Mental Mistakes Doom The Nuggets
In my opinion, the head coaching position is a little undervalued by casual NBA fans. I think the reason for this is because whenever you turn on the game you see guys like Kobe, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James going 1 on 1, and some people assume (incorrectly) that the players are doing whatever they want out there.
Last night’s Nuggets-Rockets game showed you how important a quality head coach is. The Nuggets were without George Karl (who was receiving cancer treatment), and without him they made a ton of uncharacteristic mistakes you don’t see the Nuggets make. These mistakes ended up costing the Nuggets the game.
Mistake 1: Letting Trevor Ariza Get His Shot Off
Here, the Nuggets are up by 5 points with a little over 1 minute to go. If the Nuggets are able to get a stop here, they would pretty much have the win locked up (after a lot of foul shots). When Trevor Ariza makes his catch, you just get a feeling he wants to shoot a three (Ariza shoots 5.9 threes a game). Carmelo Anthony recognizes it, and he crowds Ariza.
