The Denver Nuggets have a great collection of amazing fans. Of those fans, many understand the deep rooted concepts of basketball and many just watch to enjoy. Probably the most well rounded and most educated (basketball and possibly medically) Nuggets fan is none other than the self proclaimed “Nugg Doctor”

With the highly anticipated Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets match-up finally underway, the Nugg Doctor and I have decided to take it upon ourselves to deliver to the Nuggets and Lakers fans our valuable opinions (at least in our opinion they are great opinions)!!!

Please enjoy and make sure to visit the Nugg Doctor…

LA Ball Talk: Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson are both great options. With the game on the line, who has been the more clutch player?

Nugg Doctor: This season it’s been AI. Although, Carmelo has been our silent assassin. After having a tremendous amount of success hitting game winners earlier in this career, it seems like Carmelo has defaulted to Iverson since his arrival when the game’s outcome is in the balance.

LA Ball Talk: The fight for the eighth seed was intense. The Nuggets were behind by about a game with less than 10 to go, and they worked hard to get to where they are. What was the difference between the Nuggets and the Warriors that allowed you guys to prevail?

Nugg Doctor: In all honesty, and this is taking nothing away from Coach Don Nelson and his crew, but the Nuggets, seemingly, just needed some kind of motivation and the playoff chase being that tight gave them just enough to throw things into gear. It’s a problem this underachieving bunch has battled all year long. They just don’t play unless something is pinning their backs to the wall.

LA Ball Talk: Follow up to last question: Are the Nuggets better off making the playoffs or getting a crappy lottery pick?

Nugg Doctor: For the Nuggets, making the playoffs means more than a mid-first round pick. Denver has made the playoffs now for the last five seasons, and to have not made the postseason this year would have been a sign of regression. A bad thing if you’re the owner of the fourth highest combined salary in the NBA. But, when you consider the lack of PROGRESSION up the seeding, maybe it’s just the lesser of two evils.

LA Ball Talk: At this point, the West has become extremely competitive. Do you, and other Nuggets fans truly feel that this team can win a title this year?

Nugg Doctor: Absolutely not. And if any other Nuggets fans tell you they do think this team can win a title they are cockeyed optimists.

LA Ball Talk: The Lakers swept the season series and easily dominated all three games. What are the Nuggets planning on doing to stop/slow down the Lakers?

Nugg Doctor: First of all, if you do your homework, you will find that the Nuggets blew some huge leads in those games so I would say the Lakers easily dominating the Nuggets in the three games this regular season is a bit of a stretch. However, to slow down the Lakers you have to slow down Kobe Bryant. And the only way to do that is to collapse on him when he inevitably gets past his defender and rotate quickly to avoid getting burned off of Bryant’s passing ability.

LA Ball Talk: How do you rank the Lakers for their accomplishments this season?

Nugg Doctor: Winning the conference’s regular season title is a nice accomplishment, but it’s nothing to hang a hat on. The Boston Celtics won 66 games this season and I guarantee they aren’t content with being the regular season champs. If the Lakers actually accomplish something worth ranking, I’ll do so at the appropriate time.