NFL: WEEK 13 OUTLOOK; BRONCOS & CHIEFS, CHAPTER TWO // NBA: LEAGUE UPDATES; KNICKS & NUGGETS.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com. . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . . NFL: WEEK 13 OUTLOOK; BRONCOS & CHIEFS, CHAPTER 2 // NBA: LEAGUE UPDATES; KNICKS & NUGGETS. . . //. . . NFL---WEEK 13 kicked in on Thanksgiving Day and altered the NFL galaxy, but without extreme upheavals, no harsh storms, although the Green Bay Packers were close to the effects of thunder and lightning in a loss to the NC North’s first place and now 6-5 franchise, the Detroit Lions, score: 40-10 (Ugh!). The Packers dropped to 5-6 but are still at third position within the NC North, while the loss put the Lions at a single win above NC North’s second place team, the 6-5 Chicago Bears. Also, the NC East’s now 7-5 Dallas Cowboys maintained first place after defeating the AC West’s last place team and now 4-8 Oakland Raiders, 31-24. Today, the Cowboys have a single win ahead of NC East’s second place franchise, the 6-5 Philadelphia Eagles. Yet the only NC team with a commanding lead over a second place division team remains the 10-1 Seattle Seahawks, three wins above the 7-4 Arizona Cardinals. Leading the NC South still, and second best within the NC, that’s the 9-2 New Orleans Saints, which are a game up on second place team, the 8-3 Carolina Panthers. The Seahawks are still atop the NFL-entire, and the only NFL franchise with double digit wins. . . The American Conference franchises entering Week 13 as division leaders are the AC West’s 9-2 Denver Broncos and 9-2 Kansas City Chiefs, both of a commanding lead over AC West’s third position team, the 5-6 San Diego Chargers. . . The AC East is still led by the currently 8-3 New England Patriots, three wins ahead of second place team, the New York Jets; and, the NC North’s 7-4 Cincinnati Bengals are a single win over second place team, the 6-6 Baltimore Ravens, which defeated the now 5-7 Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday, 22-20, forcing the Steelers back into AC North’s third place slot. . . Week 13’s super thrillers will be Sunday’s AC West’s Broncos/Chiefs match-up and the AC South’s Colts/Titans match-up, and Monday night’s NC West’s Seahawks/NC South’s Saints game. The three contests will compete first and second place division franchises of nearly equal records and close parity regarding offense and defense skills. The outcomes could rearrange NFL-2013’s division leading standings dramatically, pushing second place franchises into number one slots, the current firsts to second. Two of these teams could join the Seahawks as double-digit winners for Week 14’s approach (Broncos or Chiefs, the Saints). . . Elsewhere in the NFL-entire, the NC West’s 7-4 San Francisco 49ers could reinforce their hold on second place behind the Seahawks by defeating the 5-6 St. Louis Rams on Sunday, a possible 49ers win by six or less (More so, if same day the current NC West’s third place 7-4 Cardinals lose to the NC East’s 6-5 Eagles, though expected to happen is a Cardinals slim win). But if the Eagles should win versus the Cardinals on Sunday, they will be tied with first place Dallas re. number of wins. And, should the 6-5 Chicago Bears take down the NC North’s 2-8 Minnesota Vikings on Sunday (Odds say the Bears will finish ahead by three, seven at the most), they will have the same number of wins as first place team, the Lions. If on Sunday the NC South’s Panthers defeat the NC South’s 3-8 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which is likely with as much as a 10 point lead, and the NC South’s now numero uno Saints lose to the Seahawks on Monday night (Either could win by three, maybe seven), the Panthers will be tied with the Saints at first position, 9-3 apiece. . . With regard to AC play, a Broncos loss to the Chiefs on Sunday will reverse the top AC West positions, placing the Chiefs over the Broncos as number one (this, too, by either having a three or seven point win) and Sunday’s likely Patriots win by 10 or more over the AC South’s last place 2-9 Houston Texans will increase their AC East number one lead, while if the second place 5-6 Jets lose to the NC East’s 5-6 Miami Dolphins on Sunday (Neither is favored by significant odds, expected is a tight game, a win by either with three up) the Dolphins will replace the Jets as the AC East’s second place franchise, three wins behind the first place Patriots. Inside the AC North, the 7-4 Bengals are favored for a win vs. the AC West’s 5-6 Chargers, which will keep the Bengals to their number one slot; and if the 7-4 Colts fall to the 5-6 Titans on Sunday the latter will be but one win behind the former and three wins ahead of third place team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, providing that the Jaguars win vs. the 4-7 Cleveland Browns same day, likely to happen by under seven points. . . The Colts/Titans game on Sunday will seem a mirror image of the Broncos/Chiefs contest, the outcome unpredictable, either team a winner probably by no more than the six or seven cited herein, with a Titan win delivering a reversal of first and second positions within the AC South. . . Most unique about Week 13 is that six last place + beneath .500 teams will be playing one another, e.g., the 2-9 Jaguars against the 4-7 Browns, the 3-8 Washington Redskins against the 4-7 N.Y. Giants, the 4-7 Buffalo Bills vs. the 2-9 Atlanta Falcons, neither of which has a proper chance of finishing NFL-2013 above the margin, that is, it’s unlikely that any of them will reach 8-8 as the season closes, they will finish as losing franchises. But these teams are close to parity with regard to power and skills---if you have watched NASCAR enough, you know that often the best competition within a race is at the back of the grid, where drivers compete not to win, place or show but to be just ahead of the last set of cars to finish. For sure, the Giants/Redskins match-up won’t be an afternoon of badminton, our take the winner by three. . . //. . . CHIEFS, BRONCOS---THE Denver Broncos haven’t lost to the Kansas City Chiefs this year, nor have they lost to any other AC West franchise during NFL-2013, which has contributed to the Broncos now being atop the AC West. Were it not for the Broncos loss to the AC East’s New England Patriots last week, we might think of the Broncos record versus AC West teams as surety that the Denver franchise will on Sunday again defeat the Chiefs. However, standing out among other problems within the Broncos loss to the Patriots were overarching Broncos happenings, (1) Unexpected diminishment of speed and accuracy of movement on the part of the Broncos QB Manning-led offense, with a slip-sliding of Manning’s throw talent, and (2) A Broncos defense that crumbled in the game’s second half, after having a superb first half. Only in two of the 11 season games that the Broncos have played this year have the Broncos defenders kept from giving up 20 or more points to opposing teams. To the Patriots last week, the Broncos defense gave up 34 points, against which the Manning-led offense failed to provide more than 31. This suggests that the Chiefs will embrace football’s Defense-101, they will focus primarily on the pass rush vs. QB Manning, on tight coverage of running backs Knowshon Moreno and Monte Ball and on a Chiefs secondary shielding against QB Manning’s preferred ball receivers Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Julius Thomas and Wes Welker. With regard to a Chiefs offense, we can expect to see emphasis on pass protection and on a rough balance among rushes and short passes pursued by Chiefs QB, Alex Smith. To the grace side for the Broncos, though, are lots of numbers. For instance, the least number of points given away to an opposing team by the Broncos defense this year has been 17---to the Chiefs, Week 11. Too, the Broncos have accumulated 36 receiver touchdowns and 10 rushing TD’s so far this season, while the Chief’s have 14 and nine respectively. Also, the Broncos have received for 3,732 yards this season, the Chiefs for 2,443; the Broncos 1,331 rushing yards, Chiefs 1329 (no suggestion of a setback here for the Broncos). And, that the Broncos have to date accrued 429 points Weeks 1 through 12, the Chiefs but 270, such favors the Broncos for a Sunday win---until we compare total number of points given away by the Broncos defense during Weeks 1 through 12, with those allowed by the Chiefs defense: Broncos 289, Chiefs 119. In only two of these Broncos games had the Broncos defense given up less than 20 points. In the Chiefs 11 games played to date, the Chiefs defense dropped less than 20 in nine of its 11 NFL-2013 games played. . . So, the math indicates parity, while last week’s Broncos loss to the Patriots does not. . . An argument can be made that the failure to win vs. the Patriots was due mostly to the Broncos losing to themselves, not so much to the opponent, and, yes, to cold temperatures and rough winds, to too much reliance on a rushing game, with WR’s unable to achieve proper timing and space for Manning’s throws, and pass and catch difficulty resulting from weather conditions. If the Broncos have recovered from the Patriots loss, we see a Broncos win from anywhere between three and 10 points. . . //. . . NBA---EIGHT of the 30 NBA-2013/14 franchises have reached double-digit wins, six from the West, only two from the East, yet best among the two from the East re. number of wins are the Eastern Conference’s Central Division’s 14-1 Indiana Pacers and the East’s Atlantic Division’s 12-3 Miami Heat. Next in line within the East are the Southeast Division’s second place 8-8 Atlanta Hawks. . . Best within the West are the Northwest Division’s 13-3 Portland Trail Blazers and the Southwest Division’s 13-2 San Antonio Spurs, while next in line are the Southwest Division’s 11-5 Houston Rockets and the Pacific Division’s 11-5 Los Angeles Clippers. . . Recently up from the clod, that is, up from .500, are the West’s Northwest 8-6 Denver Nuggets, the 8-7 Memphis Grizzlies. Also holding just above .500, are the Pacific Division’s 8-7 Phoenix Suns. . . Still occupying the basement are the WC Northwest’s 2-14 Utah Jazz, and the EC Central’s 2-12 Milwaukee Bucks. . . Of the five teams comprising the EC Atlantic, none, not even number one team, the Toronto Raptors, has more than six wins as of today, with fourth place team, the Brooklyn Nets, only two games out from first position, and last place N.Y. Knicks at 3-11, three games behind first place. . . KNICKS, NUGGETS---TOO much focus on the past can lean a team into defeat. Within the NBA, as in life, concentrating mostly on the present is a better way of winning. Denver fans may be conflicted and angry still with regard to former Nuggets star, Carmelo Anthony, leaving Denver two NBA seasons ago to play for the New York Knicks, but that’s not what Nuggets head coach Brian Shaw and Nuggets floor leader and guard, Ty Lawson, or other Nuggets starters, will be thinking about tonight when the Knicks and the Nuggets face off at Denver’s Pepsi Center. The Nuggets will be challenged by a Carmelo Anthony still capable of averaging 25.5 points per game, that which no Nuggets starter is anywhere near. Therefore, defending against the big shooter Anthony will be primary, and important, too, will be the fast speed of transition from offense to defense that the Nuggets now seem able to pull off without any degradation of positioning for the block, the rebounds set for a fast break, and if the continuous ball sharing, the assists, the variance among shots performed by the Nuggets in recent games prevails, it will then be a Nuggets win over a Knicks team that has lacked improvisation against franchises that can employ a balanced five-man + bench aspects strategy over the support for one or two super shooters. The Knicks have been relying on the conventional game, and so teams are beating them from the unconventional, from the surprise assault and the mostly mobile defense, it’s a standard approach losing to some new tactics, where the Nuggets are of concern to what can aptly be labeled, “Shawcraft” END/ml.

