Tuesday, December 9, 2014

NFL: Week 14, Analysis; Broncos Defeat Bills // NBA: Standings; Nuggets, Down Again

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 each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner.  
NFL---ON Sunday, the National Conference West’s Arizona Cardinals and the American Conference West’s Denver Nuggets and AC East’s N.E. Patriots became the first NFL-2014 teams to accrue double digit wins, they are 10 wins and three losses each, while three of the remaining five NFL division leading teams have now obtained nine wins as they head toward Week 15’s match-ups---the NC North’s 9-3 Green Bay Packers, NC East’s 9-4 Philadelphia Eagles and the AC South’s 9-4 Indianapolis Colts. Leading NC South still are the 5-7 Atlanta Falcons, and atop the AC North it’s the 8-4 Cincinnati Bengals.
            Yet significant edges among division leading teams has continued to be rare this year. From Week 14, the best lead belongs to the Patriots, three wins atop the AC East’s second position 7-6 Miami Dolphins. Behind four of the division leading franchises are second place teams that have won the same number of games to date, while all other division leading teams are no more than one or two wins ahead of their respective second place teams.
            Meanwhile, 13 of the 32 NFL franchises are below .500, six of these under .250 not having won more than two or three games since the season began. Nine of the 13 are within the NC, four of the nine being of the same division, the NC South. Only one division can boast of each member team being above. 500, the AC North, at its bottom the 7-6 Cleveland Browns, which has more wins and fewer losses than the NC South’s leading franchise, the 5-7 Falcons.
The gap between winners and losers is indeed wide as NFL-2014 regulation nears its end, although five NC division number two teams have the same number of wins as the team above. These five could be leading their divisions after next week’s games---the NC West’s 9-4 Seattle Seahawks, NC East’s 9-4 Dallas Cowboys, NC North’s 9-4 Detroit Lions and NC South’s 5-8 N.O. Saints. Within the AC, the AC North’s 8-5 Pittsburgh Steelers are the only team to have the same number of wins as the leading franchise, the 8-4 Bengals.
The upshot, then, is that Week 15 could comprise several reversals of fortune.
Broncos, Bills---THE Broncos 24-17 defeat of the Buffalo Bills addressed an unexpected and favorable exploitation of Broncos assets, QB Peyton Manning releasing  control frequently to those who could run the football forward as if it were practice day, he the quiet trainer handing off opportunities to RB C.J. Anderson who’d run for three TD’s, no-one of the opposition capable of stopping him.
Anyone who watched Sunday’s Broncos only to see Manning throw TD passes bought disappointment. The Broncos win was ground-dominant, Manning a silent non-flamboyant catalyst. This was by design, it wasn’t a last minute “Hey, Bro’, take a breather” from HC John Fox, let the earth-beaters do the work for a change,” it was Manning leading from behind, so to speak, controlling an offense that into the fourth Q led the Bills 24-3.
Of course, much credit has to go to the Broncos defense, though it dissipated some in the last Q. The Bills led the Broncos in nearly every game advantage category, time of possession, first downs, total yards gained, except for the Broncos 29 rushing plays that purchased 133 yards and three TD’s vs. the Bills 16 for 74 and the one Bills rushed-for TD, but until that last quarter surge for points, and an earlier field goal, the Broncos defense kept the Bills investments in a mostly passing game from yielding dividends, for the sixth time this year forcing an opposing team to stay below 20 points by endgame, in all cases the Broncos offense seven or more points ahead.
NBA---THE Eastern Conference Atlantic Division’s 16-5 Toronto Raptors are leading both conference and division but as of today are fifth within the full league, in that the Western Conference Pacific Division’s 18-2 Golden State Warriors are at the top of the full league, followed by the WC Northwest’s 16-4 Portland Trail Blazers, the WC Southwest’s 16-4 Houston Rockets and 16-4 Memphis Grizzlies. Ten other NBA teams can also claim double digit wins, all second or third place holders division-wide, and nine NBA teams are above .700, sustaining the wide gap between winning and losing NBA franchises.
But except for two leading teams, the Raptors and the Trail Blazers having seven game leads over their respective second place franchises, the leads held by first place teams within divisions is quite fragile, in some cases a tie re. number of wins, or a lead from just one game, e.g., the EC Central being led by the 12-7 Cleveland Cavaliers, the Chicago Bills directly behind them, 12-8.
Still feeding at the bottom are the EC Atlantic’s Philadelphia 76ers, 2-18 and the EC Centrals’ Detroit Pistons, 3-18.
Nuggets---GIVEN tactics that won games for the Nuggets before a recent road trip and four straight losses, one has to apply some blame for the downfall on injuries that have kept guards Randy Foye and Nate Robinson and forward Kenneth Faried from court time. The Nuggets have slid below .500, current record 9-12. This has put excess strain on guard Ty Lawson and forward Danilo Gallinari, both prone to injury. Too, the four losses weren’t to beneath-the-margin teams, the Nuggets lost to the Raptors 112-107, an OT loss, by the way. Other hard matches were vs. the Trail Blazers, the Washington Wizards and the Atlanta Hawks, first and second place division teams, all above .600 as of now. Many NBA teams lack sufficient depth for the worst case injury scenario, that is, they haven’t enough back-up for best players suddenly on a disabled list. The Nuggets are one of these teams.
END/ml

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