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.