NFL: CLOSE TO THE WIRE AT WEEK 14; BRONCOS DEFEAT OF THE CHIEFS // NBA: HIGH GROUND, LOW & THE MIDDLE

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: CLOSE TO THE WIRE AT WEEK 14; BRONCOS DEFEAT OF THE CHIEFS // NBA: HIGH GROUND, LOW & THE MIDDLE . . . // NFL---EXCEPT for increases in number of wins, there are no changes in NFL-2013’s division lead landings, for instance, the AC West’s Denver Nuggets are now 10-2, first above second place franchise, the 9-3 Kansas City Chiefs, after defeating the Chiefs on Sunday, 35-28; and, the AC East’s now 9-3 New England Patriots stayed ahead of number two team, the 6-6 Miami Dolphins, after beating the Houston Texans, 34-31 (The Dolphins replaced the New York Jets at second position on Sunday, defeating the Jets 23-3). Also within the AC, the AC North’s first place 8-4 Cincinnati Bengals are two up over the Baltimore Ravens, having taken down the AC West’s third place team, the 5-7 San Diego Chargers also on Sunday (The Ravens replaced the Pittsburgh Steelers at second position, AC North, after defeating them on Thursday, 22-20). And, AC South’s leading team, the 8-4 Indianapolis Colts, now owns a three game lead over second place team, the 5-7 Tennessee Titans, after Sunday’s win over the Titans, 22-14. And, leading the National Conference West still are the 11-1 Seattle Seahawks, the team atop NFL-entire and that clinched a playoff spot last night after beating the NC South’s New Orleans Saints, 34-7. Up front within the NC East still are the 7-5 Dallas Cowboys, after putting away on Thursday the AC West’s last place franchise, the 4-8 Oakland Raiders. However, number two NC East team, the 7-5 Philadelphia Eagles, still have the same number of wins + losses as the Cowboys have; and, the NC North’s leading franchise, the 7-5 Detroit Lions, increased its lead over the now 6-6 Chicago Bears during Week 13, having beaten the Green Bay Packers on Thursday, 40-10, while the Bears were in Bye Week. At NC South, the 9-2 Saints dropped a one game lead over the now 9-3 Carolina Panthers, from Monday night’s loss to the Seahawks. . . As for the eight third place franchises within the eight NFL divisions, six have an opportunity to finish the season at .500, that margin separating winning from losing teams, and these chances are indeed slim for the 5-7 Chargers, 5-7 Jets, 5-7 Steelers and 5-7 Giants, while the 7-5 Cardinals and the 5-6 Packers have more opportunity for adding wins through to Week 16. The two other third place teams, the AC South’s 3-9 Jacksonville Jaguars, and the 3-9 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they have no chance whatsoever for escaping “the Loser’s Club,” which will include the eight fourth place franchises, as well, lowest among them the 2-10 Texans, the NC East’s 3-9 Washington Redskins and the NC South’s 3-9 Atlanta Falcons. . . BRONCOS, CHIEFS---HAVING defeated the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, 35-28, the Denver Broncos are the number one American Conference and AC West leading team, also the second NFL-2013 franchise to reach double-digit wins and a possible Super Bowl attendee versus a possible National Conference championship team, the 10-1 Seattle Seahawks. But sustaining dominance is always tricky in the NFL. Enter, possible spoilers: the Broncos could give way to hard-to-beat AC South second place team, the Tennessee Titans, during Week 14, thought the Titans are 5-7, while the Kansas City Chiefs may have an easier go this Sunday versus NC East last place team, the 3-9 Washington Redskins, matching the Broncos at first place, AC West, also first within the AC and third inside NFL-entire. Meanwhile on Sunday, a likely AC East 9-3 New England Patriots win over the AC North’s last place and 4-8 Cleveland Browns can give the Patriots equal footing with the Broncos should the latter fall to the Titans. What causes suspicion of a Broncos win to always hover above? One word, “Defense,” “the big D,” a defense squad that is flawed not by dents within the four S’s, “Skills, Speed, Strength, plus ‘Smarts’ for employing the first three S’s,” instead by the sometimes lack of initial introduction of these values at the start of a game, or lack of consistency once the four values kick in during later periods of a game. It’s a defense that is choppy, that goes up or down upon the proficiency scale, superb to lousy and back again. Luckily these defense flaws that have allowed an opposing team to score more than 20 points in nearly all of the 12 games that the 2013 Broncos have played to date, such have been offset by the Broncos QB Peyton Manning-led offense, which has scored more than 450 points in games since the regular season began, vs. the more than 317 points given away by the Broncos defense. Computer research would surely show that the Broncos offenses led in the recent past by QB Kyle Norton and then by QB Tim Tebow would have, if paired with today’s Broncos defense, kept the 2013 Broncos struggling now to reach .500 and third place within the AC West. So, the Chiefs are not out of any running for a playoff berth and could strengthen that possibility with a win on Sunday against the Broncos. But the odds still favor the Broncos, mostly because the Chiefs offense hasn’t been able to fully exploit the Broncos defense flaws and the Chiefs defense isn’t that much better than that of the Broncos. And, if the Manning/Eric Decker and Manning/Thomas-2 (Demaryius & Julius) throw/receiver connectivity is as it has been during the Broncos recent wins, whatever the Broncos defense gives up will be taken back and put on the board + by the Manning-led drives and end-zone efficiency. . . // NBA---STEADY go the leaders. No NBA-2013/14 division first place franchise of last week has been dragged down, while two second place teams have dropped to third, the Eastern Conference 6-12 Philadelphia 76ers giving way to the 7-12 Boston Celtics, and the EC Southeast’s 9-10 Atlanta Hawks dropping behind now second place team, the 9-9 Washington Wizards. Atop the Western Conference Northwest, then, are the 15-3 Portland Trail Blazers, second the 12-3 Oklahoma City Thunder, and leading the WC Southwest are the 15-3 San Antonio Spurs above second place team, the 13-6 Houston Rockets, while ahead of the WC Pacific still are the 12-6 Los Angeles Clippers, behind them directly the 10-8 Golden State Warriors. Within the EC Atlantic, atop are the 6-10 Toronto Raptors, second the 7-12 Celtics, and inside the EC Southwest it’s the 14-3 Miami Heat, second the 9-9 Wizards. Leading the EC Central, that’s the 16-2 Indiana Pacers, second the 7-9 Chicago Bulls. . . The 16-2 Pacers are first within the NBA-entire re. number of wins, the 15-3 Trail Blazers and 15-3 Spurs directly behind, fourth the 14-3 Heat. Up from the bottom are the EC Southwest’s now 9-8 New Orleans Pelicans, taking fourth instead of last place, with the 8-8 Memphis Grizzlies now last. Worst in the league now are the EC Atlantic’s 3-13 New York Knicks and the NC Central’s last place franchise, the 3-13 Milwaukee Bucks. Unique is that were the EC Atlantic’s first place 6-10 Raptors within another division, they’d be hanging at fourth or last place. The Raptors are the only division leading 2013/14 franchise still below .500 (.375, a lower win/loss percentage than eight NBA-2013/14 teams currently holding fourth and last place positions). . . With regard to third place franchises, only one of six is behind second place by more than two wins, the WC Southwest’s 10-8 Dallas Mavericks back of second place team, the 13-6 Rockets, suggesting the possibility of several early-on division middle-ground upheavals. END/ml.