The Nuggets used Andrew Bynum’s comments to fuel their game five 102-99 victory over the Lakers to stay alive and force a game six. Denver head coach,George Karl, used Bynum’s statement during the end of the Nuggets’ pregame film on Tuesday night.
“Closeout games are actually kind of easy,” Bynum had said a day earlier. “Teams tend to fold if you come out and play hard in the beginning.”
The Nuggets were able to fend off a determined Kobe Bryant, as the 16 year vet poured in a 43 point performance. Despite the big effort from the Mamba, Denver lives to fight another day. That day being Thursday, when game six tips off at 10:30 pm eastern standard time.
Ty Lawson felt that Bynum’s statement was rather arrogant.
”A lot of players are arrogant, man,” Nuggets guard Ty Lawson said. “That was an arrogant statement. That definitely did give us fuel and motivation to win this game. We don’t like people saying stuff about us. We all looked at each and other and were like, ‘All right, let’s go.’ ”
I can’t give Bynum’s comments the full credit here. Nor do I feel like Bynum was necessarily wrong in this case. The potential of being closed out in a playoff series is often too much for a young, inexperienced team to handle. The Nuggets proved to have some fight left in them and perhaps Bynum will go the ‘no comment’ route next time he’s asked.
Original Story:
|
May 09, 2012
