Nuggets Race to the Third Seed

The third seed is in sight, after a terrible start to the season when it looked iffy that the Nuggets would even make the playoffs, they are only 2 games behind the Clippers and 1.5 behind the current third seed Memphis. They also have the tie breaker over both of those teams.

The Clippers are far from the team that they were in December when they won 17 straight. They have still been good, but they have not stepped up to the elite level. They still have a fairly easy schedule with a lot of home games and their away games are against easy teams. The Nuggets need them to lose a couple of games they shouldn't in order to catch them without the race going down to the wire.

Memphis's schedule is a little bit tougher with a lot of away games in touch places to play. When they traded away Rudy Gay I thought they would be lucky to make they playoffs, I was wrong. They have still been a top team, but they lack a go to scorer. The Nuggets should have no problem catching them and taking home court advantage in the first round.

They play the Grizzlies one more and it is in Denver. This should be a win. I have the Nuggets losing at least 3 games, maybe four to six. If they only lose 3 they will finish with 57 wins which should be more than enough to lock down the three seed. If they lose 6 they are likely stuck with the 4th seed and would play Memphis in the first round. 

How Ty Lawson Has Become a Borderline Star

From the start of the season until the start of the new year it did not look like Ty Lawson was worth a dime of the extension he received. He was shooting around 40% and not averaging anywhere near his point total from last season. Most people thought the money got to his head and he was not playing as hard as he could. Then the calendar flipped and so did Ty's play. In 2013 he has become a new player averaging 20+ points and 7+ assists since the new year started. Four Syllables can be attributed to his transformation "Mid-Range Jumper." He has added this shot consistently to his arsenal and he does not have to be shooting square to the basket to make it. He has made it made it fading backwards, left or right and has been able to make them with a hand in his face.

Adding a mid-ranged jumper means that players can no longer play off of him in order to keep him in check. They are starting to realize he has this new ability which means they play him closer which increases the probability of Ty breaking their ankles and still pulling up or just driving right by them and towards the hoop. Ty is ravaging his opponents with his newfound shot.

It is not like Ty did not have this shot before, it may not have been as refined, but George Karl has finally given him the green light to shoot this on a regular basis. This gives Ty all the confidence he needs. His game runs off of confidence and in the past when he had a bad first half it normally meant he would also have a bad second half. That has not been the case this season. In fact, I believe he has played better in the second half when he has a bad first half. We saw this against the Clippers when he only had 2 points in the first half, but came out with 19 in the second.

Ty has scored 20 or more points in 11 out of the last 13 games. This scoring is unprecedented from him considering he was not the type of guy to take over the game. He finally feels comfortable enough to take over a game now since he has his lethal mid-range jumper to fall back on.