Oklahoma City at Denver

Thunder-Nuggets

8:30 PM ET, April 25, 2011

American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX

 
      Points     Rebounds     Assists
POR    Aldridge 22.3    Camby 10.3    Miller 5.5
DAL    Nowitzki 26.5    Chandler 7.5    Kidd 4.8

DENVER (AP) -- Denver Nuggets coach George Karl said a few weeks ago he wanted to match up with the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

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On the brink of being swept by Oklahoma City in the first round, his feelings are understandable.

Denver's 97-94 loss on Saturday night put the Nuggets a game from losing in the first round for the seventh time in eight years. Injuries, player meltdowns and Karl's battle with throat and neck cancer have been factors in previous early exits.

This time, Denver might just be dealing with a bad matchup.

"There's a big part of me that's disappointed because of our failures," Karl said Sunday. "But I also know that sometimes some of the best teams lose in the first round because of matchups and circumstances. Oklahoma City does a good job against some of our strengths. We like the rim, and they have four defenders that like to protect the rim, and do it pretty well."

The Thunder's defense has frustrated the Nuggets late in games, and Denver has struggled to find a go-to player in crunch time.

On Saturday, J.R. Smith nearly brought his team back from 10 points down in the final 50 seconds when he hit two 3-pointers, but he air-balled a 29-footer in the final seconds that could have sent the game into overtime.

Now the Nuggets are trying to avoid being swept for the second time in four seasons.

"When you're on the verge of getting swept it's always embarrassing," Smith said. "You never want to get swept let alone lose six out of eight to this team in the season. It's not a good feeling."

The Thunder have beaten the Nuggets five times in the past 18 days. Three of those games have been close, including Games 1 and 3 of this series. Denver has hurt itself with poor execution down the stretch and missed free throws.

The Nuggets were 30 for 45 from the free throw line on Saturday and they're shooting 68.7 percent from there in the series.

The Nuggets feel their little mistakes have made this series appear less competitive.

"They're good. They're a good basketball team, but do you reverse it and say we're the best team if we make five more free throws and we win the game?" Arron Afflalo said. "Now we're up 3-0."

The Thunder are trying to maintain a balance while trying to win their first series since moving to Oklahoma City from Seattle three years ago. They have the youngest roster in the league and only three Oklahoma City players have advanced past the first round -- Kendrick Perkins, Nate Robinson and Nazr Mohammed.

They don't feel their inexperience will be an issue Monday.

"The closeout game is all mental," said Perkins, who won an NBA title with Boston in 2008. "It's going to have to be a mental game for us, mental toughness. It's not going to be easy, we're going to have to stick together and play possession by possession and make sure we make the extra effort."

Denver is trying to do what no other NBA team has done -- win a series after going down 3-0. The first step is getting back in the series, and Karl can draw on his experience when he coached the SuperSonics in the 1996 NBA finals.

"We were 3-0 against a team called the Chicago Bulls, and they had a rehearsal on our court on handing out the trophy," he said. "They had a stage they were going to bring on the court. They had people with scripts on who was going to do what and who was going to be where. We proceeded to win Game 4 and 5."

Karl shared the anecdote with his team Sunday in the hope of giving his players something grab onto, but the biggest motivator for the Nuggets is pride.

"I've been part of that on a bigger stage team celebrating on your home court," forward Kenyon Martin said. "It's not a good feeling by any stretch of the imagination. So we need win -- bottom line. There's no other way to put it."

If they don't win, Denver will again make another early exit from the playoffs. Two years ago, the Nuggets reached the Western Conference finals before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games, but that's the only time in the past eight years they advanced past the first round.

Despite recent history, Karl's not ready to concede anything.

"We still think the process of learning and winning in the playoffs is still going on," he said.

Oklahoma City at Denver

Thunder-Nuggets

10:00 PM ET, April 23, 2011
Pepsi Center, Denver, CO

DENVER (AP) -- The Nuggets are fastening their hopes to a fickle hamstring.

Arron Afflalo to the rescue.

