The five others have commanding enough leads, they are less likely to suffer shifts dropping them behind another franchise, for instance, the Thunder leads the Nuggets by five games, the Spurs by seven above the Grizzlies, the Clippers eight atop the 35-27 Golden State Warriors, and in the East, Miami is 11 up from the 34-26 Atlanta Hawks, the Indiana Pacers four above the 34-27 Chicago Bulls, while the East’s Atlantic Division Knicks are but two atop the 35-27 Brooklyn Nets.

Meanwhile, 14 NBA franchises are below .500, 11 of these beneath .400, the worst still being the 13-48/.213 Charlotte Bobcats and the 14-45/.274 Orlando Magic. Could be just coincidence and not a reflection of regional prowess, but these two bottom-of-the-pile teams reside within the East’s Southeast Division, led by a team that is also the East’s leading franchise, the 45-14 Miami Heat. Might this division be the least balanced among all others within the NBA, making it easier for the Heat to dominate re. wins over losses?

Which team is best among the worst? Surely it’s the 21-37/.362 Minnesota Timberwolves, last place, Western Conference-Northwest Division, 22 games behind first place, the Thunder.

Of some relief to a former championship team, the L.A. Lakers are now hanging at the margin, 31-31/.500.

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WBC   ---    Tonight, Team USA will begin what it hopes will be upward flight toward a 2013 World Baseball Classic crown, facing Team Mexico, which was routed recently by Team Italy, mostly from San Francisco Giants closer, Sergio Romo, dropping a 5-4 lead in the ninth.

Team USA manager, Joe Torre, is looking for an early lead against Team Mexico from starter and National League Cy Young + 20-games won hurler, R.A. Dickey, formerly of the New York Mets, now with the Toronto Blue Jays. Dickey’s recent comment is that he’ll seek to dominate versus Mexico with his personal oddity, the knuckleball, among what he hopes will be between 65-70 pitches in five, maybe six innings. Games indicating next round WBC leaders are this week’s Japan win vs. Taiwan, the Netherlands defeat of Cuba, the Dominican Republic’s victory vs. Venezuela, Joe Torre's boys of Spring possibly an addiiton here if Dickey can deliver as planned.

In 2006, Team USA lost to Team Mexico, in 2009 to Japan, in neither of these first two WBC series never getting past fourth place.

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