These notes brought to you by Nate Timmons – waiting on the snow down at Pepsi Center. Snow before the end of the world?!
Is playing the Spurs a test for the Nuggets?
"I could see why you would look at it that way. They are one of the elite teams and I think they've played well all year. Last night they weren't that good, but I'm sure they'll come out hungry tonight."
Spurs and Nuggets want to play the same offensively:
"They play a lot like we want to play and they play an offensive style like we do. I think it's going to be a really good test to see if we don't give up the three ball as much as we did the last we played them."
Trusting Kosta Koufos and seeing his game grow:
"Going into the season, in September I don't think you would have seen me [write in] Kosta Koufos [for] 20 minutes. He earned it. Every week he's getting a little better, a little more confident, and a little more into it. He's a low maintenance offensive player."
"If I started JaVale [McGee] or if I started someone else I think it would be more difficult to manage the shots early in the game. As the games goes on we'll figure out who finishes the game."
Karl on Duncan's agelessness:
"I admire what he does. He's just a low maintenance superstar. He knows how to get shots without the offense being run through him. If you want to run the ball through him, he'll be glad to take that responsibility. He's an orchestrator of the game as much as he is a scorer of the game. Other than the great shot blockers he is the best defensive big guy I have ever seen play basketball."
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How did Pop get Parker to play aggressive as his career wore on:
“I just told him to do it. He’s the player. All I can do is tell him – he either does it or he doesn’t and then they go to dinner.”
“I gave him the ball after six games, told him he’s the guy, run the show, and he did it from age 19 on.”
Pop on JaVale McGee:
“He’s obviously very active. He makes some plays that are hard to believe. The last I saw of him was where he went up and grabbed somebody’s shot. [Hochman points out it was Zach Randolph] Yeah, Zach’s shot [laughs]. I just had to look at it again; you had to laugh [because] you don’t see that kind of thing very often. He seems like he gets a few of those plays pretty consistently.”
“He’s learning how to play basketball. It’s good for him to be with George [Karl] because George will demand things of him and he’ll teach him things. And if the kid’s got character – he’ll get better. I don’t know him personally, I don’t know if he’s a hard worker, I don’t know anything about him, but if he’s got a good constitution inside he’s going to get better-and-better.”
How you guard the Nuggets, how you slow down Gallinari and Ty Lawson:
“That’s all [crap]. They both had bad games the last time we played them. If Tony [Parker] plays like dog doo-doo tonight and Timmy sucks, we’re going to lose. We didn’t do anything. They had bad nights, it happens.”
What Duncan means defensively for the Spurs:
“He has been taken for granted for a long time. People just look at scorers. He rebounds every night, he blocks shots, he changes shots. He doesn’t do it like when he was 24 [years old], but he’s still the base of what we do in that regard.”
What it means that his offensive numbers are slightly up this season:
“It does show his consistency over time and how he has accepted the responsibility to be the leader year after year and night after night. It’s a grind on people. A lot of guys in this league can’t do that. They do it for awhile, but they don’t do it for 16 years. Kevin Garnett’s another one who has done it – out in Boston now. They are just special people.”