to all our readers HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

NFL: ANALYSIS, WEEK 12; A BRONCOS LOSS TO THE PATRIOTS // NBA: the STANDINGS; DENVER NUGGETS, RISING!

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . . NFL: ANALYSIS, WEEK 12; A BRONCOS LOSS TO THE PATRIOTS // NBA: the STANDINGS; NUGGETS, RISING! . . . NFL---NO-one saw it coming, the American Conference West’s currently 9-2 Kansas City Chiefs losing to the 5-6 AC West’s San Diego Chargers, 41-38, allowing the now 9-2 Denver Broncos to maintain first position within the division, though the Broncos lost on Sunday to the AC East’s first place New England Patriots, 34-31. Nor did anyone think that the National Conference West’s second place 7-4 Arizona Cardinals would defeat the AC South’s first place franchise, the 7-4 Indianapolis Colts, on Sunday, 40-11, or that the NC South’s now 3-8 Tampa Bay Buccaneers would take down the NC North’s first place team, the 6-5 Detroit Lions on the same day, 24-21, or that the NC West’s last place team, the now 5-6 St. Louis Rams, would dump the NC North’s second place team, the Chicago Bears, 42-21. So, Week 12 could be characterized as a week of expectation turnovers. However, except for the 6-5 Philadelphia Eagles slipping from first to second position within the NC East from being at Bye-week and Dallas moving up to first place from defeating the N.Y. Giants, 24-21, the seven other AC and NC divisions have remained where they were in the standings, the more commanding lead among these Brahmins still no greater than a three games-won edge, that held by the AC East’s Patriots over second place team, the 5-6 New York Jets, and the 10-1 Seattle Seahawks atop the 7-4 Cardinals. The 10-1 Seahawks are still the only NFL-2013 team to have accrued double-digit wins. So, which divisions, and which of the two conferences, appear to be best regarding number of wins? Within the AC, no division leading franchise has fewer than seven wins and more than four losses, while the NC has two division leading teams with but six wins apiece and two that have five losses. Inside the AC, only one franchise has no more than two wins to date, while within the NC there are two franchises with only two wins and a franchise with only three wins. Yet the number of AC wins during Week 1 through 12 tops at 89, and the NC has a total of 88 wins. Implied then is parity among the two conferences. Best division within NFL-entire, that’s the NC West---28 wins, while the AC West is second within the league with 27 wins, another sign of parity. Lowest number of wins belongs to the AC South, NC East and NC North, each with a total of 19 for the season thus far, also no sign of a big divide. But looking at standings another way, of the 16 of 32 NFL franchises that are below .500, that is, beneath the line drawn between winning and losing teams, 11 reside within the AC, six inside the NC. . . // . . . BRONCOS, PATRIOTS---THE better value that the Denver Broncos could take away from its 38-34 loss in overtime to the New England Patriots on Sunday is having built a 17-0 lead inside the first quarter and going to 24-7 at the half. It was downhill afterward, the Broncos defense unable to stop a QB Tom Brady-led Patriots offense from scoring 21 points in the third Q and 10 in the fourth. A QB Peyton Manning-led drive put another TD on the board in the fourth Q, forcing the game into OT, during which the Patriots offense reached close enough for a field goal that gave them the OT win. This was indeed a turnabout from a game expected to be the proverbial nip-and-tuck battle from start to finish, though it kind of ended that way. In that first Q, the Patriots offense was as if they’d had a late lunch of too much pasta, while the Broncos defense was savvy, fast, a moving wall everywhere afield. In the first half, the Broncos offense kept to critical paths, with several lines forward found open for a rushing strategy that the Patriots hadn’t expected. But by the third Q, the Patriots head coach and QB had figured out what the Broncos were up to and had the advantage of strong winds interfering with the passing game that Manning would have preferred to switch to and now couldn’t rely on wind factors for the long throw, surely among reasons why the Broncos offense could not pull off what it had been able to do in Weeks 1 though 11, offset the points lost to an opposing team from weaknesses within the Broncos defense, flaws surely evident in the second half versus the Patriots, e.g., the Denver pass rush unit being unable to adjust to Patriots QB Brady gaining leg and receiver-recognition speed starting with the third Q; nor were Broncos defenders able to interfere enough with the sharp cuts taken by Patriots receivers for QB Brady’s short passes . . . Doubly sad for any team is that its outstanding game stats can seem meaningless when a loss occurs---by the last seconds of OT, the Broncos had managed to have more ball possession time than the Patriots had, more first downs, many more rushing yards, a greater average gain in yards per rush than achieved by the Patriots, and in the first half had converted fumbles into points. And though QB Brady completed more passes for more yards than QB Manning, the latter QB completed nearly 50 percent of attempted throws, 19 of 36, this under extreme wind conditions. Noteworthy, of course, was Broncos RB Knowshon Moreno accruing 224 yards from 37 attempts. That the Broncos rushed for 280 yards and the Patriots for but 116 speaks well for the Broncos. That the Patriots passed for 344 yards and the Broncos 150 when more than 300 has been a Broncos norm, such takes some glow away from the QB Manning-led offense . . . //. . . NBA: EXCEPT for the now 7-6 and above .500 Denver Nuggets moving to third place within the Western Conference’s Northwest Division, plus the 10-5 Houston Rockets going to second within the WC Southwest, also the 8-6 Golden State Warriors dropping from first to second inside the WC Pacific, and the EC Atlantic’s 3-10 Brooklyn Nets easing upward from last to fourth, “a status quo has prevailed within NBA-2013/14,” in that five of the six division leading NBA teams of last week are holding there, and some have increased their lead considerably, for example, the EC Central’s number one team, the now 13-1 Indiana Pacers, are now seven wins ahead of second place team, the 6-7 Chicago Bulls, and the WC Northwest’s 13-2 Portland Trail Blazers are four wins up over second place team, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Yet 13 NBA teams are still below .500, 12 of them within the EC, worst league-wide being the WC Northwest’s 2-14/.125 Utah Jazz. . . //. . . DENVER NUGGETS---AFTER defeating the WC Southwest’s third place 9-6 Dallas Mavericks in two consecutive matches, the WC Northwest’s now 7-6 Denver Nuggets have lifted above .500 and moved to third position, five games behind WC Northwest’s first place team, the Portland Trail Blazers. When a team gets it that in offense it’s good, maybe very good, certainly more effective than several other teams but not in enough ways to be lax a bit in defense, it begins to take defense as seriously as it covets the assault for shots taken; the team stops relying on the offense more than defense to bring in the W. This may or not be what is beginning to define the Denver Nuggets this NBA season, but what’s been visible in recent games is a better Nuggets defense, a stretching of the envelope vertically as well as horizontally and with more speed of transition into it from the offense whether or not a shot has netted points, this without a decrease in offense capacity. In fact, the Nuggets offense has had a positive unexpected twist, that of players new to the Nuggets shining when usually more time is needed for new team adjustments, for instance, Jordan Hamilton netting for points turning a game around in the team’s favor, and, like last night vs. the Mavericks, J.J. Hicks having a 22 ppg, completing eight of 11 attempts, and this in an away from home game, both these players reminiscent of guard Ty Lawson’s first year with the Nuggets, with Lawson now showing some better performances. Last night, Lawson accrued 11 assists and scored 19 points. What’s the big statement now for the Nuggets? A familiar cry throughout much of the NBA---“Consistency, consistency, consistency, on the road as well as at home.” On Friday, the Nuggets will face the 3-10/.231 New York Knicks, forward Carmelo Anthony aboard, this team that he fled to from Denver now at last place, EC Atlantic. END/ml

