November 1st, Opening Night... one of my favorite nights of the year.  Immediately preceded by Halloween, some of that dark mojo was working on the Nuggets.

For the second year in a row, someone suffered a nasty leg injury on opening night.

Last year, it was Voshon Lenard and this year, Nene suffered an injury.  He'd spent about two minutes on the court when it happened on a routine baseline drive against Tim Duncan.  The replay, which had a really good angle, didn't show any undue contact or knee-on-knee contact; it looked like the knee just gave on him.  Was it related to the hamstring strain or the bruised quad he suffered earlier in the pre-season?  I have no idea but it's possible.  

So that's a big shot for Denver because it is a significant injury and Nene is going to have to take his time coming back. On a side note, Denver failed to reach a contract agreement with Nene before the deadline.  

So what happened to his knee?  A press release from the Nuggets said that "an MRI performed on forward Nen? revealed a torn anterior cruciate ligament, a medial collateral ligament sprain and a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee. He will likely miss the remainder of the season."

So, how was the game?

Wow.  

For two teams playing their first game of the season, they sure didn't look it.  Denver was the low team with 91 points on 48.8% from the floor.  They had moments and stretches where they executed poorly and all that but they looked great in transition and they shot the ball very well.  'Melo floated Denver in the fourth quarter but most of his teammates had finished their offensive production for the night by then and the Spurs just kept scoring (102 on 50%).  

This game was a fractal element of the Spurs' MO for the season:  start slow, get it together, ruin people with spectacular defense (despite what the FG% allowed indicates) and just wear everyone down until they're on top.  

The evening started with the ring presentation ceremony for San Antonio, which turned out to be a lot less of a distraction than Kenny Smith predicted.  Steve Kerr got it right, it just charged them up.  Finley and Van Exel did come off the bench as expected and Voshon Lenard got the nod for Denver.  Sidenote, where was Glenn Robinson?  Big Dog doesn't get a ring but Tony Massenburg does?  I was mildly surprised.  It's possible I wasn't paying complete attention but that was weird.  

It was a good game.  The pace was really great, lots of transition buckets.  Denver struggled in the half-court, which would ultimately prove to be their undoing.  They need more shooters, badly and they need better movement without the ball.  I'm sure that having Scott Brooks on the sideline instead of the suspended George Karl certainly made things a lot harder for the Nuggets, however.  Karl attended a Marquette workout with an ineligible player, so he got nailed for a two-game suspension.  He'll be gone for the game versus the Lakers as well.  Whoo, Greg Popovich and Phil Jackson, consecutively?  Welcome to the league, Mr. Brooks.  

It took Carmelo Anthony some time to figure out the double teams that San Antonio was sending his way because they were half-triple teams, really.  They'd double down on him and send a third guy to help late and just as 'Melo was looking to bust a move or pass out, the third guy would close him off and he'd turn it over.  Eventually though, he started working more quickly and just starting scoring at will.  He was 10 for 17 on the night (though only 3 of 5 from the line).  It certainly helped that 6 of his 8 boards were offensive but he was murdering Bruce Bowen on the low block.  He is damned strong.  That baseline spin is nasty, especially since he can fake it and hit the fade.  

San Antonio just stuck up a swarming defensive wall that stymied everyone but Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets couldn't get around that.  While that was happening, Michael Finley jumped off the bench for 16 points on 70% shooting.  He split a pair of free throws and hit his only three while going 7 for 10 from the floor overall, adding an assist and 5 boards in 28 minutes.  That's a nasty blow for Denver.  Nevermind that everyone who played off the Spurs' bench scored at least 4 points, even Nazr Mohammed who only played 9 minutes.  They got huge production out of Tony Parker, who just abused the Nuggets with outside shots and dribble penetration.  He even had a post up bucket, a nice hook shot.  That was out of the ordinary.  He dropped 26 points on 13 for 20 shooting.  Fabricio Oberto made his NBA debut, shot 3 for 4 and grabbed 4 boards in 14 minutes.  The Spurs are ridiculously deep and that really killed the Nuggets, who had two contributors off the bench (Najera and Boykins).  The Spurs played steady pretty much from the second quarter on and the Nuggets faltered as the game got into the later stages because they weren't getting enough help off the pine.

In the end, Denver showed some real promise for the season, though Nene's injury will surely rob them of some wins they would have had otherwise.  

In the end, it was an entertaining game but San Antonio showed why they were celebrating a title and Denver wasn't; defense.  The Nuggets put up about as much D as Slava Medvedenko.

The outlook for both teams is promising.

If Denver can get Nene healthy, shore up their defense to at least where it was last year and improve in the halfcourt some, they'll be really nasty.  Everything in the halfcourt set should revolve around Anthony on the block, which produced great success even against the Spurs, so they've got a piece or two to work with with Anthony and Voshon Lenard's shooting.  In lieu of a big man, Anthony reminds me a fair bit of an older Michael Jordan in terms of his effectiveness with his back to the basket.  He looked really comfortable down there and despite losing 15 or 20 pounds from last year, he looked stronger and harder to move.  And faster, actually, he was really quick moving to the baseline or spinning off for the fade, etc.  

San Antonio looks like they're ready for the playoffs already.  Finley looks to be fitting in just fine and so long as they can get him 25 or more minutes per game and some shots, he'll be good to go.  Given that he can play either wing position and that he's as comfortable with the catch-and-shoot as he is in an isolation offense, shots shouldn't be hard to find, especially with Duncan on the block and Manu's penetration.  Nick Van Exel didn't play much, only about 14 minutes but that was a result of Parker hitting nearly two thirds of his shots.  He was on fire, Pop rode the hot hand, they won.  Van Exel knows he is a bench player and he's been there before.  He was a ridiculously good reserve in Dallas and I think he got jobbed when Bobby Jackson won the Sixth Man award over him in 02-03 but that's another story.  He is instant offense off the bench and is also a good distributor with deep playoff experience.  He dropped a pair of dimes and had 5 points in those 14 minutes and showed he can be effective.  Parker won't be hot every night and sometimes Pop might run a small backcourt to rest Manu, so Van Exel should see around 18-20 minutes per game and could see some games every now and again where he gets big minutes, especially in big games.  In the playoffs, Van Exel will see the lion's share of the floortime because Parker has Malone Syndrome and dies in the clutch.  

The NBA is here (finally!!!) and I'm excited!  The first game of the season I watched was great from start to finish and Denver really made a run of it until the fourth quarter when the Spurs just exerted their championship mettle and took over.  Things look promising for this season, I've got good foolings all around...