NBA: Knicks & Warriors; Full-Spectrum Wrap-up; Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets.

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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  ---      AGAINST the New York Knicks on Wednesday, February 28, Golden State Warriors guard, Stephen Curry, scored 54 points and yet his team lost to the New York franchise, 109-105. The Knicks/Warriors game ended with New York’s forward, Carmelo Anthony, having put up 35 points and guard, J.R. Smith, 26---make no mistake, this was professional basketball at a level that players and fans prefer, maneuvers taken to the max, especially offense rebounds and points therefrom.

Curry’s magical number surpassed the 52 points for a 2012/13 single game in a season held by Oklahoma City Thunder’s forward, Kevin Durant, listing Curry with similar achievements by greats Kobe Bryant (61 points), Michael Jordan (55 pts) and Lebron James (52). Curry’s performance vs. the Knicks included a three-point field goal percentage of 84.6, which placed him behind Denver Nuggets guard Ty Lawson’s NBA record, 90 percent (10 of 11 attempts netted).

Chiefly offsetting Curry’s career breakthrough, however, were the 28 rebounds achieved by Knicks center, Tyson Chandler, allowing for breaks and points, some of his own---16, plus New York forward/center Amere Stoudemire’s 14.

The wide spread of double-digit ppg became a major Knick’s win factor, fused with Chandler having taken 13 rebounds in the first quarter. Chandler has been averaging four offensive rebounds per game, holding the current season’s leading rebound per game record. Though 6-foot-9, it’s more than height---Chandler is way ahead of seven+-footers, it’s his fast thinking, evading of opponents, his positioning and skillful use of the body (think: Dwight Howard when Howard played for the Orlando Magic).

Throughout the Knicks/Warriors game, and hard not to notice, was Anthony, Smith, Felton, forward Kenyon Martin and center, Marcus Camby, having been Denver Nuggets starters during a few seasons back, learning from then and now Nuggets head coach, George Karl. An NBA analyst has labeled them, “the Karlists.”

Wrap  ---  Presently the 34-20 Knicks are leading the NBA Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division, but with the Brooklyn Nets at their throat, 34-24. The Western Conference Pacific Division’s 33-25 Warriors are holding at second place back of the 42-18 Los Angeles Clippers.

Except for the Nets trailing close behind the Knicks, the remaining second place teams within both conferences of the NBA have been falling behind while staying steady in their slots, remaining playoff possible, for instance, in addition to the Warriors being eight games behind the 42-18 Clippers, the 37-22 Denver Nuggets still haven’t climbed up from being six games behind the Western Conference Northwest Division’s leading franchise, the Thunder; and, the Western Conference’s Southwest Division’s 38-18 Memphis Grizzlies are five games behind first place, the San Antonio Spurs, while the Eastern Conference’s Southeast Division’s 33-23 Atlanta Hawks have fallen behind first place team, the Miami Heat, by eight games. The 33-25 Chicago Bulls are now three games back of first place team, the Indiana Pacers.

Of the NBA’s six division leading teams, four have won more than 40 games so far this season, led by the 45-14 Spurs, followed by the 42-15 Thunder (last year’s Western Conference championship team), the 42-18 Clippers and the 41-14 Heat. Twelve of the NBA’s 30 franchises are still below .500, worst being the 13-44/.228 Charlotte Bobcats.

Nuggets & Thunder       Now a division second place team with a 37-22 record that includes a nine-game winning streak and also three four-game winning streaks, the Denver Nuggets could be on another roll, having won three in a row since February 23. And, they can surely beat the leading NBA team, the 45-14 San Antonio Spurs, and also take down the first place team that it has been chasing within the NBA’s Western Conference Northwest Division, the 42-15 Oklahoma City Thunder. Proof of this is that while now behind the Thunder by six games, the Nuggets defeated the San Antonio Spurs on December 18, 2012, score 112-106, and they won vs. the Thunder, 121-118, January 20, 2013.

The Nuggets will face the Thunder tonight at Denver’s Pepsi Center (Friday, March 1, 2012), after whipping the Portland Trail Blazers, 111-109, on February 27. Denver is now five games ahead of Western Conference third place franchise, the 31-27 Utah Jazz. Crucial for the Nuggets this evening will be defense vs. the Thunder’s high scoring Thunder forward, Kevin Durant, and vs. guard, Russell Westbrook. Respectively, their points-per-game averages are 28 ppg and 23 ppg.

It’s likely that the Thunder will be emphasizing suppression vs. the Nuggets, doing all that’s possible to keep high scoring Nuggets guard Ty Lawson and guard/forward Andre Iguodala from being inside the key and at three-pointer FG range. Viewers can expect a few moments thinking that they’ve just seen some two-on-two and two-on-one during half-court scrambling at any American city's open schoolyard. Viewers can also expect distant shots taken just under the last second of a shot-clock round, in that swift and powerful defense tactics will be forcing the basketball back up court.

Could the speed, the hustle, employed by the Nuggets when they beat the L.A. Lakers 119-108 on Monday-last be among Denver’s possible "victory responses" to a hard-driving Thunder? This could depend greatly on number of minutes that the cagey and fast Westbrook is given afield and that are thwarted, and on the accrued number of assists laid out for Durant’s shooting that can be disrupted, and Durant’s number of failed assist attempts .  .  .  Of course, Nuggets fans will be screaming “Defense, Defense, Defense,” from first Q on.

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