NFL: WEEK 12---OUTLOOK; BRONCOS, PATRIOTS, MANNING & BRADY // NBA: GOOD STARTS, BAD STARTS; NUGGETS DEFEAT OF THE BULLS.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // . . . NFL: WEEK 12---OUTLOOK; BRONCOS, PATRIOTS, MANNING & BRADY // NBA: GOOD STARTS, BAD STARTS; NUGGETS DEFEAT OF THE BULLS . . . // . . . NFL---AN “inner circle” of Brahmins is entering Week 12, those NFL-2013 franchises that got there from many more wins than losses since the NFL season began on September 5. Each of these teams has the glow of playoff candidacy. Ahead of this pack are the 10-1 National Conference West’s Seattle Seahawks, close to their heels the American Conference West’s 9-1 Denver Broncos and 9-1 Kansas City Chiefs, both tied at first place re. number of wins/losses. Then comes the NC South’s 9-2 New Orleans Saints, followed by the AC East’s 7-2 New England Patriots, AC South’s 7-3 Indianapolis Colts and the AC North’s 7-4 Cincinnati Bengals. These six teams + 1 are also division leading franchises. The remaining division leaders, the NC East’s 6-5 Philadelphia Eagles and the NC North’s 6-4 Detroit Lions, they are “outer circle” in that they can easily lose their number one slots to teams they are now tied with or that are close behind them, to wit: the NC East’s 5-5 Dallas Cowboys and the NC North’s 6-4 Chicago Bears. So, how will these teams fare during Week 12? Three of them can lay back, that is, they are in Bye Week, the Seahawks, Bengals and the Eagles, while the likelihood of two others of the “inner circle” winning again has the positive touch, i.e., the Chiefs will probably defeat the 4-6 San Diego Chargers, and the Colts the NC West’s 6-4 Arizona Cardinals. Note that on Thursday, the New Orleans Saints added a win from the now 2-9 Atlanta Falcons . . . BRONCOS, PATRIOTS---THE closest to Week 12 uncertainty is Sunday’s Broncos/Patriots match-up. If the 9-1 Broncos lose to the 7-2 Patriots and the 9-1 Chiefs beat the 4-6 Chargers, then the Broncos will slip back to AC West’s second position. If the Patriots lose, and the AC East’s now 5-5 New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, and the NC East’s currently 5-5 Miami Dolphins beat the NC South’s Carolina Panthers, the Patriots will then see their division lead shrink to one game up. Presently, stats put the two teams in a game that will be absent of blowout figures during any of the four quarters; for example, since Week 1 the Broncos have accumulated 371 points for nine games played consecutively against teams roughly equivalent to those that the Patriots have faced (excluding Week 11’s 27 points taken by the Broncos from the Chiefs), while the Patriots totaled 234 from its nine games. This is a large margin that would favor the Broncos for a Week 12 win were it not that the Denver defense has given away 255 points Weeks 1 through 11, the Patriots dropping much fewer than that in all of its games to date, 174. That the Broncos defense has allowed 20 or more points in eight of the nine games, and more than 30 in two of them (Worst being 48 points to the NC East’s 5-5 Dallas Cowboys), such implies rough going for Denver on Sunday, in that the Broncos defense will be up against a most credible offense, but not a PERFECTO,“ for the Patriots QB Tom Brady machine hasn’t been what it once was during the current season. Pass rush enhancement on the part of the Broncos pass rush unit could hold this offense back, as could speedier and more savvy performances by the Broncos CB’s. Yes, the Broncos QB Peyton Manning offense could be the difference for Denver, offsetting points lost by the Broncos defense, but only if the Manning machine clicks and there’s that Manning-WR and RB connectivity that enabled the many first downs and crushes from the end zone within games this year versus the Ravens, Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and the Redskins, all Broncos wins of 40 or more points accrued. Note that the Broncos receivers have been credited this year with 34 touchdowns, the Patriots receivers with but 14 TD’s; and, the Broncos rushing has accrued 13 TD’s, the Patriots rushers, 11. Were Broncos RB Knowshon Moreno available for each of the nine Broncos games cited herein, the Broncos rush-TD data would probably be much higher---Moreno has been credited with eight of the 13 Broncos rush-TD’s. Note, too, that the receiver TD’s were largely the result of QB Manning’s 69.9 percentage pass completion rate. Patriots QB Brady’s pass completion rate lists much lower than Manning’s this season---58.7. Our take for Sunday, Broncos by seven, maybe 10. . . // . . . NBA---First to reach double digit wins? The Eastern Conference Central’s 10-1 Indiana Pacers, the Western Conference Southwest’s 10-1 San Antonio Spurs and the WC Northwest’s 10-2 Portland Trail Blazers. Close behind? That’s the EC Southeast’s 9-3 Miami Heat, WC Northwest’s 8-3 Oklahoma City Thunder, WC Southwest’s 8-4 Dallas Mavericks, WC Pacific’s 8-4 Golden State Warriors, and the WC Pacific’s 8-5 Los Angeles Clippers. Still, 15 of the 30 NBA teams are under .500, but rising toward and close to .500 are the 5-6/.455 Denver Nuggets after beating the 6-4 Chicago Bulls last night, 97-87, and the WC Pacific’s 5-6 Phoenix Suns. An irony and a surprise here is that the 5-7/.417 Toronto Raptors are leading the EC’s Atlantic Division. Far back of the grid, that’s the 1-12 Utah Jazz, and the 2-8 Milwaukee Bucks. Off to poor starts within the EC relative to last year’s stats and this year’s expectations, are the EC Atlantic’s 4-9 Boston Celtics, and the EC Atlantic’s 3-8 New York Knicks and 3-8 Brooklyn Nets, while inside the WC that distinction appears to belong to the WC Pacific’s 5-7 L.A. Lakers. . . NUGGETS, BULLS. That guard Ty Lawson can re-set from scoring points out of a fast break himself, to being a playmaker for others to shoot as well as he, this is crucial for any team betting on offense speed and strategic evasions for a select player to have the surer shot, plus fast transition to a defense that can diminish the value of an opposing team’s height, wingspan and talent for minimum passing + critical path drives for the corkscrew layup or dunk, which sums up generally that which a good basketball team always pulls off. That the Nuggets proved capable of this last night versus a Chicago Bulls team reinforced by last year’s MVP Derrick Rose getting his mojo back and scoring 19 points, it suggests that the Nuggets will soon be hurdling the .500 mark, heading for another 50+ wins end-of-season finish and playoff entry. Seen explicitly was a Nuggets team relying more on the head coach Brian Shaw factor, that is, more on rehearsed plays, plan B efforts, ball sharing, a capable bench for employment of the same tactics (Second highest in points earned so far in NBA-2013/14), and speed-enhanced/power defense, than on the field improvisations of past seasons. END/ml