Pronouncing his left hamstring fit after practice Friday, the Denver guard will take the court for the first time in two weeks when Denver hosts the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.

He's been in this position three times since mid-March, only to test out the injury in a game and aggravate it.

Afflalo, the Nuggets' top defender and go-to scorer in crunch time, has no idea how many minutes he can handle or if the hamstring will even hold up.

Still, Afflalo's presence might just provide the boost the team's looking for with Denver down 2-0 in the best-of-7 series.

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"We're healthy now," Afflalo said. "No more excuses."

The bickering has subsided, too.

Coach George Karl smoothed some ruffled feathers after upsetting Chris "Birdman" Andersen and J.R. Smith by keeping them on the bench for most of Game 2. Smith was especially frustrated after playing just six minutes in the Nuggets' 106-89 loss Wednesday night.

Smith was on the court when, as Karl described, the "flood gates opened" in the first half, the game quickly turning from out of hand to out of control.

The next day, Smith intimated there was a "strong possibility" he'd sign elsewhere next summer as a free agent. No longer simmering over the slight, Smith backed off that talk Friday.

"We're all the same page and we're ready to go," Smith said. "A lot of guys understood exactly where I was coming from. A few guys didn't say anything. I think it's great that we have that attitude toward one another that nobody takes anything personal and everybody just wants to win."

Karl brushed off Smith's comments, appreciating Smith's passion more than anything.

"I don't want J.R. to be happy about not playing. I want J.R. to be angry," Karl said. "I want Bird to be angry. I want them all to be angry. I would be angry. I also want them to be teammates. I think J.R., more than ever, is showing that he wants to be that guy.

"I don't think he deserves this criticism at this moment. Maybe in the past he deserved it more, not yesterday."

Reduced to a spectator the first two games, Afflalo has had to sit back and watch Oklahoma City's All-Star duo of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant go off against the Nuggets defense.

Now, it's his turn to try to slow down Westbrook, maybe even switch over for a crack at covering Durant as well.

"I'm not going to stop either one by myself," Afflalo said. "It's going to be a team effort. But I'll use my ability to try to take advantage of them in the ways that I can."

Afflalo had the Nuggets playing at a high level after the blockbuster deal that sent Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks in February. He won't dazzle on offense like Anthony or steal Billups' title of Mr. Big Shot, but he is the glue that binds this team together.

His bothersome hamstring cost him 13 games over the final month of the regular season, interrupting the team's chemistry.

In fact, four of the Nuggets' five losses in April have been to the Thunder -- all with Afflalo sidelined.

That's why his return was viewed as vital, just to try to get the team back on track against the high-flying Thunder.

"He's one of our most tough-minded, fundamentally sound, hard-nosed, winning guys on our team," Karl said. "I mean, before he got hurt, he was playing the most minutes on the team. He played more minutes than Melo, he played more minutes than Chauncey. He's a competitive, winning kid. Skill-wise, he doesn't have greatness but he's damn good in a lot of areas."

Afflalo brings quiet confidence to the court, a demeanor that rubs off on his teammates.

Westbrook knows all about that. The two were teammates at UCLA, even rooming together.

"He's going to bring more toughness," Westbrook said. "He's going to come out and be ready to compete and will play hard."

Thunder coach Scott Brooks couldn't agree more.

"I don't know the dynamics of all the inner workings on what he does on their team. I just know from the outside looking in he's very solid," Brooks said. "He's a great position defender, he's a good playmaker, he passes. He's a team guy."

Hamstring willing, Afflalo will spend plenty of time getting reacquainted with Westbrook.

As for stopping Durant, well, there just may not be a blueprint that exists for limiting the explosiveness of one of the league's most talented -- and unassuming -- players. He's averaging 32 points in this series.

"It's just all about playing together as a group, no matter who scores or who rebounds as long as you do it together." Durant said.

Precisely the message that Brooks has been preaching.

"It's a businesslike approach," Brooks said. "We know we're up 2-0, but we can't be happy about that. We have to focus all our attention, effort, energy and teamwork toward Game 3.

"We understand that we did our job. Now they have to do their job."