* Earlier this month Andy Rautins hit nine three-pointers in a game which tied a tie school record. Before the game today I joked with Leo Rautins  – Andy’s father and a former star at Syracuse – about if there was any friendly ribbing around the kitchen table during Christmas break. He broke into a huge grin before ripping back, “Well, it’s clear that he would have no chance to compete against me. Had there been a three-point line when I played I would have easily broken that record.”

* While prepping for the game I got a great tip from Pickaxe And Roll that over their previous 20 games Denver’s defensive efficiency is 109.1 which would put them in the bottom third of the league. When I asked George Karl about this he told me, “I think the players know we have to be a balanced team. The last couple of years we were more offensive tilted and it was a coaching philosophy kind of similar to Phoenix. (We were) trying to run, trying to play fast, play at a tempo and a style different than other teams in the NBA. We were pretty successful at that but I didn’t see any ability to win in the playoffs playing that way.”

* Linas Kleiza may be mired in a shooting slump but it’s not because he’s dogging it. He was the first Denver player on the court at 5:13 pm and he spent a lot of time with the coaching staff working on his game.

* A Nuggets beat writer asked George Karl if he warned his team about the “revenge” aspect to the game tonight. The last time these two teams met Denver blasted Toronto by 39 points and it lead to the firing of Sam Mitchell. The beat writer also pointed out that in Seattle situation where they scored 160 points and in the following game the Sonics stepped up. Karl briefly laughed and told the reporter, “I don’t think I’m going to use that (as) motivation.” When the laughter subsided, Karl admitted, “I did mention there would be an anger in Toronto and there would be some clip shown of us beating them by 34 or 39 points.”

* There’s a great video clip on BallHype that shows the Raptors ball screen defense.

* I’m a bit late posting this because it was said before Toronto’s west coast trip, but while going through my last game notes I realized there’s a gem from Jay Triano that I forget to include. Oops, my bad, sorry Raptors fans. Triano was asked if there is a synergy between head coach and point guard he dropped this gem: “No, I told him (Jose Calderon) I was a shooting guard so he’s going to have to help me here. I played with some great point guards when I played and I think he’s in that (group). He’s got a World Championship running his team, he’s run this team in the past and that’s why I told him, ‘you don’t have to look to me for plays. If there’s something you feel comfortable with you know how to distribute the ball and you know how to get the right guy the ball at the right time. So, you don’t have to look at me.’ I think that was part of the problem, that disruptive flow that we had previously. Now Jose can run down and I’ll give him a play and he’s already picked one. Perfect, he’s already grasping what we’re wanting to do.”

* Who says pro athletes don’t have hearts? Chauncey Billups recently did his part to spread some Christmas cheer.

* During the Christmas break I purchased an HD camera and I’m stoked to start posting clips on Hoops Addict in the near future. I’m working through some issues getting the video player ready – which is why the site was messed up earlier today – but I hope to get clips up on the site by early next week. Today I filmed some great footage with George Karl that I’m going to edit and prepare to post later this weekend.

* Denver is the only visiting locker room I’ve walked into where I see nicknames like Infamous, Birdman or Melo hanging above the players lockers. Most teams have numbers or last names, while the Nuggets instead allow their players to use their nicknames. Can you guess who the one exception is? If you guessed Nene you get a gold star.

* Will Solomon picked up two fouls in his first 20 seconds of burn. Ouch! He redeemed himself with 11 points off the bench and he played some gritty ball in the fourth quarter.

* Jose Calderon was able to get into the lane at will tonight. In the first quarter alone he had three lay-up attempts which helped him get into a groove shooting the rock. Calderon finished the game with 18  points while dishing out a game high 14 dimes.

* Early in the third quarter Jose Calderon had a rare outburst of emotion. He nailed a three-pointer at the 4:19 mark and then yelled while pumping his fists. Hopefully this becomes a regular thing for Calderon and his teammates.

* Renaldo Balkman spent most of the game sitting next to the bench on an exercise ball. I had wanted to talk with him or the team trainer after the game about this but once George Karl finished with the media the locker room was nearly empty.

* Speaking of Karl, tonight was a treat to have the chance to hear the legendary coach reminiscence and wax nostalgia for over 20 minutes  following the game. Normally the post game chat with a coach lasts less than five minutes but tonight Karl reminisced about starting his coaching career 2-19, what it was like to coach in Spain and how thankful he is to have a family that’s supported to him. Hearing him share some history of the game was a real treat and is one of my favourite memories of covering the NBA for the past year and a half. I thought about planning on dropping some quotes in these game notes but I couldn’t do his chat justice by just using some quick quotes. I thought about how I’d like to approach this historic milestone on my train ride home and I’m either go to post an article about this Friday or transcribe the entire chat in it’s entirety. Personally, I’m leaning towards transcribing this as I don’t want to cut out anything coach had to say. What do you as a reader want to read? Leave your feedback in the comments or drop me an email (ryan@hoopsaddict.com) and I’ll take that into consideration.

* I didn’t have my HD camera with me post game and I’m bitter about this. I thought about bringing it but in the rush to make sure I was there for all of Coach Karl’s post game chat I just grabbed my handheld recorder. I’m going to be kicking myself for a long time about this as there were some classic stories that Karl shared with us.

* Chauncey Billups may be the newest Nugget, but once Karl returned to the locker room it was Billups who was the first player to congratulate his coach. It was a classy move by Billups which showed the point guard already genuinely cares about his teammates and head coach.

Photo Credit: Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos

Recent Headlines

• Reminiscing With Mike Gansey
• Turkoglu Starting To Find His Groove
• Catching Up With Mike Woodson
• Catching Up With Jeff Teague
• Chris Bosh And The Blame Game