NFL: WEEK 11, ANALYSIS & OUTLOOK; BRONCOS TOPPLE THE CHIEFS // NBA, UNBOUND.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // . . . NFL: WEEK 11, ANALYSIS & OUTLOOK; BRONCOS TOPPLE THE CHIEFS // NBA, UNBOUND . . . // NFL---A FINAL five weeks of NFL play will reveal teams for the division and conference playoffs leading to Super Bowl XLVIII. Officially, that is, in that Week 11 of NFL-2013 has probably lifted the curtain fully on likely end-of-season winning franchises, led now by the National Conference West’s 10-1 Seattle Seahawks, first to achieve double-digit victories during 2013, after defeating the NC North’s 2-8 Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, 41-20. Number two within the NFL today, and first within the American Conference West and second inside NFL-entire, that’s the now 9-1 Denver Broncos, Sunday’s winner versus the AC West’s now 9-1 Kansas City Chiefs. No longer an undefeated franchise, the Chiefs are second to the Broncos within the AC West from insufficient points, and second inside the AC-entire while third within the full NFL. Holding at fourth within the NFL’s two conferences, and number one inside the NC and NC South, that’s the 8-2 New Orleans Saints after taking down NC West’s 6-4 San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, 23-20. As to the remaining division leading franchises, except for the AC North’s 7-4 Cincinnati Bengals lead over the 4-6 Pittsburgh Pirates, plus the AC South’s 7-3 Indianapolis Colts being atop the 4-6 Tennessee Titans, and the AC East’s 7-5 New England Patriots now above the 5-5 New York Jets, all other division leading franchises have but one win atop their respective second position teams. That leaves three of eight divisions that could see new leading teams after Week 12---the AC West, providing that next Sunday the Broncos lose to the Patriots and that the Chiefs defeat the 4-5 San Diego Chargers; the NC East, if the 6-5 at Bye Week Philadelphia Eagles see the Dallas Cowboys defeat the NC East’s 4-6 N.Y. Giants, causing a tie at first place; and, the NC North, if the 6-4 Detroit Lions lose to the NC South’s 2-8 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the 6-4 Chicago Bears defeat the NC West’s 4-6 St. Louis Rams. Note that during Week 11, these three divisions were the divisions that underwent leading team flip-flops from Week 10. Meanwhile, turnabouts seemed to dominate at the back of the grid during Week 11, with the 4-6 Chargers replacing the 4-6 Oakland Raiders at last place within the AC West, and inside the AC North the 4-6 Cleveland Browns dropping from second place to fourth + last (Yikes!) while from that low position the 4-6 Pittsburgh Steelers rose to second behind the Bengals; and, within the NC East the 3-7 Washington Redskins dropped to fourth + last, allowing the 4-6 Giants to ascend to third place, while within the NC South the Atlanta Falcons dropped to last, moving the 2-8 Buc’s to third. So, across the board the NFL isn’t entirely emblematic of a status quo, it can shift and turn where least expected, Week 11 proof of that . . . // BRONCOS, CHIEFS--- TODAY at Kansas City, Kansas, the Denver Broncos are the main prototype for Spoilers, a work of the Devil, the NFL team from Hell, from the Broncos having whipped the Chiefs on Sunday, 27-17. Meanwhile, at Denver, Colorado, the Broncos are Warrior-Kings, God-like, the NFL franchise from Heaven. At 9-1, and occupying the AC West’s number one position and the NFL-entire’s number two slot behind the NC West’s 10-1 Seattle Seahawks, the Broncos are Super Bowl-headed easily unless the task is made harder, or erased, from the team losing most of six contests between this Sunday and December 29 (Weeks 12 through 16), most unlikely though neither of the six games is a win that the Broncos could accrue while thinking about Spring and Summer vacations; for instance, it’s the New England Patriots during Week 12, then the Chiefs again for Week 13, followed by games against the Tennessee Titans, San Diego Chargers, Houston Texans, and the Oakland Raiders. Recall that earlier in the season, the Broncos defense gave up 20 and 21 points respectively to the Chargers and the Raiders. Of course, the bouts versus the Patriots and the Chiefs will be the more crucial toward the Broncos maintaining division and conference supremacy, and Week 11’s Broncos vs. Chiefs game revealed some “tells” as to how this need can reach fulfillment. On a bright side for the Broncos, on Sunday its defense held the Chiefs to fewer than 20 points for the second time among 10 games played since NFL-2013 began, and the Broncos offense maintained a lead against the Chiefs within each quarter largely due to the improved “crashing through time and space” by the Broncos pass protection unit, which prevented the Chiefs pass rush from succeeding enough at disorienting the Broncos passing tactics that enabled drives for touchdowns achieved from rushes twice by RB Monte Ball and once by TE Julius Thomas. Of a remarkable contribution here were the Broncos WR’s Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Wes Welker and TE Thomas receiving for more than 300 yards collectively, much of this becoming the first down purchases that resulted in 30 minutes of ball possession and end zone occupation for the Broncos TD’s and field goals, one of the latter a 54 yard FG (kicker, Matt Patter). An argument can be made that because the Chiefs defense is probably the best in the NFL today, the Broncos offense against it on Sunday was among the better Broncos offense performances of the year, and this happened with Broncos QB Peyton Manning slowed some by harmed ankles. Manning once again threw for more than 300 yards, and he completed 24 of 40 passes. Against this, the Chiefs QB, Alex Smith, threw for almost 100 fewer yards than Manning had hurled, implying a weaker offense than that of the Broncos, further implying that the improved Broncos defense can keep the Chiefs offense “down and out” when the two teams meet again, December 1. Yes, the Broncos defense could be as tough and suppressing during Week 12 vs. the Patriots, as against the Chiefs offense on Sunday, but only if the Broncos pass rush can disrupt Patriots QB Tom Brady enough times and keep the football out of the hands of Brady’s select receivers/rushers more often than not, sure to be a harder task than interfering with the Chiefs offense. . . More about Broncos/Patriots comparisons, and Week 12 picks, within this Friday’s posting . . . //. . . NBA---RATHER quickly in this season, the NBA teams expected to be hot and leading their respective divisions have begun to be just that. The San Antonio Spurs are now atop the Western Conference West’s Southwest Division with nine wins over just one loss, and the Golden State Warriors are leading the WC Pacific, 8-2. The Miami Heat has moved atop the Eastern Conference Southeast at 7-3, and the Indiana Pacers are number one at EC Central, at 9-1. Not that surprises never occur when 10 or more of 82 season-games have gone by, to wit: season 2012/13’s 12tth Western Conference ranking Portland Trail Blazers are now leading the WC’s Northwest Division, at 9-2, and 2012/13’s ninth Eastern Conference ranking Philadelphia 76ers are number one, EC Atlantic, though at 5-7. Of all the leading NBA teams, however, only one has a stretch lead, the EC Central’s Pacers with three wins above the 6-2 Chicago Bulls. Except for the Trail Blazer’s two-game lead over the WC Northwest’s 7-3 Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Spurs two games above the WC Southwest’s 7-4 Houston Rockets, all other NBA division leading franchises are ahead by just one game, the Warriors being above the WC Pacific’s 7-3 Los Angeles Clippers, the EC Atlantic’s 76ers above the 4-7 Toronto Raptors, the EC Southeast’s Miami Heat over the 6-4 Atlanta Hawks. Surprisingly of poor starts (Yes, NBA 2013/14 is still in gestation-mode, with the possibility that upswings will occur rapidly and soon),are the WC Northwest’s Denver Nuggets being 4-6 and at fourth position, the WC Southwest’s Memphis Grizzlies being at 5-5 and at fourth place, plus the WC Pacific’s L.A. Lakers being at 5-7 and at fourth position, also the NC Atlantic’s Boston Celtics at 4-7 and holding at third, with the New York Knicks behind the Celtics at 3-6 and the 3-7 Brooklyn Nets back of the Knicks and at last place. To date, no NBA team is without a win, worst case being the WC Northwest’s 1-11 Utah Jazz. END/ml

NFL: WEEK 11, TURNING POINTS; BRONCOS TO FACE CHIEFS // NBA: A VIEW X 3 (Pacers, Nuggets, Nets).

