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Show 6D Sunday, November 27, 1983 The Salt Lake Tribune Nuggets Dummy Defense Prompts an Overreaction When is the threatened? team scoring record, which had been 150 (I had no idea of any record; I thought they were screaming for 150, said Moe). Moe is the most d coach in the league and one who seems the least concerned about any possible reprisals for his actions. When the Nuggets are pathetic, hell say games integrity Well, some might contend that it was threatened last Tuesday night in Portland, but theyd have a hard free-spirite- time proving their case. What happened in Portland was that the Trail Blazers were blowing out the Denver Nuggets by some 35 points with about a minute left in the game, and the crowd was screaming for the Blazers to break their singlegame scoring record. So Nagget Coach Doug Moe basically told his players not to defend against the Blazers in the final minute, and the fans got their scoring record. Since then, there has been talk of an NBA investigation into Moes actions, presumably under the contention that its not good for the game's integrity to have a team not trying its best at all times. It gets into a gray area here, and maybe Moes orders, impulsive though they were, were not wise ones, but it would be a mistake to make too much of the harmless incident. Moe, who had been fined by the league the day before the Portland game for a previous incident in which he threw water on an official, was in town with the Nuggets Friday night, and before the Jazz game, he discussed the Portland scenario and its aftermath, noting that, "Its getting comical now. What happened? "It was a combination of things, recounted Moe. First of all, we were pathetic. We were awful. They had 148 points with a minute left in the game and we were down by 40 points, 35 points, some ridiculous thing like that. I wasnt real happy about it. Then I called a timeout, and I said, 'You haven't played any bleeping defense all night, so, bleep it, dont guard anybody. See how that feels. If they drive, dont guard them. And dont Doug Moe, grinning as he walked away, said, Of course, it worked. Im a bleeping genius. urday nights game against Kansas City, the Jazz's Darrell Griffith, in three games last week, had taken 13 shots from three-poirange and had made seven of them, including the two in overtime that sparked the Jazz to their victory over Los Angeles. For the season, Griffith was from three-poirange for 51.2 percent, which was better than his 46 percent field goal shooting. In the first quarter of Fridays game sgainst the Nuggets, Griffith hit one home run and then, on the very next possession, the Jazz came down on a fast break and Griff lulled up at the three-poin- t line and et fly with another one. It, missed. Fans groaned. Was it a bad percentage play? No. The three-poishot, especially when taken by a marksman like Griffith, is a good percentage play. Just look at that first half of the game. The Jazz had 65 possessions and scored 77 points, which was, it should be noted, the highest scoring half in Utah Jazz hisfrom tory. Griffith shot three-poirange. If you subtract the three-poin- t attempts, then the Jazz scored 71 points on 61 possessions, an average of 1.16 points per possession. Yet, on Griffiths three-poishots, the Jazz scored six points on four possessions, an average of 1.5 points per possession, a considerable difference. And, remember, were talking about the half in team history. The disparity would be greater for an average game. So, as long as Griffith hits 50 percent, or even 40 percent, of his its an efficient offensive play. nt so in no uncertain terms after the game. One can picture an exasperated Moe telling his team exactly what he told them. Was It wrong? Maybe, but its not a big deal, not when we sometimes see teams sacrificing a whole season to get a top draft choice, even though it makes an appearance of trying in each game. In this instance, the game was long gone and so was the point spread (it was only five), and maybe Portlands insistence on playing pressure defense at that stage of the game wasnt too pleasing to the Nuggets either. "You have to look at the whole game, said Moe. "At halftime, the game was gone. There are some games when youre down 20 and you feel you can get back into them and others where youre down 10 and you know you wont come back. We said at halftime that were getting ready for tomorrow nights game (Wednesday night against San Diego) right now.. I said, Just go out and play, relax, and concentrate on tomorrow nights game. It must have worked too, because the Nuggets came back to blitz the Clippers the next night. foul. So the Nuggets played the kind of dummy defense that one saw, for instance, at the end of Fridays the Jazz, up four game with five seconds to play, barely bothered to obstruct Bill Hanzliks way to the basket for a meaningless layup at the buzzer. Given that kind of defense, the Blazers scored easy baskets at the end and broke their Jazz-Nugge- ts r eve prtV fleTaeS Htel Miras anV S400 Double ;Srs Jazz-Denv- nt nt top-scori- three-pointer- s, Road Woes; Dont get too alarmed by Dallas fast start in the Midwest. The Mavericks have had a 10 of their great early schedule first 15 games at home, a streak that ends when December dawns. That makes a big difference in any season, but maybe a bigger difference in this season of substitute officials. Through Friday's games, the Mavs were at home and 14 on 6-- 0 3-- 0-- 7-- Griffs Home Runs; Prior to Sat- overall the road. There are plenty of teams with records like that. San Diego, for on instance, is 0 at home and the road. Atlanta is 0 at home, 6 on the road. K.C. Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons, whose team lost by two in Dallas Friday night when Steve Johnsons tip-i- n with four seconds remaining was disallowed, laid, Dallas will be 41-- 0 at home. Cotton went on to tell the press, The home teams seem to have won a lot of games this year. Thats all I'm going to comment on 0-- that It doesn't stretch the imagination to assume that Cotton, and a lot of others, feel the substitute refs have something to do with that. Milestones: The Nuggets Dan l, who has now passed Jerry West e and Rick Barry on the pro scoring list (he passed Barry Friday night in Utah), can also pass John Havlicek and Oscar Robertson by the end of this season if he averages 21 points a game the rest of the way. That would leave only Wilt, Kar-eeand Elvin Hayes ahead of him . . Phoenix Alvan Adams last week scored the 10,000th point of his nine-yecareer and was quoted later, It just means Ive been around for a while. Wilt and Kareem have 32,000. 1 figure by the time Im 48, Ill be there too. . . . Washington Coach Gene Shue is the only man in NBA history to have participated in 2,000 league games as a player and coach. He has coached over 1,200 games now, and only Red Auerbach has coached more (1,417). point when examining Fridays home game with the Nuggets. A weekend night, an opponent that is the closest thing to a natural rival, no other major sporting events in better than and still an averthey ever have age crowd of 8,759 shows up. That, friends, is why theyre playing 11 games in Las Vegas. town, the Jazz piaying - SNOW HOMO. Tnitu tii RETREADS RA01ALS $5 MORE & C ) r,rf? FREE swow mounting Small 13" $18.95 Larger sizes $21. V , $24.95 $26.95 $20' ixcH. non nJtFirS5ckiS5c Is-se- 532-360- Bm ONLY s399 nsss Misers So. 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