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // . . . NFL: WEEK 11, TURNING POINTS; BRONCOS TO FACE THE CHIEFS // NBA: A VIEW X 3 (Pacers, Nuggets, Nets). . . // . . . NFL---BEING the final set of games before a last lap of NFL-2013 commences (last five challenges of the year, Weeks 12 through 16), Week 11 is metaphorically do-or-die for those franchises positioned today to compete for post-season competition, therefore a chance to lead a conference and get to the Super Bowl, and those franchises that are eager to finish the season at .500 or higher, thus as a winning enterprise. Of course, the former includes the current NFL conference-division leading teams and some close runner-ups, most of these teams arguably playoff-slotted as of now, among these, the American Conference West’s undefeated 9-0 Kansas City Chiefs and the 8-1 Denver Broncos, the AC East’s 7-2 New England Patriots, AC North’s 6-3 Cincinnati Bengals, AC South’s 6-2 Indianapolis Colts, and the National Conference West’s 8-1 Seattle Seahawks, NC South’s 6-2 New Orleans Saints, possibly the NC East’s 5-4 Dallas Cowboys and the NC South’s 5-4 Green Bay Packers, maybe the NC North’s 5-3 Detroit Lions and NC South’s 5-3 Carolina Panthers. That’s 10 franchises for the weeks of play after Week 11, from which teams will select out as occupants for the Super Bowl raceways. Which of these 10 will be lining up as potential post-season candidates for a last run of games starting Week 12? There are three ways to look at this question: FIRST is to know that we can’t really answer the question for sure, because no-one really knows what the football gods will be up to this Sunday and Monday night or in the weeks to follow; SECOND, win/loss records do point to some degrees of likelihood that things can turn out a particular way; THIRD, the competition that the 10 teams will be facing during Week 11, and then during those last pivotal games, such speaks to the difficulties that will be encountered and that could freeze into walls going up, behind the walls the playoff candidates that will be gone prior to the regular season’s last minutes. For example, the Chiefs and the Broncos will be facing off on Sunday, then again on December 1 (Week 13), the outcome affecting both their conference and division leading positions significantly. Too, Monday night’s Patriots/Panthers game will probably be a Patriots win by no fewer than six points, but facing the Broncos during Week 12 could set the Patriots back. Still, the Patriots games after Week 12 will be against teams that they could crush easily, and so the Patriots finishing the season atop the AC East is likely. This condition is similar for the AC North’s Cincinnati Bengals, in that they have only one truly rough hurdle across the weeks ahead, versus the Colts during Week 14. And, except for this match-up with the Bengals, the Colts will be facing only teams that are at or below .500 for the remainder of the season, implying that its division leadership will maintain. The NC West’s Seahawks, this team has enough of a lead to remain division leader and numero uno within the NC-entire but the team could be slowed by a Week 13 match vs. the Saints. As for the Seahawks' Week 11 game vs. the NC North’s 2-7 Minnesota Vikings, the data suggests a big win for the Seahawks, it could be by as much as 24 over six. As for the Saints, it may be rough-going during Sunday’s face-off with the NC West’s second place team, the 6-2 San Francisco 49ers, then the Saints will face the Seahawks during Week 13 and the Panthers twice during Weeks 14 and Week 15. As to the closest match-ups starting Week 11, they could involve the NC East’s Cowboys, the NC North’s Packers and the Lions, in that the majority of their challenges from Week 11 on will be against teams of comparable win/loss records, e.g., in Bye this week but next the Cowboys will face the New York Giants, a game that could go either way. Week 11 will pit the N.Y. Giants against the Packers, also a game for which a winner is quite unpredictable. Moreover, Week 11 has the Lions up against the AC North’s 2-6 Pittsburgh Steelers, another game likely to be quite close, the outcome (our guess:) a tie until one or the other manages a final period field goal. So, from all of this a spotlight emerges on 18 of the NFL’s 32 franchises that are at or beneath .500, only three among these at .500 with a slightly better than marginal chance for rising upward and finishing the season as a winning football team, starting with Week 11---the AC West’s 4-4 San Diego Chargers, set for this Sunday vs. the AC East’s 4-4 Miami Dolphins (could go either way), and the NC West’s 4-4 Arizona Cardinals vs. the 1-8 Jacksonville Jaguars, our take the Cardinals, by nine. . . BRONCOS, CHIEFS---Since NFL-2013 began, the Broncos have put up 371 points against opposing franchises, the Chiefs a lot less, 215. Also, the highest number of victory points achieved in a single game this year by the Broncos has been 52, against the Philadelphia Eagles, and highest from the Chiefs has been 28, versus the Jacksonville Jaguars, which would imply Broncos supremacy were it not that the number of points allowed by the Broncos defense to go to other teams this year has been 238, while from the Chiefs it’s been much fewer, 111, with the most given away by the Broncos defense in a single game being 48 (to the Eagles), and most allowed by the Chiefs has been just 17, to the Titans, again vs. the Cleveland Browns. Too, in no game played this season by the Broncos has the Broncos defense allowed fewer than 20 points to an opposing team. In three of its nine games played to date, the Chiefs have given away two, seven and seven respectively. But a fact favoring the Broncos is that of the nine games played by the Chiefs, all but one has been against a team at or below .500, while more of the Broncos wins have been against franchises of higher standings. From these numbers and vaule cited, we can conclude that a Broncos defense unable to keep at or below a 20 point giveaway will jeopardize those points gained by the Broncos offense led by QB Peyton Manning (Note that the higher point wins accrued by the Broncos this year have occurred within Weeks 1 through 5, and that the Broncos last win signaled possibility of offense decline, 28 vs. the now 4-4 San Diego Chargers 20, Week 10). From film of both top and low Broncos offense points scored this year, the Chiefs will know that its defense will need super reliance on the pass rush and on tight coverage of Manning’s receiver options, which advises that the Broncos offense will need equally tight and intense pass protection for QB Manning and especially for Broncos receivers maintaining free space between themselves and the football. This being so, the Broncos have put up 42 touchdowns this season, 33 from pass plays, nine from rushes. The Chiefs have delivered 15, nine from pass plays, seven out of rushes---this data suggests a Broncos points-gained advantage if the Chiefs defense isn’t in high crush mode, and if, of course, the Broncos defense can keep the Chiefs offense from scoring more than 20 points. Given that the Broncos defense has been more within the steady improvement window over the team’s last four competitions than otherwise (though not by much), and meanwhile that the Chiefs offense has scored more than 20 points in three of its last four games, a reasonable take on the Week 11 Broncos/Chiefs outcome is a result similar to that of the Broncos vs. Chargers game of Week 10, Broncos with as many as 28 points, the Chiefs 21, possibly 24. But---whatever the outcome, the rivalry will continue at Kansas City, Week 13, December 1, the result one or the other team being first or second within the NFL-entire, dependent upon what happens between now and then for current NFL number two team, the 8-1/.889 Seattle Seahawks . . . // . . . NBA---Three NBA teams have moved quickly to reflect those that are way up in the standings, those that are somewhere in the middle, and those that are at the back end of the grid. Surely at the top right now are the undefeated Eastern Conference Central Division’s 8-0 Indiana Pacers and the Western Conference Southwest Division’s 8-1 San Antonio Spurs, unexpectedly ahead of the EC Southeast’s now 5-3 Miami Heat and the WC Northwest’s 5-2 Oklahoma City Thunder. Middle of the pack, but at the low end of that category, are the suddenly gaining WC Northwest’s 3-4 Denver Nuggets, and reflective of the better back-enders are the EC Atlantic’s 2-5 Brooklyn Nets. What makes these franchises stand out now are possibilities that they will remain reflective of the element that they are currently a part of, and also that they will be at the front end of their respective elements, possibilities only if the Pacers and Spurs keep playing as they have, and if the Nuggets and the Nets improve steadily without vast leaps forward in the standings. In other words, it’s likely that, barring injuries, the Pacers and Spurs will be winning enough games to stay atop their divisions and as leading conference teams, and that the Nuggets will probably finish the 2013/14 season with 45 or more games (second or third within its division), and that the Nets will top off as being best among the bottom 12 NBA-2013/14 franchises. Predicating this collection of ideas (risky in that we are still in the early days of the NBA season) is that the Pacers can count heavily on its leading shooter, Paul George (around 24 ppg), he ‘s been a paragon of consistency and also a play catalyst for other starters and the Indiana bench that scores fairly high collectively, George also now fourth best scorer in the NBA directly behind the Heat’s LeBron James; and, while the Spurs Tim Duncan and Tony Parker have lost some speed and accuracy (neither is among the top 35 NBA scorers of 2013/14, to date), this team is still best in the NBA at keeping opposing teams from scoring a basket per minute or so wihtin consecutive games. The Nuggets? Only one Nuggets starter is among the top 15 scorers, guard Ty Lawson (21 ppg), significant in that every team now above .500 and either in first or second place of a division is a team with a player among the top 15 shooters, all with 20 or more ppg, but of more reason to envision the Nuggets as a top middle-of-the-pack franchise is the return of forward Wilson Chandler and that new head coach, Brian Shaw, has expanded the team’s teamwork-first priority with plays employing some high risk tactics, for instance, the long arc-ing pass to players in the paint and at the post, with reliance on Lawson first as playmaker, then as shooter. Too, whether planned or not, in recent games there seems to have been repeated emphasis on height but on height above the man under the basket, that is, where the offense is of concern the ball being set higher than the tallest Nuggets player available for teh shot, e.g., Lawson throwing the ball high to Chandler, Chandler hefting it higher to and above forward Kenneth Faried (already a seven-footer), Faried jumping and netting the ball vertically. . . As to the Nets, going from what’s been seen of the team’s new head coach, Jason Kidd, when he was a guard for the old Nets, the Dallas Mavericks and the New York Knicks over a successful player career, it could be that he’s being underestimated in his first days on the job. Knowing whom to delegate floor power to, and when, such takes a lot games (wins and losses both). However, with Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson aboard, it’s likely that strategy, tactics and style will be ironed out and pulsing well enough for the Nets to be leading that back end of the grid if not climbing out of that category fully and clean just before All Star week. END/ml

NFL---WEEK 10, ANALYSIS; BRONCOS DEFEAT OF THE CHARGERS, NEXT WEEK BRONCOS VS. THE CHIEFS // NBA---ESCAPING THE HERD.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // NFL: WEEK 10, ANALYSIS; BRONCOS DEFEAT OF THE CHARGERS, NEXT WEEK VS. THE CHIEFS // NBA---ESCAPING THE HERD . . . / / . . . NFL---EXCEPT for the now 5-4 Green Bay Packers falling from first to third position within the NFL National Conference North on Sunday, the first and second position teams within the seven other NFL divisions haven’t budged from their primacy, some adding another win, others maintaining the number of wins they entered NFL-2013’s Week 10 with, for example, the American Conference West’s Week 10/Bye-attained Kansas City Chiefs are still 9-0, while the AC West’s second place Denver Broncos lifted to 8-1, having defeated the San Diego Chargers, 28-20, on Sunday. The AC East’s leading team, the New England Patriots, are still 7-2, behind them the still 5-4 New York Jets, and the AC North’s 6-4 Cincinnati Bengals have remained atop the 4-5 Cleveland Browns, and the AC South’s 6-3 Indianapolis Colts have stayed above the 4-5 Tennessee Titans. Too, the NC West’s 9-1 Seattle Seahawks have continued as a division and conference leading franchise, second within the entire league behind the Chiefs, having defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 33-10, on Sunday. Behind the Seahawks (no change from Week 9) are the 6-3 San Francisco 49ers, in spite of a loss on Sunday to the NC South’s 6-3 Carolina Panthers, 10-9 (Ouch!). And, though having suffered Week 10’s biggest defeat, 49-17, to the NC South’s New Orleans Saints, the NC East’s’ Dallas Cowboys are tied at five wins with the Philadelphia Eagles regarding number of victories, still in the number one position from most wins at home and against NC and division franchises. Meanwhile, directly behind the NC North’s leading team, the 6-3 Detroit Lions, are the 5-4 Chicago Bears and the 5-4 Packers. The NC South’s number one team, that’s still the Saints, now 7-2 from defeating the Cowboys, behind them the Panthers, 6-3, after that one point win vs. the 49ers. . . But, which NFL team wins a Week 10 downslide slot when compared with expectations and last season’s performance records? That has to be the AC South’s now 2-7 Houston Texans, and the NC South’s 2-7 Atlanta Falcons, each having been a 2012 high-above-the-margin team. Both are facing Week 11 from fourth place within their respective divisions. As to upswings from the bottom, during Week 10 the Jacksonville Jaguars finally won a game, defeating the Titans on Sunday, 29-27, now 1-8, and last night the NC South’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally had a win, beating the AC East’s now 4-5 Miami Dolphins, 22-19. The Buc’s are also at 1-8 today, so there’s no longer a winless NFL-2013 franchise. And, the AC North’s last place now 3-6 Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the AC East’s last place/now 3-7 Buffalo Bills on Sunday, and the NC East’s N.Y. Giants rose from last to fourth place after Sunday’s 24-20 win vs. the AC West’s last place franchise, the 3-6 Oakland Raiders. The NC North’s last place currently 2-7 Minnesota Vikings also accrued a victory during Week 10, having beaten the NC East’s now 3-6 Washington Redskins, 34-27. But there’s no ultra division lead within the NFL today, best being the Seahawk’s three wins over the 49ers, while within the full NC the Seahawks are ahead of the Saints by just two wins. Within the AC, the leading conference team, the Chiefs, they are ahead of the Broncos by only one win, and the Patriots are but one conference win behind the Broncos. . . So, where’s the odd disparity now that Week 10 has drifted away? It’s the NC West’s Arizona Cardinals at third place with its five wins, and the NC North’s Packers at third with their five wins, while a third franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, are a division leading franchise from the same number of wins. And---of the 32 NFL teams, 16 will be entering Week 11 still below the margin, that is, beneath .500, with the AC hosting 11 of these teams . . . // . . . BRONCOS, CHARGERS---THE now 4-5 San Diego Chargers lost to the 8-1 Denver Broncos on Sunday, 28-20, and so have only half the number of wins accrued by the broncos during this NFL season, largely from the Broncos having the superior offense, led by record-breaking QB, Peyton Manning. As Week 10 approached and the two teams would face off on Sunday, the Chargers were quite aware that if the Broncos defense allowed them 20 or more points by mid-fourth quarter, the Manning-led offense would likely make up for the allowed numbers; it would probably offset the defense giveaway with a touchdown or two ahead of the Chargers, the emphasis within each Broncos drive forward being a QB Manning and receiver pass/catch connectivity that is near-perfection. What must the weaker team do, then, when the primary reason behind the Broncos 8-1 record has been Manning’s mostly pass perfection and an ability of his preferred receivers to catch the football and run for that TD. One option is from Football101: Have defenders always between the football and the Broncos WR’s, TE’s, RB’s. A second option is this: If you can’t interfere with what’s thrown to Broncos receivers Demaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas, Eric Decker, Wes Wexler, and handed off to RB Knowshon Moreno, then dismantle the QB to where his functionality is lowered significantly. If desperate enough, a team might think, “Rip the QB apart, get dirty if we have to,” and it seemed that way on Sunday when a Chargers defender went for Manning’s already weakened ankle and Manning came up limping. Implied here is that the only way for the Broncos to lose during Weeks 11 through 16 is for the Broncos defense to U-turn from steady game-by-game improvements, and from opposing teams being able to weaken the Broncos offense by “crushing” Manning, not just sacking the QB but “hurting, injuring, Benching” the QB, forcing a replacement QB on to the field. Signaled, of course, is that the Broncos “pass protection” has to “step up,” protect its QB as if he were the President and they the Secret Service, “take a bullet for him.” Yet QB Manning isn’t fragile, he’s arguably the active NFL QB closest to indestructibility, a fact likely to radiate throughout each of the Broncos next three games, each game pivotal within a Broncos desired spiral upward for best post-season positioning, i.e., versus the 9-0 Kansas City Chiefs (November 17 & December 1), and vs. the 7-2 New England Patriots (Nov. 24). Both teams are adept at executing the more punishing “pass rush,” in ways that can hurt and dismantle but cannot be viewed as crossing over into illegality, not in the way that the Chargers defender went snake-like for Manning’s ankle on Sunday, thus maneuvers by the Chiefs and Patriots that can repeat more easily than could that Chargers bad and ugly shot. Countering any belief that Manning can be weakened significantly, maybe undone, by, say the Chiefs during Week 11, is that after Manning’s ankle started going bad from actions during Week 6 vs. the Indianapolis Colts, the Broncos QB managed to throw against the Chargers for four TD passes and accrue more than 300 passing yards, one of the TD’s occurring after the Chargers went for that sore ankle. Never mind that the Chiefs hold the 2013 record for most season sacks to date, because such when related to a QB who can (a) Maximize number of points gained per minute of ball possession, and (b) Do that while experiencing sacks and even some fumbles, it just isn’t significant enough for consistent and sufficient blitzing of Manning and his first down hunt + end zone efficient offense. The Chiefs will be hoping for a Broncos defense that can deliver to it the lion’s share of allowable possession minutes for end zone occupation and some points, meanwhile its defense gunning for Manning with the martial arts/black belt-10th degree intensity seen in Hong Kong fight movies. . . // . . . NBA---THE NBA team that has left the stall and raced ahead of all others with nearly one tenth of the 82-game NBA regular season almost gone, that’s the Indian Pacers, eight wins, no losses, leading the NBA and the NBA East by four wins and the NBA East’s Central Division by five wins above the 3-3 Chicago Bulls. Next best in the NBA today, that’s the Western Conference Southwest’s San Antonio Spurs, seven wins, one loss, leading the WC by two wins above the WC Northwest’s 5-1 Oklahoma City Thunder, the 5-2 Minnesota Timberwolves and 5-2 Portland Trail Blazers, plus the WC Southwest’s 5-3 Houston Rockets and WC Pacific Division’s 5-2 Phoenix Suns. Still in sad sack mode, that’s the Utah Jazz, the only NBA franchise that’s winless as of today---0-8. Surprisingly, the Memphis Grizzlies haven’t been the snap, crackle or pop of last season yet; they are 3-4 and last within the WC Southwest. Also back of the grid unexpectedly are the EC Atlantic’s New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, both at 2-4, the WC Northwest’s Denver Nuggets, also 2-4, and the WC Pacific’s 2-2 Los Angeles Lakers. END/ml.

NFL: WEEK 10, EIGHT BRIDGES TO CROSS; DENVER BRONCOS, SAN DIEGO CHARGERS.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner... // NFL: WEEK 10, EIGHT BRIDGES TO CROSS; BRONCOS, CHARGERS...// NFL---WEEK 10 of NFL-2013 has delayed one of the league’s eight division leading teams from being first to achieve double-digit wins. That’s the American Conference West’s still undefeated 9-0 Kansas City Chiefs, which will be at Bye Week until Sunday, November 17, while another franchise, the current 8-1 National Conference West’s 8-1 Seattle Seahawks, could surpass a season’s halfway mark of eight wins on Sunday, therefore staying second best in the league behind the Chiefs and also first within the NFL’s National Conference, guaranteeing a .500 percentage should the Seahawks lose every one of its games Week 11 through Week 16. Also, Week 10 is Bye Week for the American Conference East’s first place now 7-2 New England Patriots, to which there won’t be a change upward in that the AC East's second place 5-4 N.Y. Jets are also in Bye Week. Meanwhile, during Week 10, the NFL’s remaining five division leading teams could gain leads of two or more wins over their respective second place franchises---AC North’s 6-2 Cincinnati Bengals, AC South’s 6-2 Indianapolis Colts, the NC East’s 5-4 Dallas Cowboys, the NC North’s 5-2 Green Bay Packers, the NC South’s 6-2 New Orleans Saints. But could all this happen easily for the leading teams that will be active during Week 10? Let’s review---SEAHAWKS: This team will be facing the NC South’s fourth place 2-6 Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, the win/loss records of each suggesting a Seahawks win. However, the Falcons haven’t failed to leave a game this year without putting up double-digit points, and only one of its losses has been a blowout, the team’s 32-10 loss to the Carolina Panthers, Week 9. Note that against top team, the AC East’s N.E. Patriots, during Week 4, the Falcons lost by seven points, 30-23. Our guess is that the Falcons will make the afternoon difficult for the Seahawks, yet will probably lose by a TD . . . BENGALS: This AC North franchise knows that a loss on Sunday to the same division’s Baltimore Ravens, now 3-5, will mean recovery for a Ravens shot at the post-season, and that a Bengals versus Baltimore win could keep the 4-5 Cleveland Browns in second place and ahead of the Ravens, aided by the Browns also being at Bye during Week 10. A proper take, then, is Bengals ahead at endgame on Sunday by only three . . . COLTS: Win/loss records say that the Colts will smother the St. Louis Rams during Week 10. The Rams lost three in a row (Weeks 2 through 5) to teams of less power and skill, and three in a row Weeks 7 through 9, giving up 72 points and accruing only 45 (strangely, it’s best fight being a loss to the Seahawks during Week 8, 14-9). . . COWBOYS: Up against the Saints on Sunday, the Cowboys could see trouble, lose and so enter Week 11 tied with the now NC East’s 4-5 Philadelphia Eagles, instead of staying at first place. This year, the Saints losses have totaled only 56 points, and were of games within which the Saints put up 27 and 20 points respectively. Even so, the Cowboys losses have also been double-digit each, and versus the 7-1 Denver Broncos the Cowboys managed to put up 48 points, losing by only three. A sensible pick is Cowboys losing by seven. . . PACKERS: Having lost to the Chicago Bears on Thursday night, the Packers, the Detroit Lions and the Bears are now tied at first place, NC North, each at 5-3. Surely this will change from Sunday’s Lions versus Bears match. A fair guess is that either can win but probably by no more than six. . . // . . . DENVER BRONCOS, SAN DIEGO CHARGERS---FROM games played during Weeks 1 through 8 (including Bye Week), the Broncos gave up 197 points to opposing teams, while during the same period the Chargers gave up fewer points to opponents, 147. Yet the Broncos are today 7-1, the Chargers, 4-4. Within this, the Chargers dropped only nine points to the Indianapolis Colts, a division leading franchise (Week 6). During Week 7, the Broncos lost to the Colts, 39-33. Implied here is that a Chargers defense can keep a lid on the Broncos QB Peyton Manning-led offense, maybe preventing the Broncos offense from scoring as many or more points than given away to the Chargers by the Broncos defense. However, for the seven games cited here, the Chargers offense provided a total of 168 points while the Broncos offense delivered 298 points for the same number of challenges, suggesting multiple Broncos touchdowns vs. the Chargers, enough to neutralize whatever is given away by the Broncos defense. Too, Chargers QB Phillip Rivers pass completion total is only 10 fewer than that accrued Broncos QB Manning, and of fewer attempts than Manning’s. If Rivers could maintain this but with completions resulting in a high rate of TD’s, the Chargers could prevent a humiliating loss to the Broncos. Six of Rivers receivers can boast of only 17 TD’s this season, while six of Manning’s receivers have accumulated 29 TD’s. As for rushing, the Chargers rushes have translated into only three TD’s to date; the Broncos rushes, 11 TD’s. It seems, then, that on Sunday the Broncos offense will empower a Broncos win, but without a runaway victory---an informed pick is Broncos 30, Chargers 24. END/ml

NFL: APPROACHING WEEK 10; SAN DIEGO CHARGERS, DENVER BRONCOS // NBA---EARLY FROM THE GATE.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // NFL: APPROACHING WEEK 10; SAN DIEGO CHARGERS, DENVER BRONCOS // NBA---EARLY FROM THE GATE . . . NFL---COMING up on Week 10, three of the NFL’s 2013 eight division last place franchises have but one or zero wins, the National Conference East’s 1-7 Minnesota Vikings, the 0-8 American Conference South’s Jacksonville Jaguars, the NC South’s 0-8 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The remaining back-of-the-grid teams are the AC West’s 3-5 Oakland Raiders, the AC East’s 3-6 Buffalo Bills, the AC North’s 2-6 Pittsburgh Steelers, NC West’s 3-6 St. Louis Rams and the NC East’s 2-6 New York Giants. Combined, that’s 66 games resulting in but 14 wins and an incredible number of losses, 52, compared with the eight division first place teams having accrued 52 wins and just 16 losses from 68 games played. Evident from this is a wide gap between the NFL’s Haves and Have-nots, between the exceptionally gifted organizations and those lacking what it takes to move far forward from a start zone. Were number of combined wins converted to number of weeks within the current season, the eight bottom-of-the pile NFL franchises would still be at infancy, Week 2, worst of surprises being the N.Y. Giants inability to recapture past performance skills. The big surprise within the eight division leading pack is, of course, the undefeated AC West’s Kansas City Chiefs, 9-0 after defeating the Bills on Sunday, 23-13. But at Week 10, no AC division first place team has better than a two game lead over a next-in-line franchise. Within the NC East, the 5-4 Dallas Cowboys can sense the 4-5 Philadelphia Eagles at their heels, and within the NC North the number one 5-2 Green Bay Packers can hear grunts from the 5-3 Detroit Lions, while the NC South’s numero uno 6-2 New Orleans Saints feel the 5-3 Carolina Panthers directly behind them. All of this said, it’s the nine franchises that are roughly in the middle of the total number of NFL teams, that is, the nine teams ranging from 5-3 to 4-3, they keep the entire league’s win/loss ratio from tilting greatly to either the Have or Have-not side, implying that the 2013 NFL is, on average, still a mostly fair and just enterprise. Can any of this change dramatically? Starting on Thursday, the 1-7 Vikings will have to defeat the NC East’s 3-5 Washington Redskins for that to seem possible.So---for Week 10’s possible Sunday results, check with us on Friday, November 8 (We had it right last week re. the lion’s share of picks). . . // . . . BRONCOS, CHARGERS---BY losing to the Washington Redskins 30-24 on Sunday, November 3, the American Conference West’s San Diego Chargers dropped from getting close to being a .600 team, falling to 4-4/.500, the margin that separates winning franchises from the losers. On Sunday last, the Denver Broncos were in Bye with a 7-1/.875 record after defeating the now 3-5/.375 Redskins during Week 8, October 27. This Sunday, the Broncos and Chargers will face off, for the Broncos a second game of the 2013 season versus a team inside its division, the AC West, a most important challenge for the Broncos, in that a win against the Chargers would lift them to an 8-1 record, just one win behind the AC West’s leading franchise, the 9-0 Kansas City Chiefs, a team in Bye for Week 10, which the Broncos will face during Week 11 and again during Week 13. That first AC West win for the Broncos was against the now 3-5 Oakland Raiders, Week 3. If the Raiders beat the N.Y. Giants this Sunday and the Chargers lose to the Broncos, the latter will be a last place AC West franchise tied with the former, each at 4-5 as Week 11 begins. For the Chargers, then, a Week 10 vs. Broncos win can be insurance against being its division’s bottom-feeder. But given the Broncos 7-1 record, and what’s been seen of the Broncos offense since Week 1 of the 2013 season, and of the Broncos defense of the past four Broncos games, the Chargers need to be praying for a miracle. More on this within this Friday’s posting. . . // . . . NBA---THE first few yards of anything out of a breech is a poor space for determining future outcomes, but surprises do give hope that the uncertainties, the lack of predictabilities in a sport, will be as interesting to observe as a movie or TV drama filled with suspense. As of yesterday, only two of the six high-end winning NBA teams of the past season are leading a conference division, the Eastern Conference Southeast Division’s 2-2 Miami Heat and the EC Central Division’s 3-0 Indiana Pacers, while of the six division leading NBA franchises four had remained undefeated, the Western Conference Northwest Division’s 3-0 Minnesota Timberwolves, the WC Southwest’s 3-0 Houston Rockets, the EC Atlantic’s 3-0 Philadelphia 76ers and the EC central’s 3-0 Indiana Pacers. And of teams expected to be snapping, crackling and popping from day one of the new season, three are winless as of yesterday morning, the WC Northwest’s 0-2 Denver Nuggets and 0-3 Utah Jazz and the EC Atlantic’s 0-3 Boston Celtics, joining the 0-3 Washington Wizards. Surprisingly, the 2-1 Oklahoma City Thunder were third yesterday within the WC Northwest, while the 2-2 Los Angeles Lakers were fourth within the WC’s Pacific Division, and the 1-2 Brooklyn Nets fourth inside the EC’s Atlantic Division. . . END/ml.

NFL: NINE DOWN, SEVEN TO GO // NBA-2013/14: EXPECTATIONS, QUESTIONS // MLB: WORLD SERIES-2013, SUMMATION & AN OVERARCHING LESSON

SPORTS NOTEBOOK // sports-notebook.blogspot.com // FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // . . . NFL: 9 Down, 7 To Go // NBA-2013/14: Expectations, Questions // MLB: World Series-2013, Summation & An Overarching Lesson. . . // . . . NFL---NO matter the professional team sport, a franchise not in a leading position at the halfway mark of a season usually changes its goals, objectives, strategy and tactics, often under conditions making change quite difficult, for example, brutal scheduling and the season’s leading franchises having high end skills + power hard to match. The NFL franchise that at Week 1 had a Super Bowl appearance in mind and at Week 9 is at 2-6 like today’s National Conference East’s New York Giants, it lowers the Week 16 expectation-dial to 6-10 or 8-8, while an 0-8 team, like the American Conference South’s Jacksonville Jaguars, aims for that first win and dreams about 8-8 if players and coaches still believe in miracles (Why not? Last night, the AC East’s then 3-4 Miami Dolphins defeated the AC North’s 6-2 Cincinnati Bengals, even if close--22-20). But franchises such as the AC West’s 8-0 Kansas City Chiefs and 7-1 Denver Broncos can today still envision post-season slots with ease, one or the other team going to the Super Bowl. So, too, are other AC and NC division leading teams still of Super Bowl measure at Week 9, that is, the Bengals, the AC East’s 6-2 New England Patriots, the AC South’s 5-2 Indianapolis Colts and the NC South’s 6-1 New Orleans Saints, these four being division leading franchises with two or more wins ahead of respective second place teams. Yet keeping their post-season hopes high will from Week 9 on be more difficult for division leading teams such as the NC West’s six-wins-apiece Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers, and for the NC East’s number one franchise, the 4-4 Dallas Cowboys, a team sensing the 3-5 Philadelphia Eagles at its heels, and for the NC North’s five-wins-each Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions. Consequently, and probably adjusting sights during Week 9 for a 9-7 or 8-8 finish, is “the rest of the NFL pack, more than a dozen teams hoping for miracles” . . . Probably in store at the top for the NFL at Week 9 is more of the same, for instance, it’s likely that the Chiefs will be 9-0 after Sunday’s game versus. the AC East’s last place 3-5 Buffalo Bills, and that the Patriots will be 7-2 after its bout with the AC North’s bottom franchise, the 2-5 Pittsburgh Steelers. Also likely on Sunday is the Colts taking down the AC South’s 2-5 Houston Texans. And, a likely Week 9 win within the NC is the Seahawks over the NC South’s 0-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Note that the 49ers being at Bye during Week 9 gives the Seahawks a shot at a NC West lead by one game, same for the AC West’s Chiefs gaining from the Broncos being at Bye). And, the Cowboys beating the NC North’s 1-6 Minnesota Vikings on Sunday is a likelihood, but the Eagles against the AC West’s 3-4 Oakland Raiders is less so, implying a Cowboys one-game NC East lead over the Eagles. Furthermore, on Monday the Packers will meet the NC North’s 4-3 Chicago Bears, a game that could go either way, a Packers loss to the Bears preventing it from having a one-game lead over the Lions (now at Bye). As for the NC South’s Saints, by defeating the AC East’s 4-4 N.Y. Jets on Sunday the team could stay tied at number one within the entire NC with the Seahawks, or rise to the NC’s top slot should the Seahawks lose to the Buccaneers (doubtful!). . . //. . . NBA---THE NBA 2013/14 season has kicked in. The league’s 82 games ending in April, plus a long post-season into June, are as big a deal audience-wise “internationally” as is baseball or American football, with many expectations at stake unless outcomes are completely ignored. Questions abide, e.g., last season only seven NBA teams won 50 or more games, five within the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference’s Miami Heat finished ahead with 68 wins, the WC’s Oklahoma City Thunder, 65. No other franchise had more than the WC’s San Antonio Spurs wins last season, 58. Will any of this be much different during 2013/14? Also, will the two NBA teams at the bottom of the two conferences as 2012/13 ended remain there, thus the WC’s last place team, the Phoenix Suns, finishing at or below its 24 wins-56 losses, the EC’s last place Orlando Magic with but 20 wins? And, how will the nine teams with new head coaches make out, one of these being without a superstar and led by a rookie HC (Denver Nuggets, HC Brian Shaw), another by a rookie HC recently from the hardwood, the Brooklyn Nets Jason Kidd? Will the L.A. Lakers prove that age and experience-based wisdom can trump youth and speed, or will the Pacific League’s L.A. Clippers and Golden State Warriors overtake the Lakers as the West’s very best? Will four Chicago Bulls starters and a sixth man prove that point guard Derrick Rose is NOT in any way the only face of the franchise, the Bulls-entire in the way that Michael Jordan had been, or will Rose prove otherwise? Can the Brooklyn Nets, now home for super forwards Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, stay above the N.Y. Knicks from the get-go? As predicted, will the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder be neck-and-neck as conference-leading teams before and then after the All Star break? Can the WC’s Memphis Grizzlies and the EC ’s Indiana Pacers “repeat?’ Will the WC’s Utah Jazz reach anywhere near the high-end performance-continuity shown in the past? Can the Spurs forward Tim Duncan and guard Tony Parker keep on, as they had during 2012/13? Is the Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki on his way back? Will center Dwight Howard paired with guards James Harden and Jeremy Lin be the difference for the Houston Rockets? Will it matter if the Denver Nuggets cannot produce a superstar when last season they accrued the NBA's highest number of total points for a single franchise? Surely the Nuggets will win 50 or more games during 2013/14 if guard Ty Lawson jumps to 19 ppg and sustains that starting mid-November (quite possible), and if power forward Kenneth Faried and center Javale McGee can score 15-17 ppg “and NOT just from under and over the basket (also quite possible),” also if forward Danilo Gallinari returns from injury and shoots as well as during 2012/13, and if the Nuggets defense can deliver the same number of rebounds becoming fast breaks as during last season. Proven again by the Nuggets will be that teamwork minus presence of a superstar can win 50 or more games and secure a playoff berth. . . //. . . WORLD SERIES---IF you are loyal to the American League and NOT a Yankee fan, or loyal to the National League’s Colorado Rockies that were defeated by the Boston Red Sox, 4-0, during the 2007 World Series, the proper WS-2013 summation should be, “Red Sox won, Drink Up, On to the NFL season and the start of the NBA year.” However, there are observations that go beyond Sox fandom that are worth mentioning. For instance, this year the WS actually competed the two best teams in 2013 professional American baseball, and so the argument that the WS winner is definitely the better of the two and not just the better among those teams that entered the post-season, is safe, rational and has fulfilled the purpose of the WS up to its very hilt. Second, an AL team won the 2013 WS for the seventh time since year 2000, up against the NL’s seven wins since 2000, indicating parity among the MLB leagues, a good thing for baseball. Moreover, because of the near-equality that both teams shared regarding offense and defense skills, the 2013 WS consisted of a smattering of just about every singular event that the best of baseball games can deliver: except for the Red Sox 8-1 early win against the St. Louis Cardinals, we saw low ERA’s among starting and relief pitchers + closers. In the other WS-2013 games, we saw base-runners crossing the plate for runs but also runners left in scoring position, plus the unexpected home-run and triple, and the brilliant and deep outfield catch ending a half-inning or inning---in other words, the 2013 WS included a wide spread of all that fans and players + managers and coaches like seeing in successive baseball games. Reinforced from this more than in several previously-held WS is an old lesson, that balance among the many attributes that translate into high-end skills and power, and not just the ultra-superiority found in a few players, is what makes the better MLB team. . . END/ml